A prayerful annual pilgrimage to an ancient city (Religion Feature)

Aaron D'Souza has just walked along old mountain paths across the Western Ghats from Azra in southwest Maharashtra to Goa to get a glimpse of a traveller from a different age. D'Souza is on a pilgrimage to Old Goa, near Panaji, where the sacred remains of 16th century Spanish saint Francis Xavier are preserved.

Like Aaron, millions of pilgrims, tourists and curious onlookers from around the world have begun to stream into the Old City to take part in the decennial exposition of the sacred relics stored in a specially-made glass mounted silver casket.

Back in its heyday, Old Goa rivalled the best cities of Europe, it attracted missionaries who came along with the trading Portuguese -- among them Francis Xavier, one of the founding members of the Jesuits, who travelled thousands of knots from Lisbon to Goa, to introduce Catholicism to this part of the world.

For the several hundred pilgrims like Aaron, who have trekked for nearly 150 km across rough, traditional routes across hills and streams in the Western Ghats, the experience is prayerful, penitential and devotional.

"We carry along a change of clothes, toilet articles, other basic necessities. But the most difficult is the walking. It is for four continuous days. There are many who do not make it and return by bus," says Aaron D'Souza, who hails from Azra.

Often walking bare feet, groups of pilgrims make their way off the beaten tracks and follow the traditional footpath, entering Goa on the third day of their trek.

"There are some who pray for better job prospects, some childless couples also go on pilgrimage (to seek a child) and many others for various devout reasons," said Fr Joseph Monteiro, the priest of Azra parish.

Back in the 17th and 18th centuries, Bardeshkars (inhabitants of Goa's Bardesh region in north Goa, now known as Bardez sub-district) fled Goa to escape religious and cultural persecution, epidemics and continuous Portuguese-Maratha wars and settled in the hilly and thickly forested upper reaches of the Western Ghats, which are today divided between the states of Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Many of these pilgrims owe their faith to Francis Xavier or his compatriots from Western Europe, who they say converted their ancestors. This year, being the year of the exposition, the pilgrimage will hold an added value.

"The pilgrimage is a very community affair. The whole village comes together. Enrollment for the pilgrimage begins weeks in advance and many who take part are either fulfilling a vow or doing so in the hope of favours being granted," Fr Monteiro added.

The pilgrims arrive in four to five groups, each leaving from a different location across south Maharashtra and north Karnataka. By far, the biggest group of over 250 pilgrims leaves from Azra in Kolhapur district.

While today the pilgrimages are more organised with a pickup van carrying the pilgrim's pots, pans and rice and other supplies, it wasn't always so.

"Now we have to carry around 200 kilos of rice, dal, almost 50 kilos of beaten rice to feed ourselves. This despite families who feed and shelter us on the way," Fr. Monteiro said.

(Mayabhushan Nagvenkar can be contacted at mayabhushan.n@ians.in)