Warkari Sampradaya

The Warkari Sampradaya, or Varkari tradition, is a Hindu bhakti movement centered in Maharashtra, India, whose followers worship Krishna in his form as Vitthala at the Pandharpur temple, together with his consort Rukmini as a form of Lakshmi, while affirming the oneness of Vishnu with Shiva, Shakti and Ganesha on Advaita Vedanta principles. It emerged in the thirteenth century during the Bhakti movement as a collective tradition rather than one founded by a single figure, and counts among its most revered poet-saints Dnyaneshwar, Namdev, Chokhamela, Eknath and Tukaram; an eighteenth century hagiography by Mahipati records roughly fifty such poet-saints. Its sacred center remains Pandharpur, Maharashtra.