Majestic Ruins of a Royal Palace.

SHANIWARWADA (Courtsy Google Pics)

It was one such pleasant afternoon when along with my parents I was standing before the majestic gateway of the Shaniwarwada. I was literally awestruck looking at the hugeness of the door. It was my first visit to this place. In my mind I was waiting for the Peshwas to enter the palace so I could follow them. This was the fantasy of a 7 year old kid. By that time I had already developed a fascination for the Maratha history thanks to the books that I was reading (my first encounter with the Marathas was the novel ‘Swami’ by Ranjeet Desai at the age of 7 and the serial that was then being aired on Mumbai Doordarshan by the same title). The Peshwas did not materialise but we went in. Before me were the ruins in the form of bricks. Back then I was too young to understand their significance; so was roaming here and there. I happened to see a group of people and there was a guide with them who was explaining them the palace. I decided to join in and listen. However what I heard was enough for me to go away. The people seemed to be from North India (during that age, for me, whoever spoke Hindi were from north and whoever spoke Kannada and Tamil and Telugu were South Indians.) The guard was in his element and probably had decided to form his own version.”Yahan iss wade mein Raja Shivaji ka janam hua tha!” (Raja Shivaji was born in this palace) He explained and I was like” really? Then who was born in the LalMahal just across the road?”

I did not wait there to listen to more but I think it was this experience that made me do a thorough research before visiting any places be it small or big.

I visited the Shaniwarwada once again in 2010 when my daughter Tanvi was 6 years old. Again I found myself staring at the gateway holding my daughter’s hand. Suddenly out of nowhere came the question,”mumma, who were these people and what Shivaji had to do with them?” Little Tanvi’s question took me back to my history lessons.........

Year 1707..... the big news broke down all over the Maratha empire.......the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb had breathed his last  and soon their Prince Shahu would be returning back from captivity and would take over the administration. The people from the Maval waited for their king to come, however the things did not go very smoothly for the Prince. This was because of the following. In his absence it was Rajaram, the second son of Shivaji and later-on his widow,Tarabai was looking after the Maratha kingdom and was successful in keeping the Mughals at the bay. Because of this she was very reluctant to hand over the powers to Shahu,the son of Chatrapati Sambhaji and the original heir to the Maratha throne according to the Marathas. What followed was what Shivaji had always apprehensive of in his later life. The Maratha Empire got divided into two: one faction under Tarabai who ruled from Kolhapur and another ruled by Shahu from Satara. In all this Shahu was helped by Balaji Vishwanath, a Chitpavan Brahmin from Srivardhan in Konkan. He helped Shahu to get the Sanad or the acknowledgement from the Mughal emperor that he was now the Chatrapati of the Marathas. Balaji Vishwanah also managed to free Yesubai, the widow of Sambhaji from the mughal captivity. For all this he was appointed as the Peshwa or the Prime Minister of Swarajya,which was originated from the times of ChatrapatiShivaji.

FAMILY TREE OF BALAJI VISHWANATH(Courtsy Google pics)

When his son Bajirao I became Peshwa in the year 1719, the title from then onwards became hereditary. BajiRao I proved his loyalty and patriotism by controlling the feudal chieftains who wanted independence from the Maratha Empire and thereby strengthening Shahus place as the Chatrapati. In gratitude, Shahu gave the Peshwas unchallenged control over Maratha empire with the condition that Shivaji's descendants, who were the titular Raja of Satara were to be regarded as the master by the Peshwas who were answerable to them and officially they were to seek guidance from the Raja.

It was Bajirao I who built Shaniwarwada in Pune as his residence and since then Pune became the headquarters for the Maratha empire and the Peshwas,the real administrator.

PESHWA BAJIRAO I

 Story behind the Building:

According to a popular legend, Bajirao I was looking for a venue to built a palace as his residence cum administrative quarters. And he was roaming in Pune. Near LalMahal he suddenly came across a unique site that of a rabbit chasing a dog. There and then Bajirao decided to build his palace on that particular spot. The foundation stone and well as the actual construction started on Saturday (shaniwar in marathi) hence the name given to this is Shaniwarwada.

Right from its construction in 1732 till the year 1818 when Bajirao II surrendered to the East India Company, Shaniwarwada was the main seat of the activities.

I entered the main door and now once again I was standing before the ruins of the palace. However now I already knew its significance. They were calling out to me and like a possessed person I started roaming in between the ruins,along with my daughter. Before my eyes was standing the tall majestic seven floored palace fully made up of wood. Before its destruction by fire,the whole structure was made up of teak and bricks and was seven floored. Teak was imported from the jungles of Junnar, stone was brought from the nearby quarries of Chinchwad, and lime stone was brought from the lime-belts of Jejuri. Shaniwarwada was completed in 1732, at a total cost of Rs. 16,110, a very large sum at the time

RUINS OF THE PALACE AT PRESENT

SPIKED DOOR OF THE MAIN ENTRANCE

 “Come here Tanvi” I called out to my daughter who was busy munching her packet of chips and I took her to the left hand side of the main doorway. “You know,once upon a time this was the place where MastaniMahal stood.” “And how do we know this?” came her question. “It’s because the doorway leading to her palace was known as the Mastani darwaza.” Initially when Mastani came to Pune she used to stay in a palace (wada) at  Kothrud (today it is completely destroyed and there is no trace of it. The replica of the Mastani mahal is kept at the Raja Kelkar Museum,Pune )

With this we started the tour of the doors first. There are in total five gateways to the Shaniwarwada.which are named as follows:

Ganesh Darwaja which faced the Ganesh Mahal. It is said that Ganesh mahal was the hall where exquisite glass chandeliers hung from the ceilings and the floors adorned with the rich Persian rugs. The walls contained paintings with scenes from the Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.Itserved as the court of the Peshwas on the special occasions. Behind the ‘Masnad’.i.e. the seat of the Peshwas, a huge painting of Ganesh (the deity of the Peshwas) was hung .That is why the hall was called as the Ganesh Mahal.

JambhulDarwaja, which later on came to be known as Narayan RaoDarwaja since it is believed that his corpse was taken out from this door secretly to be cremated.

KhidkiDarwaja

The whole structure was surrounded by garden.In the garden there were many fountains out of which Hazari Karanje was the famous one. It was in the form of lotus and water sprouted from thousands of small pipes which were attached to it. Hence the name.

FAMOUS HAZARI KARANZE NOW IN RUINS

RUINS OF ANOTHER FOUNTAIN

The later Peshwas made additions to the palace that was built by Bajirao I. Since the palace was destroyed in the fire, we only have the description found in various books to rely on. It is said that the whole structure was built with exquisitely carved teak arches, with ornamental teardrop teak pillars shaped like Suru (cypress tree) trunks supporting the ceilings, which were covered with beautiful teak tracery, carved creepers and flowers.

Shaniwarwada has been a mute witness to many intrigues and conspiracies, and victories as well as defeats. It has seen the biggest defeat of the Marathas in the Third Battle of Panipat in the year 1761 and also its revival under PeshwaMadhavrao I.It has seen the greed for the power in the form of Raghunathrao and Aanandibai which culminated into the murder of the young PeshwaNarayanrao. The popular story that says that Raghunathrao wanted to become the peshwa and so sent a message to SumersinghGardi to capture Narayanrao(NarayanravasDhara). The letter was intercepted by his wife Anandibai who changed the alphabet (from Dhara to Mara)and thereby the order was made to kill Narayanrao instead of capturing him. When Sumersingh’s men entered his room with swords,Narayanrao ran to his uncle Raghunathrao for help screaming “uncle help me”(Kaka Mala Vachva). However he was caught and killed by Sumersingh’s men. It is this particular murder which has become the popular ghost story wherein the people swear that on full moon day in the dead of the night they can still hear the screams of the young peshwa.

Shaniwarwada also saw the suicide of SavaiMadhavrao IIwho jumped from the balcony of his room and fell on the Hazarikaranze and met his death.

The majestic palace caught fire in the year 1828 and the whole structure burnt for 8 days. Except for the basement and the outer fortification of the fort with nagarkhana on top, the whole structure was burnt to ashes.

After roaming in the garden for a while and admiring the ruins of HazariKaranze and other fountains that survived the test of the time, we entered the only intact structure which survives still today. Probably it is living to tell the tales of his (its?) glorious masters to anyone who would care to listen....I thought to myself.

STAIRCASE LEADING TO NAGARKHANA(Courtsy Google Pics)

NAGARKHANA

To go on top there is a narrow staircase. The whole of nagarkhana is of wood and the pillars are carved with fine designs. Once on top you can see the majestic ruins of the palace and you start wondering to yourself...what would have been the grandeur of the palace during its heydays? The drums of this nagarkhana would proudly beat whenever the Peshwas returned home from their victories. It must have also seen the downfall of the Peshwas after the third battle of Panipat and would have felt proud when it got revived under Madhavrao I. Did it cry when this Peshwa succumbed to an early exit at the age of 27? I thought to myself. Did it shed tears when teenaged NarayanRao was brutally murdered just for power by his own uncle? It probably must have done this and all. With these thoughts I turned to the side that faced the main road. Initially it was a huge open ground. Now the statue of PeshwaBajirao I stand tall calling the history lovers to visit the place to pay homage to its glorious past. I guess the Nagarkhana is also pleading silently to the people not to treat the place as something to be visited casually in the evening, the way we visit beaches and garden but to come, sit and ponder for a while.

RUINS OF THE PALACE AS SEEN FROM NAGARKHANA

PESHWA STATUE INFRONT OF THE SHANIWARWADA

It was late in the evening. How the time flew I never did notice. It was time now to say goodbye and we were leaving the palace when Tanvi showed me the board. “There’s a light and sound show in the evening Mumma. Shall we wait?”We did wait but in vain since the show got cancelled. However my friend who lives in Pune told me recently that the show starts in the evenings now a days. So people if you do go there, don’t miss the light and sound show.

HOW TO REACH SHANIWARWADA:

• The Palace is situated in the Shaniwar Peth area of Pune.
• You can easily access it by an auto or car.