- Shweta Dandekar
A tourist destination for those looking for historical places and monuments, Pune hosts one of the most famous historical places in Maharashtra – Shaniwar Wada. Whether a resident or a visitor to the city, this heritage site definitely deserves a visit.
Both, a palace and a fort, Shaniwar Wada lies on 6.25 acres of land in Pune. It was constructed in the year 1732 on the 10th of January for the Peshwas under the Maratha Empire. Peshwa Baji Rao I, Prime Minister to the king of Maratha Empire laid the ceremonial foundation of his own home.
It was the political capital of the empire until its annihilation. The wada consists of bastions and gates, court halls, a palace and a fountain.
The monument has five main gates – Dilli Darwaza, Mastani Darwaja, Khidki Darwaja, Ganesh Darwaja and Jambhul Darwaja or Narayan Darwaja. The first gate is the main gate of the palace fort. It faces towards Delhi in the north. Mastani Darwaja also faces north and was used by Bajirao’s mistress Mastani. Khidki Darwaja faces the east and it got its name from an armoured window it contains. Ganesh Darwaja faces towards the south-east and could be used by the women of the complex who wanted visit the Kasaba Ganpati Temple nearby. The last gate faces south and concubines used it to enter and exit the monument.
The palace consists of Horlya Rayancha Diwankhana (The court reception hall of the eldest royal, meaning Baji Rao I), Naachacha Diwankhana (Dance Hall), and Juna Arsa Mahal (Old Mirror Hall). These buildings were destroyed due an unexplained fire in the year 1828. The walls of these buildings were encrypted with the stories of Mahabharata and Ramayana, according to the descriptions written at that time.
The fountain was destroyed in the fire as well. It was said to have an exquisite lotus shape. It was called Hazari Karanje (Fountain of thousand jets). It was built for little Peshwa Sawai Madhavrao’s amusement. It was designed as a sixteen-petal lotus – each petal had sixteen jets with an eighty-foot arch.
A thousand people had inhabited the fort in 1758. On February 27, 1828, a great fire started inside the palace complex. The conflagration raged for seven days. Only the heavy granite ramparts, strong teak gateways and deep foundations and ruins of the buildings within the fort survived. It is said that the ghost of the murdered Narayan Rao can be seen and can be heard screaming Kaka mala vachva (Uncle, save me).
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