01The Satavahana city
Pratishthana was the seat of the Satavahana kings, who ruled the Deccan for some four centuries and fought the Shakas of the west; Gautamiputra Satakarni is the most famous of them. The Greek Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and Ptolemy both name it, Paithana and Baithana, as an inland market sending goods down the ghats to the port of Barygaza. Tradition links the Shalivahana Shaka era, still used in Maharashtra’s Panchang, with a Satavahana king of Pratishthana.
02Eknath’s Paithan
Sant Eknath, born here in 1533, wrote the Eknathi Bhagavata and the Bhavartha Ramayana in Marathi and edited the Jnaneshwari into the text read today. He fed the hungry from his own house and carried a thirsty outcaste child in his arms, and his bharuds are still sung in villages. He took jal-samadhi in the Godavari in 1599 on Phalguna Vadya Shashthi, kept as Nath Shashthi, when lakhs come to his samadhi on the riverbank. Paithani silk sarees, woven with gold zari, have been made here for centuries.
The life of this place
- c. 1st century BCEPratishthana is the Satavahana capital.
- 1533Sant Eknath is born at Paithan.
- 1599 (Phalguna Vadya 6)Sant Eknath takes samadhi in the Godavari.
About 50 km south of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. Nath Shashthi in Phalguna is the great fair; the Jayakwadi dam and bird sanctuary are just upstream.
