The Vithoba deity’s origins and identity were retroactively Brahminized.

Evidence

A varkar is a pilgrim, and the Varkari tradition revolves around the god Vithoba or Vitthala in Pandharpur (in Maharashtra’s Solapur district). In popular lore Vitthala has come to be regarded as a form of Krishna and this tradition is seen as Vaishnavite. The Varkari cult is seven hundred years old, and with it begins the Marathi literary tradition, according to Omvedt (85). She discusses how scholars believe Vitthala could have had origins in Saivism, Buddhism or even among pastoral nomadic tribes. Omvedt discusses the Sanskritisation and Vishnu-isation of Vitthala and believes the god could have been originally female (“wide hips, narrow waist, busty, long hair, straight though harsh face”) and that contemporary Dalit Buddhists point to “the god’s blackness as evidence of indigenous origins” based on iconography (see 85–90). — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1057

Categorization

• XREF: Sanskritisation/brahminisation of an originally subaltern or non-Aryan deity echoes the reader’s caste annihilation theme of how Brahminical culture absorbs and defangs heterodox movements.