Narahari Sonar: The Goldsmith Who Would Not Look

The story is usually retold as a piece about religious tolerance, which flattens it into something bland and misses what it is doing.

The conflict was real

Shaiva and Vaishnava sectarian rivalry in medieval India was not a difference of taste.

It ran through royal patronage, temple endowments, land grants, scholastic polemic, control of pilgrimage sites and, in places and periods, physical violence. Which sect a king favoured determined who ate.

A goldsmith in Pandharpur who would not enter the Vitthal temple was not being eccentric. He was maintaining an identity that had social consequences and that his family had held.

Which is why the story needed the blindfold.

What the blindfold actually does

It removes the organ by which he identified the god.

And this is the mechanism of the whole story, and it is precise.

Sectarian identity in practice is overwhelmingly visual. You know which god you are looking at by the marks: the conch and the disc, or the trident and the serpent. The tilak on the forehead of the devotee. The shape of the temple tower. The colour of the cloth.

Take the eyes away and the marks go with them.

And what Narahari is left with is contact.

His hands, which are the hands of a man who has spent his life measuring things by touch, and which are the most trained part of him.

And the story says that when he used them, without the visual signal telling him which side he was on, he found what he had always been worshipping.

What the story is not saying

It is not saying all gods are the same and none of it matters.

That reading is comfortable and it is not what the text supports.

Narahari does not stop being a Shaiva. The Varkari tradition did not absorb him by making him drop Shiva. He is remembered in the tradition precisely as the Shaiva among the Varkari sants, and the Shiva material stays in his abhangas.

What changes is that the boundary stops being a wall.

Which is the Varkari position in general

And it is worth stating because it is unusual.

Vitthal at Pandharpur is worshipped by Vaishnavas as a form of Krishna, and the temple's Vaishnava identity is not in doubt.

And the tradition around him is structurally hostile to sectarian gatekeeping. Jnaneshwar's own lineage was Nath, which is Shaiva. Namdev's kirtan is sung in gurdwaras. The sants include a barber, a potter, a gardener, a maidservant, a Mahar, a goldsmith and a Muslim in Shaikh Muhammad.

A tradition assembled like that does not have a mechanism for excluding somebody over which god they name.

How to use this at home

The practical version, for a household where this actually comes up.

Most Indian homes are already non sectarian in practice and are more anxious about it than they need to be.

A puja room with Ganesha, a Shiva lingam, Lakshmi, a Hanuman photograph, a Devi image and a picture of somebody's guru is not confused. It is the ordinary Hindu arrangement and it has been for a very long time.

If somebody in the family insists that only one deity may be kept, the Narahari story is the answer available inside the tradition, and it is a better answer than an argument, because it is a story they already know.

And if you are the one worried

Worship what you worship, keep the practice you were given, and do not manufacture a conflict the tradition has already declined to have.

Narahari's trade is still one of the largest things Indian devotional life spends money on, and most people buying gold at a festival do not know how to check it.

So here is the practical part.

The hallmark

Hallmarking of gold jewellery is mandatory across most of India, and a hallmarked piece carries three marks.

One. The BIS logo, the triangular mark of the Bureau of Indian Standards.

Two. The purity and fineness grade, which will read as one of:

• 24K999 for pure gold, which is not used for ordinary jewellery because it is too soft
• 22K916, which is standard for Indian gold jewellery
• 18K750
• 14K585

Three. The six digit alphanumeric HUID, the Hallmark Unique Identification, which is unique to that piece.

How to actually check it

Download the BIS Care app, which is free and official.

Enter the six digit HUID from the piece. It will show you the jeweller, the purity and the date of hallmarking. If the HUID does not resolve, do not buy the piece.

The same app lets you check whether a jeweller is BIS registered and lets you file a complaint.

What people get charged for that they should question

One. Making charges.

These are not fixed by anybody. They are negotiable, they vary enormously between shops, and they are quoted either as a percentage or per gram. Ask for the rate before the piece is weighed, not after.

Two. Wastage.

A separate charge, on top of making, notionally for gold lost in the working. Ask what percentage. Ask whether it is included in making. Many shops charge both and hope you will not separate them.

Three. Stones and their weight.

If a piece has stones, ask whether you are being charged the gold rate on the weight of the stones. You should not be. Ask for the net gold weight separately.

Four. The buy back deduction.

Ask, in writing, what the shop will pay if you sell the piece back, because the answer is usually a good deal less than you expect and it is the single largest hidden cost in Indian gold buying.

Get an itemised bill. Gold rate on the day, net weight, purity, making charges, wastage, GST, and the HUID printed on it. A shop that will not itemise is telling you something.

Two things to be careful about

One. Jeweller savings schemes.

Where you pay monthly and the shop adds a bonus month. Some are properly structured and some are unregulated deposit taking. Ask what happens if the shop closes, whether the scheme is registered, and whether you can take cash instead of being forced into jewellery at their price.

Two. Digital gold.

Which is sold through apps and wallets and is not a regulated product in the way securities and bank deposits are. The regulator has publicly flagged this. If you want gold as an investment rather than as jewellery, sovereign gold bonds and gold exchange traded funds are regulated instruments and digital gold is not.

If you have been cheated

• National Consumer Helpline 1915, which is free and works in several languages
• The e daakhil portal, for filing a consumer complaint online without a lawyer
• BIS, through the BIS Care app, for a hallmarking complaint specifically
• Police 112 if it is outright fraud rather than a billing dispute

And the devotional point, which matters more than any of the above

People buy gold for temples.

A gold ornament for a deity, a gold plated kalash, a chain for the family image.

And the tradition this entry is about is unambiguous that the metal is not the transaction.

The merchant in the story vowed a gold waistband and got his son. And the sant the story is about is not the merchant. It is the man who touched the image with his hands.

Give if you can afford it and want to. Do not borrow to give. And do not let anybody tell you that a larger offering buys a better outcome, because the Varkari sants are, on this specific question, some of the sharpest voices in Indian religion: Chokhamela gave nothing, Janabai gave nothing, Savata Mali gave vegetables, and all three are in the canon.

Where to go

• Pandharpur, where Narahari's samadhi is, and the Vitthal Rukmini temple
• The Malikarjun and Shiva shrines of the Pandharpur area, for his own side of it
• The wari to Pandharpur, in Ashadh and Kartik

A daily practice from this entry

• Vitthal Vitthal, and Om Namah Shivaya, which this entry's subject would say are not in competition
• Narahari's abhangas, which are few and which keep both
• And the blindfold exercise, which is his: close your eyes at the image and see what is actually there when the marks are gone

Who: Narahari Sonar, goldsmith of Pandharpur, of the thirteenth or fourteenth century, and one of the Varkari sants. He was a strict devotee of Shiva in a town whose entire existence revolves around Vitthal, and he had never entered the Vitthal temple, would not look at the image and did not intend to.

The story: a merchant of the town who had no son vowed a gold waistband to Vitthal if he got one, got one, and went to the best goldsmith in Pandharpur. Narahari took the work and refused the temple, asking for the measurement to be brought. The band came out too long. Remeasured and remade, too short. Again too long, again too short, over and over, in a way that has no explanation in his trade. Eventually he agreed to go himself on one condition: that he be blindfolded, so as not to see Vishnu. They tied the cloth over his eyes, led him into the garbhagriha, and he put his hands on the image, and felt matted hair, a serpent, ash, a tiger skin, a trident. He pulled the blindfold off in shock and Vitthal stood in front of him, hands on hips, on the brick. He closed his eyes and felt Shiva. Opened them, Vitthal. Closed them, Shiva. He became a Varkari from that hour, and the waistband fitted.

What the blindfold is for: the story is usually flattened into a piece about tolerance, which misses the mechanism. The conflict was real, since Shaiva and Vaishnava rivalry in medieval India ran through royal patronage, temple endowments, land grants, scholastic polemic, control of pilgrimage sites and in places physical violence, and which sect a king favoured determined who ate, so a goldsmith who would not enter the Vitthal temple was maintaining an identity with social consequences. The blindfold removes the organ by which he identified the god, and that is precise: sectarian identity in practice is overwhelmingly visual, since you know which god you are looking at by the conch and disc or the trident and serpent, by the tilak, the shape of the tower, the colour of the cloth. Take the eyes away and the marks go with them, and what he is left with is contact, through the hands of a man who has spent his life measuring by touch. Without the visual signal telling him which side he was on, he found what he had always been worshipping.

What it does not say: that all gods are the same and none of it matters, which is comfortable and unsupported. Narahari does not stop being a Shaiva, the Varkari tradition did not absorb him by making him drop Shiva, he is remembered precisely as the Shaiva among the Varkari sants, and the Shiva material stays in his abhangas. What changes is that the boundary stops being a wall, which is the Varkari position generally: Jnaneshwar's own lineage was Nath, which is Shaiva; Namdev's kirtan is sung in gurdwaras; and the sants include a barber, a potter, a gardener, a maidservant, a Mahar, a goldsmith and a Muslim in Shaikh Muhammad. A tradition assembled like that has no mechanism for excluding somebody over which god they name. Practically, most Indian homes are already non sectarian and more anxious about it than they need to be, and a puja room holding Ganesha, a lingam, Lakshmi, a Hanuman photograph, a Devi image and a guru's picture is the ordinary Hindu arrangement.

Buying gold without being cheated: hallmarking is mandatory across most of India and a hallmarked piece carries three marks, the BIS triangular logo, the purity grade reading 24K999, 22K916, 18K750 or 14K585, and the six digit alphanumeric HUID unique to that piece. Check it with the free official BIS Care app by entering the HUID, which will show the jeweller, purity and hallmarking date, and do not buy a piece whose HUID does not resolve; the same app checks whether a jeweller is BIS registered and files complaints. Question four charges: making charges, which are fixed by nobody, are negotiable, vary enormously and should be quoted before the piece is weighed; wastage, a separate charge on top of making, where you should ask the percentage and whether it is already included; stones, where you should not be paying the gold rate on the weight of the stones and should ask for net gold weight separately; and the buy back deduction, which you should get in writing, since it is usually far worse than expected and is the single largest hidden cost. Get an itemised bill showing the day's gold rate, net weight, purity, making, wastage, GST and the HUID. Be careful of jeweller savings schemes, where some are properly structured and some are unregulated deposit taking, and of digital gold, which is not a regulated product in the way sovereign gold bonds and gold exchange traded funds are. If cheated: National Consumer Helpline 1915, the e daakhil portal for filing without a lawyer, BIS through the app for hallmarking, and police 112 for outright fraud.

And the devotional point: people buy gold for temples, and this tradition is unambiguous that the metal is not the transaction. The merchant in the story vowed the waistband and got his son, and the sant the story is about is not the merchant but the man who touched the image with his hands. Give if you can afford it and want to, never borrow to give, and let nobody tell you a larger offering buys a better outcome, because Chokhamela gave nothing, Janabai gave nothing, Savata Mali gave vegetables, and all three are in the canon.