Siddheshwar Temple, Solapur

01Siddharama of Sonnalige

Solapur was Sonnalige in the 12th century, and Siddharama was its saint: a devotee of Shiva who dug tanks, built roads and installed, by the town’s tradition, sixty-eight lingas around it, so that Solapur became a little Kashi. He wrote vachanas in Kannada and met Basavanna and Allama Prabhu at Kalyana. His samadhi is in the temple on the island, which is reached by a causeway. Kannada and Marathi devotees share the shrine, as they share the city.

02The Gadda yatra

At Makar Sankranti Solapur holds the Gadda yatra. Seven tall nandidhwaj, bamboo poles decorated and carried upright by teams of devotees, go in procession through the city to the temple, and a marriage ceremony, the akshata, is performed for the saint’s yogadanda, his staff, in memory of a katha of his life. A great fair, the Gadda, runs for days on the grounds near the lake.