Reference
The Shirdi village map
Nine landmarks of Sai Baba's Shirdi, as named throughout the Satcharitra. Approximate layout, drawn from descriptions in Chapters 4, 5, 6, 8, 37, 39-40, and 43-44.
1. Dwarkamai (Masjid)
The small mosque Baba called the "children's mother." He lived here almost continuously for 60 years. Open day and night without lock or key. The Dhuni burned at its centre.
2. Chavadi
The small two-roomed building near the masjid where Baba slept on alternate nights. The formal Chavadi procession from masjid to Chavadi began 10 December 1909.
3. Booty Wada / Samadhi Mandir
Originally a private Wada commissioned by the Nagpur millionaire Bapusaheb Booty after he and Shama received identical dreams in Dixit's Wada. Designed for an image of Murlidhar (Krishna with flute). At Baba's last words "Place or keep Me in the Wada," his body was installed in the central garbha. Baba himself became Murlidhar.
4. Neem Tree
The original arrival site of young Baba c. 1854. Regarded by Mhalsapati and the early Shirdi devotees as the samadhi-sthana of Baba's own (unnamed) Guru. A cellar with "cow-mouth-shaped structures" was discovered beneath when Khandoba possessed a devotee.
5. Sathe Wada
Built by Hari Vinayak Sathe around the neem-tree site. The first of the three Wadas that grew up around Baba. Devotees burn incense on Thursday and Friday evenings.
6. Dixit Wada
Foundation laid 10 December 1910 by Kakasaheb Dixit; occupied on Rama-Navami day, 1911. Many of the Satcharitra episodes occur in or near this Wada.
7. Lendi Garden
North of the village. Baba's daily morning walk-and-rest spot. Bhagoji Shinde held the umbrella over Baba on the way. The serpent-Veerbhadrappa river bank of Chapter 47 is in this direction.
8. Khandoba Temple
The village temple where Mhalsapati served as Bhagat (priest-attendant). It was on the way to this temple — at the banyan tree in Mhalsapati's nearby field — that the young Sai's wedding-party cart stopped and Mhalsapati first greeted him: "Ya Sai!"
9. Banyan Tree / Mhalsapati's Field
The site of Baba's second arrival in Shirdi (c. 1858) with Chand Patil's wedding party. Mhalsapati's greeting "Ya Sai" — "Welcome, Sai" — at this tree gave the young fakir his name. The name remained for sixty years.