Shaniwar Wada

Shaniwar Wada (Marathi: शनिवार वाडा) (18°31′8.67″N 73°51′19.62″E) is a palace fort in the heart of Pune City, India. It was the seat of Peshwa rulers until 1818 when the Peshwas surrendered to British. In 1828 AD, an unexplained fire gutted the buildings in this palace complex. All that remains now are their stone plinths and the perimeter fortification wall.

The walls of the shaniwarwada fort

Shaniwar is Marathi for Saturday. A [wada] is Marathi for a group of houses together in a complex, not necessarily royal, though this one was. The Shaniwar Wada palace complex contained the magnificent and stately mansions built by the Peshwas, for their residences.

Construction

Bajirao laid the foundation of his original residence with a handful of earth from the nearby Lal Mahal on a Saturday, 10 January 1730. Whence the name.

With teak from the jungles of Junnar, stone from the quarries of Chinchwad and lime from the lime-belts of Jejuri, this edifice of extravagance was completed in 1732 AD for the princely sum of Rs. 16,110.

The opening ceremony was performed according to Hindu religious customs, again on an auspicious Saturday, the 22nd of January 1732.

Bajirao's descendants made several additions. Among these were the fortification walls with bastions and gates, court halls and other buildings, fountains and reservoirs. The perimeter fortification wall with five gateways and nine bastion towers encloses the whole complex.

The Gates

The imposing walls of the Shaniwar Wada, taken in the 1860's

Two gates face the north, two the east and one, the south.

• The principal gate facing the north is named the Dilli Darwaja (Delhi Gate).

It is said that, when Bajirao started building the walls and set the main gate against Delhi, the king, Chhatrapati Shahu alarmed that Bajirao's ambitions would antagonize the Mughal monarch in Delhi, suggested that the walls be of bravery, rather than of mud – "chhaatiiche, maatiche naahi!"

The Peshwas set out for their military campaigns through this door and were also received here on their victorious return.

The strongly built Dilli Darwaja gatehouse had giant doors, large enough to admit elephants outfitted with howdahs (seating canopies).

To discourage raiding parties from charging the gates with elephants, each pane of the gate had seventy-two sharp twelve-inch steel spikes arranged in a nine by eight grid, at approximately the height of the forehead of a battle-elephant.

In addition each pane was fortified with steel cross members and borders all bolted with steel bolts with sharpened cone heads.

The outer and inner doorways of the gate-house are appropriately skewed to defeat a high-speed mounted charge, even with both panes open.

The right pane had a small man-sized door for orderly one-by-one admittance of visitors on foot.

The keep bastions flanking the gatehouse had arrow-loops and machicolation chutes through which hot substances could be poured onto offending raiders.

• Another north facing gate was the Mastani Darwaja, also called Alibahadur Darwaja. This gate was used by Bajirao's mistress Mastani while travelling out of the palace's perimeter wall.

• The eastern wall has two gates. One is the Khidki Darwaja (a gate with an armored window in it). The other eastern gate, the Ganesh Darwaja stands in the south-eastern corner of the perimeter wall. The Ganesh Rang Mahal stood near this door. Ladies of the royal Peshwa family took this gate to visit the Kasba Ganapati temple.

• To the south is the Jambhul Darwaja. This was the gate used by the concubines. The gate was also used to remove the mortal remains of Narayan Peshwa for cremation ceremonies. Thereafter the gate was also called Narayan darwaja.

• The western wall has no gate, but a stony passage leading to the allure on the perimeter wall.

The Palaces

One of the buildings in the Shaniwarwada complex was seven storeyed. It is said that the spire of the Sant Dnyaneshwar temple at Alandi, 17 km north-northeast could be viewed from the uppermost terrace of this grand seven-storeyed building.

Among the important buildings in the palace were the Thorlya rayancha diwankhana (the court reception hall of the eldest royal, Baji Rao I), Naachacha diwankhana (Dance Hall), Ganesh Rang Mahal (Hall of justice) and Juna Arse Mahal (Old Mirror Hall).

The stately halls in the buildings had doorways with exquisitely carved teak arches. Ornamental teardrop teak pillars shaped like Suru (cypress tree) trunks, supported the ceilings.

The ceilings were covered with beautiful teak tracery, carved creepers and flowers. Exquisite glass chandeliers hung from them. The highly polished marble mosaic floor adorned with rich Persian rugs, made for an opulent castle of dreams.

The walls contained paintings with scenes from the great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

Among the craftsmen who contributed to the planning, construction and luxurious appointments were, Shivaram Krishna, Devaji and Kondaji Sutar, Morarji Patharwat Bhojraja (an inlay-work expert from Jaipur) and Ragho (a painter).

The Fountain

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A fountain inside Shaniwar wada

The complex had a beautiful sixteen-petal-lotus shaped fountain: the Hazaari Kaaranje (fountain of a thousand jets). This unique fountain, a work of art par excellence, was constructed for the pleasure of the infant Peshwa Sawaaii Madhavrao (1773-1795).

With the form of a sixteen petal lotus, each petal having sixteen jets with an eighty foot arch each, it was a never-before object of curiosity and wonder. No other fountain with a hundred and ninety-six jets and a thousand sprays was known to exist anywhere else. The water jets of this wonderful fountain could be played in about a hundred different ways, with the sun making and breaking a hundred rainbows.

Captain Moore who visited the Shaniwar wada in 1791 described it as “very magnificent. A hundred dancers can dance here at a time. In one corner is a marble Ganapati statue and the palace is flanked by a fountain and a flower garden...”.

The People

It is documented that at least a thousand people resided in the Wada in 1758 AD.

Interiors of Shaniwarwada

At the zenith of Maratha imperial power, the Shaniwar Wada, being the imperial palace, was witness to an endless bustle of visiting sardars (chieftains), military leaders, kings and ambassadors of numerous inland and foreign powers.

In June 1818, the Peshwa, Bajirao II, abdicated his Gadi (throne) to Sir John Malcolm of the British Government and went into political exile at Bithoor, 27 km north-west of Kanpur, UP.

A decade later, a great fire burned down all the buildings. The conflagration started on 27th February 1828 and raged for seven days. Only the heavy granite ramparts, strong teak gateways and deep foundations and ruins of these majestic and magnificent buildings remain to bear witness to the rise and fall of a mighty empire.

The beautiful teak nagaar-khana atop the Delhi Darwaja gate-house once saw musicians sing powadas (ballads) to the grandeur and brave exploits of the Maratha empire. That nagaarkhana today is a proud and cherished symbol of the Puneites and a popular tourist attraction. The six and a quarter acre expanse with its ramparts, nine towers (burz) and the magnificent Dilli darwaja remain, today, mute witnesses to the saga of four generations of Peshwa, who resided in the Wada amidst romance, intrigue, plotting and politics.

External Links

• The splendor of Shaniwar Wada: Sunil Shinde's site visit and personal experience with photos