Sunday, June 20, 2010

Chakradhar Swami and his Mahanubhav Panth

The Mahanubhav sect of western India was started by Shri Chakradhar Swami in 1267. He propagated a religious movement as well as social movement, in which all were accepted irrespective of their castes and the traditional ritualistic religion was rejected.

The work established by Mukundraj by the end of the twelfth century was effectively taken forth after the beginning of the thirteenth century by Mahanubhav Panth. 

Chakradhar Swami rejected the idea that Sanskrit was the only effective language for imparting knowledge and proudly embraced the Marathi language as an effective media for pursuing and imparting knowledge. 

All the writers and poets of the Mahanubhav sect have contributed to enhancing the greatness and capability of the Marathi language. Their pride in the Marathi language is a great favour to the language.

Seven books written by writers of the Mahanubhav sect are famous as Sati Granth:

1. Shishupal Vadh    - 1195 - Poet BhaskarBhat Borikar
2. Ekadshaskand        - 1196 - Kavishwar Bhaskar
3. Vatsya Haran         - 1200 - Damodar Pandit
4. Rukmini Swamvar   - 1210 - Poet Narendra
5. Dyanbodh             - 1254 - Vishwanath Balapurkar
6. Sahyadrivarnan   - 1254 - Khalo Vyas
7. Rudrapurvarnan   - 1285 - Narayan Pandit
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Mukundraj : Marathi poetry’s foremost poet

Mukundraj’s VivekSindhu, published in the year 1188, was the first Marathi book to be published.

Till this book, all classical and scholarly discourses that were published were written in Sanskrit. There was no practice of writing books in the local Marathi language. Due to this common Marathi populace was oblivious of the vast ocean of knowledge that was available in the Sanskrit language. 

Mukundraj realized the necessity to make this ocean of knowledge available into Marathi. And this is why Mukundraj ignored all ordains of his time and wrote his book in Marathi. 

After Mukundraj’s venture, all great poets and writers till the eighteenth century displayed courage and capability in writing poetry and philosophical discourses in Marathi. Mukundraj was the forerunner who tied the first links between Vedic culture and Marathi culture.
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Saturday, June 19, 2010

MaHarashtra Cities

PUNE
Pune, the second largest city in Maharashtra, is the state's cultural capital, with a population of 2.5 million people. About 170-km from Mumbai by road, Pune was the bastion of the Maratha empire. Under the reign of the Peshwas - key ministers in the Maratha Empire - Pune blossomed into a centre of art and learning. Several far-reaching revenue and judicial reforms were also initiated in the city.
The British developed Pune as a military town when they captured it in 1818. Educational institutes there include the College of Military Engineering and the University of Pune, which offers a diverse choice of engineering, agriculture and technical courses.
A number of industries were located in Pune after Independence, as the city had well-connected road and rail links and a pool of technical and professional personnel.
Bajaj Auto, the world’s largest manufacturer of scooters and three wheelers, TELCO (Tata Electric and Locomotive Company), the manufacturer of India’s primary commercial vehicles and trucks, and the luxury car-maker, Mercedes Benz are located here. Software companies are the newest entrants into Pune's vibrant atmosphere. With the setting up of these new industries, there has been a corresponding increase in both the population and standards of lifestyle; today Pune is rapidly maturing into a prime industrial town, while retaining all its old charm, a unique blend of British and Maratha influences.


NASIK
One of the holy cities of the Hindu tradition, Nashik lies on the banks of the sacred river Godavari and has a population of about 0.725 million people. It is believed that Lord Rama, hero of the great Indian epic, the Ramayana, spent a major part of his exile here. Nashik is also a temple town, with over 200 temples.
Nashik is located at a distance of 195 km from Mumbai by road on the Bombay-Agra highway. It is also a major pilgrimage centre. The greatest event in Nashik is the sacred Kumbha Mela, held to commemorate a mythological story. The mela (a religious carnival) occurs every 12 years (equal to one day for the gods) and attracts millions of people from India and abroad. This event is held alternately at Nashik, Hardwar, Ujjain and Allahabad, which are among the major pilgrimage centres in the country.


NAGPUR
The nerve centre of Vidarbha (eastern Maharashtra), Nagpur - the 'orange city' as it is known - is located in the heart of India, with a population of about 1.7 million people. It is dotted with many picturesque sites, including the civil lines and well-laid-out gardens. Nagpur has much to offer by way of relaxation. It was the old capital of the Bhonsale rulers, the former Central Provinces and Berar. The city is noted for its antiquity and is about 868 km from Mumbai by road.
Nagpur is a growing industrial centre and the home of several industries, ranging from food products and chemicals to electrical and transports equipment.


AURANGABAD
Malik Ambar, the Prime Minister of Murtaza Nizam Shah II, and the then ruler of the Deccan (central parts of Southern India), founded Aurangabad in 1610. The city has a population of about 0.593 million people.
Aurangabad derives its name from Prince Aurangzeb (who later became a Mughal emperor), who made it his regional capital when he was Viceroy of Deccan. His legacy is reflected in the architecture of the city. Even today, Aurangabad is a hub of culture and history in the Marathwada region. The Bibi-ka-Maqbara is the only example of Mughal architecture in the Deccan plateau; it was built in 1679 as a tribute to Aurangzeb’s wife, Begum Rabia Durani, by his son.
Close to the city of Aurangabad are the famous Ajanta and Ellora caves, an architectural marvel. Through the caves, visitors can trace the evolution of three great world religions - Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism.
Aurangabad is famous for Paithani saris, himroo shawls and bidri work (zinc with silver embedding).


KOLHAPUR
In southern Maharashtra, on the banks of the river Panchganga, Kolhapur is an ancient town known for its exquisite palaces and forts. In 1945, archaeological excavations close to a hill near Kolhapur revealed the existence of an ancient town dating back to the times of the Roman empire. Today, Kolhapur is a modern city with a population of about 0.419 million people and a thriving industrial infrastructure

United Maharashtra Movement

United Maharashtra Movement 

United Maharashtra came into being on 1st May 1960. The State of Maharashtra was created under the framework of reconstruction of States on linguistic criteria. But one hundred and six people had to lay down their lives before it could come into being. Before the creation of Unified Maharashtra, a bilingual State came into being. The Maharashtrians continuously opposed the then Congress government on this issue and a separate State of Maharashtra with Mumbai as its capital but without the territory of Karwar and Belgaum, came into being.
The history of Unified Maharashtra movement can be stretched back to 1920s. Lokmanya Tilak coupled national education and freedom together and highlighted the need to impart national education through mother tongue. Around the same time the aims and objectives of the Congress Democratic Party mentioned formation of States along linguistic lines.

The same demand was made in the Party Programme and a declaration was made that a State of Maharashtra be created based on a single language. 

In the 1917 Kolkata (Calcutta) session of the Indian National Congress, Dr. Pattabhi Seetaramayya proposed to create a separate state of Andhra. 

This proposal was opposed by Dr. Annie Besant, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya and Mahatma Gandhi, while Lokmanya Tilak supported it.

 Mahatma Gandhi changed his opinion later and in 1921 in the Nagpur Session Gandhiji himself proposed recreation of States along the linguistic lines. The Indian National Congress itself was reorganized along linguistic lines. This helped widen the base of Indian National Congress. In 1928 the Workers’ and Farmers’ Party made a presentation before the Motilal Nehru Committee for reorganization of States and demanded a separate State of Maharashtra. The Nehru Committee sanctioned the demand.


In the Marathi Literary Meet held in Mumbai under the chairmanship of Swatantryaveer Sawarkar on 15th October 1938 the phrase ‘Single language State of Maharashtra including Varhad’ was used intentionally.

The reason for using this phrase was the recommendation by Ravishankar Shukla, Chief Minister of Central Provinces (C.P.) and Berar, that Varhad be separated and formed into an independent State. In the 1939 Sahitya Sammelan (Literary Meet) in Ahmednagar, a resolution was passed that a single State be formed of all the regions where the Marathi language is spoken, and named ‘United Maharashtra’.

The term ‘United Maharashtra’ came to be used for the first time in this Meet. Ramrao Deshmukh, the member of C.P. and Berar Legislative Assembly, founded the Sanyukta Maharashtra Sabha (United Maharashtra Assembly) in Mumbai to sustain the demand for independent Varhad. The Council for Unification of Maharashtra was founded in Pune in 1941 under the leadership of Dr. Kedar.

In the Belgaum Literary Meet on 13th May, 1946, writer Madkholkar first made a demand for Unified Maharashtra. This Unified Maharashtra was to include Mumbai, Central Provinces, Berar, Marathwada and Gomantak. A Council for the Unification of Maharashtra held its meeting in Mumbai on 28th July 1946 under the chairmanship of Shankarrao Dev. The Jalgaon Session of the Council for the Unification of Maharashtra upheld the demand for United Maharashtra including Mumbai.
As the freedom to India became imminent, a commission under the chairmanship of Justice S.K. Dar was appointed by Dr. Rajendra Prasad to judge the feasibility of reorganization of States along linguistic lines. Even as the commission was working Mahatma Gandhi wrote in Harijan that a plan acceptable to all be prepared by Mumbai for reorganization of States.  

Seventeen leaders signed an agreement before the Dar Commission that came to be known as Akola Agreement.

In 1948 The Council for Unification of Maharashtra held its session in Mumbai. Annabhau Sathe presented a programme Mumbai Kunachi (Whom does Bombay belong to). Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar gave his recommendation to the Dar commission emphasizing Maharashtra’s right over Mumbai.

On December 1948 the Dar Commission published its report. Dar Commission refuted the right of Maharashtra over Mumbai. There was a strong reaction against the Dar Commission Report. 

 So a JVP Committee consisting of Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabh Bhai Patel and Pattabhi Seetaramayya was formed in the Jaipur session of the Indian National Congress. Even the JVP Committee opposed the idea of Maharashtra along with Mumbai.

After the report of this committee became public, Ramrao Deshmukh gave up the demand for separate Berar and asked for the C. P. and Berar to be amalgamated with Maharashtra. Nobody dared oppose Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabh Bhai Patel. The Unified Maharashtra Movement was getting moribund when Senapati Bapat came forward and gave it a new lease of life. On 29th November 1949 Acharya Atre and R.D. Bhandare moved a resolution in Mumbai Municipal Corporation for Unified Maharashtra.

While the agitation was on in Maharashtra, the demand for separate Andhra State also gathered strength, for which Potti Ramalu laid down his life. In 1952 the separate State of Andhra came into being. Pandit Nehru appointed the Fazal Ali Commission to review the situation for reorganizing States along linguistic lines. The Sanyukta Maharashtra Parishad (Council for the unification of Maharashtra) made a presentation before the commission. The commission recommended a bilingual State, a separate State of Vidharbha (Berar) and Mumbai State including entire Gujarati speaking region and Marathwada. Morarji Desai, the then Chief Minister of Mumbai, declared that Mumbai would not be unified with Maharashtra ‘for the next five thousand years’(!)
The Bill for creation of three such States was going to be discussed in the Legislative Assembly. The people of Maharashtra took to the streets, protesting against the Bill. The roads leading to the Legislative Assembly were blocked. The mob became unruly and fifteen people died in the police fire that ensued. Senapati Bapat, leader of the demonstration was arrested.
These fifteen were the first of hundred and sixteen martyrs to the cause of Unified Maharashtra. P.V. Gadgil, the editor of newspaper Lokmanya, resigned his membership of the Legislative Assembly. The Bill could not be passed due to the strong public opinion against it.
 Bilingual State formed
On 16th January 1956 Pt. Nehru declared that Mumbai would remain under the central government and proposed two linguistic States instead of three States: Maharashtra including Vidharbha for Marathi speakers and Gujarat including Kutch and Saurashtra for Gujarati speakers. The public opinion went against this decision. Sixty seven people died in police firings between January 16 and 22. Jayaprakash Narayan demanded Mumbai to be given to the Maharashtra State. The Congress Party in Hyderabad Legislative Assembly also endorsed this view. In the parliament Feroze Gandhi also recommended Mumbai to be given to Maharashtra. C.D. Deshmukh, the famous Economist and minister, resigned from the cabinet on the Mumbai issue. In June 1956, Sanyukta Maharashtra Samiti was formed in London, U.K.
In August 1956, a suggestion was made in Lok Sabha, the lower house of the parliament, that a common State including Maharashtra, Marathwada, Vidharbha, Gujarat, Saurashtra, Kutch and Mumbai be formed. This suggestion was immediately accepted by the government. In October 1956, Morarji Desai went to the central cabinet and Yashawantrao Chavan became the new Chief Minister. Mumbai became the capital of this new State.
In order to oppose Indian National Congress on this issue, a new political party, Sanyukta Maharashtra Vidhansabha Paksha came into being. The party won majority in the Mumbai municipal corporation elections and Acharya Donde became the mayor. In 1959 Indira Gandhi became the president of Indian National Congress. She reviewed the situation in Maharashtra and came to the conclusion that such a bilingual State is not sustainable. She appointed a nine members committee to study the issue. This committee recommended dismantling of the bilingual State and creation of separate Gujarat state. Indira Gandhi accepted that Mumbai be given to Maharashtra.


The parliament passed a resolution on 1st May 1960 creating a separate State of Maharashtra consisting of twenty six districts and two hundred and twenty nine taluka.

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Maharashtra - - Geographically Speaking


The word Maharashtra, the land of the Marathi speaking people, appears to be derived from Maharashtri, an old form of Prakrit. Some believe that the word indicates that it was the land of the Mahars and the Rattas, while others consider it to be a corruption of the term 'Maha Kantara' (the Great Forest), a synonym for 'Dandakaranya'.
Located in the north centre of Peninsular India, with a command of the Arabian Sea through its port of Mumbai, Maharashtra has a remarkable physical homogeneity, enforced by its underlying geology. The dominant physical trait of the state is its plateau character. The Maharashtra Desh is a plateau of plateaux, its western upturned rims rising to form the Sahyadri Range and its slopes gently descending towards the east and southeast. The major rivers and their master tributaries have carved the plateaux into alternating broad-river valleys and intervening higher lever interfluves, such as the Ahmednagar, Buldana, and Yavatmal plateaux.
The Sahyadri Range is the physical backbone of Maharashtra. Rising on an average to an elevation of 1000m. it falls in steep cliffs, to the Konkan on the west. Eastwards, the hill country falls in steps through a transitional area known as Mawal to the plateau level. The series of crowning plateaux on the crest forms a distinctive feature of the Sahyadri Range.
The Konkan, lying between the Arabian Sea and the Sahyadri Range is narrow coastal lowland, barely 50 km. wide. Though mostly below 200 m., it is far from being a plain country. Highly dissected and broken, the Konkan alternates between narrow, steep-sided valleys and low laterite plateaux.
The Satpudas, hills along the northern border, and the Bhamragad-Chiroli-Gaikhuri Ranges on the eastern border form physical barriers preventing easy movement, but also serve as natural limits to the state.


Except around Mumbai, and along the eastern limits, the State of Maharashtra presents a monotonously uniform, flat-topped skyline. This topography of the state is the outcome of its geological structure. The state area, barring the extreme eastern Vidarbha region, parts of Kolhapur and Sindhudurg, is practically co-terminous with the Deccan Traps. Roughly 60 to 90 million years ago, the outpouring of basic lava through fissures formed horizontally bedded basalt over large areas. Variations in their composition and structure have resulted in massive, well-jointed steel-grey cliff faces alternating with structural benches of vesicular amygdaloid lava and ash layers, all of which contribute to the pyramida-shaped hills and crest-level plateaux or mesas. Earth sculpturing under the tropical climate completed the panorama-sharply defining the landform features in the semi-arid conditions, and rounding the hilltops under wetter condition. Fluvial action by the Krishna, Bhima, Godavari, Tapi-Purna and Wardha-Wainganga river systems has further aided in the compartmentalisation of the Desh into broad, open river valleys, alternating with plateau interfluves, that form the ribs of the Sahyadrian backbone. In sharp contrast, the hill torrents of the Konkan, barely a 100 km. long, tumble down as roaring streams which flow in deeply entrenched valleys to terminate in tidal estuaries.

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The state enjoys a tropical monsoon climate; the hot scorching summer from March onwards yields to the rainy monsoon in early June. The rich green cover of the monsoon season persists during the mild winter that follows through an unpleasant October transition, but turns into a dusty, barren brown as the summer sets in again. The seasonal rains from the western sea-clouds are very heavy and the rainfall is over 400 cm., on the Sahyadrian crests. The Konkan on the windward side is also endowed with heavy rainfall, declining northwards. East of the Sahyadri, the rainfall diminishes to a meagre 70 cm. in the western plateau districts, with Solapur-Ahmednagar lying in the heart of the dry zone. The rains increase slightly, later in the season, eastwards in the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions.
The highly pulsatory character of the monsoon, with its short spells of rainy weather and long dry breaks, floods, as well as droughts add much to the discomfort of the rural economy.


Forests comprising only 17% of the state area cover the eastern region and the Sahyadri Range, while open scrub jungle dots the plateaux. If Maharashtra represented the Maha Kantara in the historic past, today little of it is left; vast sections have been denuded and stripped of the vegetal cover.
The soils of Maharashtra are residual, derived from the underlying basalts. In the semi-dry plateau, the regur (black-cotton soil) is clayey, rich in iron, but poor in nitrogen and organic matter; it is moisture-retentive. Where redeposited along the river valleys, those kali soils are deeper and heavier, better suited for rabi crops. Farther away, with a better mixture of lime, the morand soils form the ideal Kharif zone. The higher plateau areas have pather soils, which contain more gravel. In the rainy Konkan, and the Sahyadri Range, the same basalts give rise to the brick-red laterites productive under a forest-cover, but readily stripped into a sterile varkas when the vegetation is removed. By and large, soils of Maharashtra are shallow and somewhat poor.
Water is the most precious natural resource of the state, greatly in the demand, and most unevenly distributed. A large number of villages lack drinking water, especially during the summer months, even in the wet Konkan. Barely 11% of the net sown area is irrigated. Perched water tables in the basalt aquifers have contributed to increased well irrigation, which accounts for approximately 55% of the irrigable water. The granitic-gneissic terrain in the eastern hilly area of Vidarbha accounts for all tank irrigation. Tube-wells in the Tapi-Purna alluvium and shallow wells in the coastal sands are the other main sources of water.
The mineral-bearing zones of Maharashtra lie beyond the area of the basalts in eastern Vidarbha, southern Kolhapur and the Sindhudurg area. The Chandrapur, Gadchirali, Bhandara and Nagpur Districts form the main mineral belt, with coal and manganese as the major minerals and iron ore and limestone as potential wealth. The Ratnagiri coast contains sizeable deposits of illimenite.
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Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Shaniwar Wada Palace

About Shaniwar Wada Palace :

Shaniwarwada was the stately mansion originally built as the residence of the Peshwas.  

The foundation of the mansion was laid by Bajirao 1 in the year 1730 AD and construction was completed in 1732 AD at a cost of Rs. 16,120. Several additions were made to the palace like fortification walls with bastions, gates and court halls by his successors. What was once a seven storied structure was gutted by a fire in the palace. 

Only the remains can be seen now like the fortification walls with five gateways and nine bastions that enclosed the entire palace. 

The principal gate is called Dilli Darwaja (Delhi Gate); the other gates are called Mastani or Alibahadur Darwaja, Khidki Darwaja, Ganesh Darwaja and Narayan Darwaja. 

The walls in the palace were painted with scenes from Ramayana and Mahabharata.  

A sixteen petal lotus-shaped fountain stands reminiscent of the exquisite work of those times. The historical structure which stands as an important chapter in the history of the Maratha empire, is now maintained by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). Around 1,000 people used to stay in the palace.

Bajirao Peshwa

Shrimant Baji Rao Vishwanath Bhatt or Bajirao Peshwa, as the man of action is commonly called, was the son of the first Peshwa of the Maratha Empire in Maharashtra, Balaji Vishwanath. Bajirao was very popular amongst the soldiers as he was never afraid to lead the battalion from the front. 

One of the bravest in the line of Maratha rulers in Maharashtra, Bajirao was responsible for the initiative taken towards territorial expansion.

Bajirao Peshwa was also responsible for the betterment of the government affairs.

Bajirao Peshwa ascended the throne in the year 1721 at the age of 20 and remained on throne till 1740. He is not known to have lost even one battle that he has fought. He took advantage of the weakening of the Mughal Empire after the death of Aurangzeb. His policy of territorial expansion helped the Maratha Empire to grow in size. However, the administration was a little bit neglected due to which there was the gradual penetration of the English. However he was successful in bringing Malwa, Gujarat and Bundelkhand under the Maratha rule in Maharashtra.

As much as he was dedicated towards his work, he was an artistic person as well. 

He built the Shaniwar Wada palace in the capital city of Pune. 
 It is said that Shivaji created the Maratha state and Bajirao transformed the state into an empire. 

He gave the empire a stability which it needed very much. He is one of the great rulers that the state of Maharashtra has seen.
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Manohar Malgaonkar

 
इंग्रजी कादंबरीकार म्हणून त्यांचा फार मोठा लौकिक! त्यांनी लिहिलेल्या ‘द प्रिन्सेस’ या कादंबरीला अमेरिकेत प्रतिष्ठेचे पारितोषिक लाभलेले होते. 
http://www.loksatta.com/images/stories/newlok/newdaily/20100617/edt02.jpg
त्यानंतरही त्यांनी अनेक इंग्रजी कादंबऱ्या, लघुकथा, इतिहास आणि प्रासंगिक विषयांवर प्रदीर्घ लिहिले आहे. 
ए बेंड इन दि गँजेस्’ ही फाळणीच्या पाश्र्वभूमीवर लिहिलेली कादंबरीही त्या काळी खूप गाजली.  त्यांच्या काही कादंबऱ्यांचे मराठीत अनुवादही झाले आहेत.

डॉ. भास्करन

जपानने अंतराळात पाठवलेली हयाबुसा ही अंतराळ कुपी ऑस्ट्रेलियातील वूमेरा तळावर उतरली, त्यावेळेस जपान आणि अमेरिकेबरोबरच मुंबईतही जल्लोष साजरा झाला. कारण या अंतराळ कुपीच्या परतण्यामध्ये एका भारतीय वैज्ञानिकाचे यश सामावलेले होते. या वैज्ञानिकाचे नाव डॉ. श्याम भास्करन. ४६ वर्षांचे असलेल्या डॉ. भास्करन यांचा जन्म मुंबईत माटुंगा येथे झाला. बालपण मुंबईतच गेले. हा लहान मुलगा त्याहीवेळेस रात्री आकाशाकडे डोळे लावून बसलेला असायचा, अशी आठवण श्यामचे वडील गोिवदन सांगतात.

Narendra Tidake


संयुक्त महाराष्ट्राच्या स्थापनेनंतर राज्यात झालेल्या विधानसभा निवडणुकीनंतर काँग्रेसचे सरकार येणे काहीसे दुरापास्त झाले होते. काही आमदारांचे संख्याबळ कमी पडत असताना यशवंतराव चव्हाणांना साथ मिळाली ती विदर्भातील काँग्रेसच्या आमदारांची. त्यावेळी विदर्भात कामगार चळवळीत अग्रेसर असलेले काँग्रेसचे नेते नरेंद्र तिडके यांनी पुढाकार घेत २३ आमदारांची ताकद यशवंतरावांच्या पाठीशी उभी केली आणि राज्यात काँग्रेसचे सरकार स्थापन झाले.
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Peshwa Dynasty

Peshwa stands for Prime Minister, in Marathi. As the name suggests, the Peshwa of the last ruler of the Shivaji dynasty, Shahu, ascended the throne and established the Peshwa Dynasty.

In the year 1712, Balaji Vishwanath laid the foundations of the Peshwa Dynasty. 

The Peshwa Dynasty prevented the Maratha Empire from disintegration after the death of Shahu in the year 1712.

The Peshwa Dynasty brought the Maratha Kingdom into new heights of glory during the reign from 1712 to 1804.

Bajirao 1 made Pune the capital of the Peshwa rule. During his reign the Maratha Kingdom had to suffer a crumbling defeat in the hands of Ahmad Shah Abdali in the Third Battle of Panipat in the year 1761. The defeat reduced the power of the Maratha kingdom and confined it regionally.

After the death of the great Shivaji, the Maratha Kingdom went through a period of Political instability, which could be resolved by the Peshwas periodically.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Peshwa

  • Sonopant Dabir (1640–1674)

Sunday, June 13, 2010

MUMBAI history

When Mumbai was still Bombay, it was a cluster of seven Koli islands. Muslim ruler Sultan Muhamed Begada captured the by Hindu inhabited islands.

The Portuguese Occupation of Mumbai

The Portuguese Vasco da Gama found the sea route to Bombay, and several attacks followed. In 1534 the Sultan of Gujarat gave in and handed the islands over to the Portuguese, but the islands turned out not to be of any use to them. When King Charles II married the Portuguese princess Catherine Braganza, the Portuguese decided to give the islands to him in 1661.

Charles II took over the remaining islands a couple years later. The East India Company saw the potential of Bombay as trading port because of its strategic location, and took over the island.

Over the years Bombay became one of the biggest industrial cities in the world, with Gerard Aungier as the "Father of Bombay." He was the one who persuaded businessmen from all over India to come and settle in this central city and so it developed into a great commercial centre.

Why Bombay Changed into Mumbai

England ruled over Bombay until 1947, when India became independent.

In 1960 Bombay State became Maharashtra, with Bombay as its capitol. It took until 1995 before the name Bombay changed into Mumbai. When Shiv Sena, a Hindu nationalist party, won the elections, they decided to give the city a different name. Since the name Bombay was given to the city by King Charles II, the Shiv Sena party thought this was too English. The party changed the name into Mumbai, based on the name of the Hindu goddess Mumbadevi.

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Industry in Maharashtra

Mumbai, India
Maharashtra is a highly industrialized state. In fact, Mumbai, it’s State capital, is also considered the industrial and financial capital of India.

The development of a State requires infrastructure. From this point of view, many important factors continue to contribute to the industrial development in Maharashtra such as the availability of water, electricity, roads, modern transport and communication facilities.

Mumbai being an international port, rise of various industrial development corporations as well as financial institutions and the industrial cities of Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Aurangabad, Nashik and Nagpur are pillars of development in the State.

According to the Economic Survey of Maharashtra 2008-09, as many as 14,975 industries have been registered in the period from August 1991 to December 2008, with a total investment of Rs. 5,04,689. 

Concerning the total industrial investment in the country,

Maharashtra makes a 10% contribution, while in case of employment generation the State’s contribution is 15%. 

Maharashtra has a 23% share in the total industrial production in the country.



Types of Industries in Maharashtra:
Agro based Industries Textiles, Sugar, Oil mills, Tobacco processing, Gram mills, Wineries, Rubber
Mineral wealth based Industries Iron and Steel, Cement, Mineral oil curing, engineering
Forest produce based industries Log mills, Paper mills, Match box, Pharmaceuticals, Toys, Sports goods, Furniture
Animal products based Industries Leather goods, woollen clothes, silk, textiles, milk products
Along with these, construction, tourism, service sector, vehicles, publishing, printing, information technology and entertainment industries are also growing significantly.
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Samyukta Maharashtra Movement ,,,,,and Today

The heart of what was then Bombay city was bathed in blood in January 1956. The Bombay police were ordered to fire on peaceful demonstrators who were on the streets to demand a linguistic state for the Marathi speaking people, with Bombay as its capital. 

The government in New Delhi had already agreed to the right of other linguistic groups to form states, but was dilly-dallying when it came to Maharashtra.

Eighty-three people were mowed down in what remains one of the most brutal police attacks on a peaceful rally in independent India. The total number of people who lost their lives in the movement: 106.

These martyrs have now become the center of a renewed political battle as the state of Maharashtra prepares to celebrate its golden jubilee on 1 May. Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party is trying to build on its huge success in the recent municipal elections in Navi Mumbai, and has plastered Mumbai with posters reminding citizens that 23 of the 105 martyrs were from other communities, thus trying to position itself apart from the two Senas run by the warring Thackeray cousins. The list of martyrs includes Muslims, Jews, Christians, Parsis and North Indians. While it is not clear how many of these were Marathi speakers — the Konkani Muslims, Bene Israelis and the Christian East Indians of Vasai speak Marathi as their mother tongue — the broader point of the NCP posters is well taken.

The movement for a united Maharashtra was led by a rainbow coalition — the writer P.K. Atre, the communist S.A. Dange, the socialist S.M. Joshi, the social reformer Prabodhankar Thackeray, the Gandhian Senapati Bapat, the economist D.R. Gadgil, the peasant leader Keshavrao Jedhe and the proletarian bard Shahir Amar Sheikh, among others. The January 1956 killings angered moderate opinion as well. A miffed C.D. Deshmukh, India’s finest finance minister till Manmohan Singh came along, resigned from the Nehru cabinet.

The overall political leaning of this leadership was to the moderate Left, and there were hopes that the state that eventually emerged from the bloody battles would be progressive in both social and economic terms. In fact, the battle for Bombay was split along class lines. The business class that funded the Congress wanted the city to become a Union Territory that it could control while the predominantly-Marathi working class wanted it to be the capital of a progressive Maharashtra.

Fifty years later, the latter dream is in a shambles. The state is deep in debt, the epicenter of farmer suicides, threatened by Naxalite insurgency at its peripheries, struggles with immense deprivation in many districts and has seen its industrial supremacy threatened by other states, even as power has been captured by a narrow and venal political elite linked to the sugar lobby.

Meanwhile, Mumbai has lost its green spaces as successive governments changed rules to benefit builders, its infrastructure has not kept pace with population growth and the social composition of many old parts of the city has changed.



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Maharashtra in Ancient times

Map of the Narmada River, which drains part of...
In ancient times, the region to the north of Narmada river was called UttaraPath or Aryavarta and the region to the south of Narmada was called DakshinaPath.

The ArthaShastra written by Arya Chanakya alias Kautilya during the regime of Chandragupta Maurya refers to Ashmak or Aparanta regions. Ashmak is the region surrounding today’s Ajanta.

A rock edict from the fourth century has been found in village Eran in Madhya Pradesh near district Sagar. In this rock edict, General Satyanag refers to himself as Maharashtra. In the next century, Swami Chakradhar, founder of the Mahanubhav sect, prompts his followers to call oneself as Maharashtri.

Carbon-14 dating of the objects found at the excavation sites near Nashik, Jorve, Nevasa, Chandoli, Sonegaon, Inamgaon, Dayamabad, Nandur, Madhyameshwar fixes the time of proto historic settlements in Maharashtra between 5 lakh to 30 lakh BC. From these and excavations near riverbeds, historians have concluded that stone-age man lived in Maharashtra nearly a hundred thousand years ago.

Slowly, these settlements grew. Outsiders, especially from the north came to Maharashtra as generals, king’s ambassadors and soldiers. After initial conflict, the locals and the outsiders settled in peaceful coexistence.

In the historical period the following were the major powers in Maharashtra:

* Shree Satkarni and Gautam’s son Satkarni from the Satvahan dynasty,
* Vindhyashakti and Pravarsen II of Wakataka dynasty,
* Satyashree Pulakeshi and Vikramaditya of Chalukya dynasty,
* Mananka, Dantidurga, Pratham Krishna, Dhruvaraj of Rashtrakut dynasty,
* Anantadev and Aparaditya of Kadamba dynasty of Gomantak,
* Dhrudhavrat, Bhillam and RamdevaRaya of Yadava dynasty.

These kings contributed greatly to the history of Maharashtra. This, in brief, is the ancient history of Maharashtra.
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Marathi Theatre



Theatre is an art form considered to be a very rich aspect of the Indian culture. 

http://www.indianetzone.com/photos_gallery/14/Marathi_19199.jpg


The first Marathi stage performance was the play Seeta Swayamvar done by Vishnudas Bhave in 1843.

But it was more of an experimental form of theatre derived from the folk forms and the already existing Shakespearean and Parsi dramas. After that it took almost three decades for Marathi theatre to lay its foundations. But the tradition of Marathi theatre in the true sense of the term is said to have started with the musical Shakuntal staged by Annasaheb Kirloskar in 1880. Playwrights and directors used the old Sanskrit and English dramas as a reference and started writing and designing their plays and performances. 

The play Thorle Madhavrao Peshwe written by Vinayak Janardan Kirtane in 1961 can be said to be the first original historical play written in Marathi that was not an adaptation or one based on myth. 

Successful plays like Jhansichya Raniche Naatak (1870), Sawai Madhavravancha Mrutyu (1871), AfjhalKhanachya Mrutyuche Naatak (1871) and Malharrav Maharaj (1875) were staged during that period.

Along with Bhave’s mythological plays, light-hearted farcical plays portraying the social life of those times were also done in large numbers. Dhongi Bairagyache Fars, Kutil Krutyadarsh Fars, Punarvivah Dukhhadarshan, Basundipuricha Fars, Khaprya Chorache Prahasan, Hunda Prahasan are a few of them. These plays commented or criticized comically on the contemporary social developments in those times, hence proving to be a conducive platform for the social drama that followed.
When Marathi drama companies were busy doing entertainment of the Marathi drama lovers with mythological plays between 1843 and 1855, a new star called Annasaheb Kirloskar was born on the horizon of Marathi drama. After the 1880s, farcical plays were overshadowed by the glamour of Kirloskar’s musicals. On 31st October 1880 in Pune, Kirloskar’s epic play Shakuntal was staged for the first time. This revolutionary effort laid foundation to the formulation of what we today call Marathi drama. The tickets for the show were sold out even before the day of the show; the auditorium called Anandodbhav in Pune where the play was presented on that day was jam packed with an eager audience. After the success of Shakuntal, Kirloskar wrote plays like Sangeet Saubhadra and Ramrajyavirog that enjoyed similar success. In the history of Marathi musical drama Annasaheb Kirloskar is regarded as the father of Marathi Sangeet Natak (musical drama). The Marathi theatre movement in a way stabilized thanks to the creative brilliance and organizational excellence of these plays.
The years between 1885 and 1920 were very productive in terms of the quality and the quantity of plays written for the Marathi stage, giving birth to excellent playwrights, directors and actors. On the forefront was Govind Ballal Deval with epic plays like Durga (1886), Vikramorvashiya (1889), Mruchhakatik (1889), Jhunjharrav (1890), Phalgunrav athva Tarbiricha Ghotala (1899) which was later converted into Sangeet Sanshaykallol, Shapsambhram (1893) and Sangeet Sharda (1899). Being the first of its kind, Sangeet Sharda is rightly called the pioneer of social Marathi drama. The play is very artistic and progressive in nature. Its story is full of simple but dramatic incidences. Govind Ballal Deval carried on the great tradition of Annasaheb Kirloskar’s Marathi theatre with the same success. The compositions from his plays are popular even today. Deval’s compositions, full of meaning and melody, fascinated Marathi theatre audience and lingered long in the minds of music lovers. They are said to be the golden treasury of Marathi musical drama. Even the verses from Kirloskar’s Shakuntal were written by him. Deval is said to have laid the foundation and given impetus to further writing in the thought provoking and progressive social genre of playwriting.
Kolhatkar was the most influential theatre figure in the post-Deval era. A new era began in Marathi drama and Sangeet Natak, initiated by Shripad Krishna Kolhatkar. His plays seem to be heavily influenced by the works of Moliere. The plays written by Kolhatkar are Veertanay (1894), Mooknatya (1897), Guptamanjus (1901), Mativikar (1906), Premshodhan (1908), Vadhupariksha (1912), Sahchaarini (1917), Parivartan (1917), Janmarahasya(1918), Shivpavitrya (1921), Shramsaafalya (1928) and Mayavivah (1928). A major characteristic of his plays was the variety evident in them. They were full of suspense and fantasy. Their storylines were new and imaginative. The wit and parody in his plays was exceptionally brilliantly crafted. Kolhatkar thought that Kirloskar’s old compositions were not favourable for extension and he composed a verse in Raag Malkans (a classical note), creating shock waves among the established norms in musical drama. He introduced compositions into Marathi plays that were from Parsi and Urdu theatrical style. These plays were an instant hit and became very popular amongst the audiences. Kolhatkar’s first few plays had singers like Bhaurao Kolhatkar, who were blessed with a heavenly voice, hence adding to the popularity.
A very ambitious theatre person in nature, Khadilkar lent beauty and might to the Marathi theatre movement. Kanchangadchi Mohana, written by him in 1897, was a play about an imaginative solemn character Prataprao who propagated the notion of independence. His play Keechakvadh, actually based on mythical stories but full of contemporary relevance, was the first political play in Marathi. It was instrumental in arousing a public sentiment against the atrocities of Lord Curzon and hence it was banned by the Government in 1910 after running in the theatres for only three years. After that all of his plays like Bhaubandaki, Maanaapamaan, Premadhwaj, Vidyaharan and Satvapariksha gained immense popularity. Khadilkar’s Maanaapamaan has been a miraculous gift to Marathi musical theatre. Working hard continuously for six years in Kirloskar company along with Balgandharva resulted in the rise of Gandharva Natak Mandali (drama group). Balgandharva’s exemplary skills gave justice to the play Maanaapamaan and took Marathi theatre to new highs. But the next play Sangeet Swayamvar written in 1916 started a new era on Marathi stage. It excelled the earlier plays in terms of music and melodious compositions and scaled new heights of popularity. After Sangeet Swayamvar he wrote the plays Draupadi, Menaka, Savatimatsar, Savitri and Tridandi Sanyaas. All the main characters in Khadilkars plays are sublime, inspirational, and full of might and bravery.
A playwright who considered Kolhatkar to be his guru, Ram Ganesh Gadkari followed suit by writing plays based on new and independent storylines. Gadkari was part of Kirloskar Natak Mandali where its manager Shankarrao Mujumdar took keen interest in him. Bal Gandharva was at the height of his powers this time and asked Gadkari to write a drama for him. Vedyancha Baajaar and Garvnirvan were the first plays he wrote. Later his plays Premsanyaas, Punyaprabhaav, Ekach Pyala and Bhaavabandhan achieved great success. He had told BalGandharva to act in torn clothes in his play. In the play Ekach Pyala, BalGandharva had to play the feminine character of Sindhu, who is a poor but devoted wife of a drunkard named Sudhakar. His play Rajasanyaas (a play based on the life of King Sambhaji) was left incomplete because of his death. In a short writing career spanning only eight years, he mesmerized audiences with his bright language and fantastic imagination. His plays are full of grandeur, spontaneity, and funny, bizarre happenings. Gadkari’s poetry is even more famous than his plays. He wrote poems under the pen name Govindagraj. His poems exerted major influence in the decades following his death. Gadkari also tried his hand at humour under the pen name Baalakram.
Sawarkar’s three plays Usshaap, Sanyastakhadga and Uttarkriya are notable for their dialogues and dramatic content. The plays fundamentally commented on socio-political issues. Similar in style to his other works in literature, Sawarkar’s plays caught the eye of readers and audiences because of the radiant language and the sense of rebellion in them.
Mama Warerkar, as he was fondly known, started writing plays in 1914 and continued writing till 1960. Hence it is possible to sketch a graph of the changes in the condition of Marathi theatre over that period. His earlier plays Sanyaashaachaa Sansaar (1919), Turungaachya Daaraat (1923) and Sattechey Gulam (1927) aimed at creating social awareness. But his play Bhoomikanyaa Seeta (1950) tries to unravel the psychological complexities of Seeta also talking about male-female relationship, king-subject relationship and empowerment of women.

Influences of modern media and world theatre

Natyamanvantar and Andhalyanchi Shaalaa
The Marathi theatre movement underwent a slump after 1925 thanks to the growing influence of radio and cinema. But it was due to the cinema and radio that Indian theatre became aware and informed about the progress on the western theatre scene. Inspired by new sensibilities in world theatre, K. N. Kale, Anant Kanekar, G. Y. Chitnis and S. V. Vartak started a theatre group called Natyamanvantar. In 1933 Vartak’s Andhalyaanchi Shaalaa (Blind School) opened in theatres. This was the first Marathi play to have a female actor. It was also revolutionary in bringing naturalistic sets, acting, background music and lighting on Marathi stage. Although NatyaManvantar stopped functioning in merely four years owing to the ideological differences among its members, its tradition of making naturalistic plays was taken forward by the likes of P. K. Atre and Altekar in their plays. Vishram Bedekar’s BrahmaKumari, a mythological play with contemporary relevance, is also from this decade.
The years between 1933 and 1943 are said to be the Atre Age of Marathi theatre. His first play Sashtang Namaskar became popular overnight and fetched him acclaim. It literally brings to life the world of a capricious person. Not only is this play an excellent parody on the traits of human behaviour but it also gave the theatre tradition in Maharashtra an interesting turn. Atre wrote many plays after that namely Sashtang Namaskar (1935), Gharabaher (1934), Bhramacha Bhopala (1935), Udyacha Sansar (1936), Lagnachi Bedi (1936), Moruchi Maushi (1947) and To Mi Navhech (1962). In all of these plays Atre shows as excellent sense of characterization, situation building and dialogue writing. Atre was instrumental in helping the farcical genre attain a respectable status in society.
Rangnekar founded his own theatre group called NatyaNiketan and presented his plays through this group. Through his plays he portrayed issues pertaining largely to the Marathi middle class. For example he brought forward the problems of the working young woman in Ashirwad whereas KulaVadhu discusses the problems of a female artist. Taking into consideration the change in the taste of the audiences, he incorporated five-six popular genre cinema-like songs in each of his plays. They were simple to understand and easy to sing and hence were preferred over the traditional NatyaSangeet instantly. Realistic setting, dramatic dialogues and light hearted themes made his plays very famous in his times. Majhe ghar, KanyaDaan and Vahini also ran successfully in theatres.
Doosra Peshwa, Vaijayanti and Kounteya are examples of plays V. V. Shirwadkar wrote between 1947 and 1954. He also adapted Shakespeare’s Macbeth into Marathi by the name Rajmukut. In that period, on one hand his plays show Khadilkar’s influence on his style of writing but on the other hand they have been staged in modern styles. Hence these plays are considered to be very important to have served as the link between tradition and modernity on Marathi stage.

P. L. (PuLa) Deshpande also wrote interesting plays like Tuka Mhane Aata (1948), Ammaldaar (1952), Bhagyawan (1953) and Tuza Aahe Tujpashi (1957) in the first decade after independence. Amongst these, Tuza Aahe Tujpashi is the one was most successful. It is even staged by various groups even today. It is a complex mixture of several cultural issues.

Baban Prabhu wrote farcical plays in the same period. Zopi Gelela Jaga Zala (1958) and Dinuchya Sasubai Radhabai (1960) are two farces by Prabhu that achieved tremendous success on the Marathi stage. Such farces were instrumental in bringing certain flexibility on Marathi stage in terms of incorporating a different kind of wit and humour in the scripting and the free acting style.

The likes of Bal Kolhatkar and Madhusudan Kalelkar became well known for their family dramas or living room dramas. These kinds of plays were a hit amongst the masses. Thousands of shows of Kolhatkar’s Waahato Hi Durvanchi Jodi have been performed till date.

Around the mid-sixties novelists and litterateurs like G. N. Dandekar, Vyankatesh Madgulkar and S. N. Pendse wrote for the stage. They even adapted their own novels like Shitu, PavanaKaathcha Dhondi, Raje Mastar, Garambicha Bapu, Yashoda etc. into plays.

The decade between 1955 and 1965 saw Marathi drama open new avenues for itself with the likes of Vijay Tendulkar, Vasant Kanetkar, Jaywant Dalvi, S. N. Pendse, Vidyadhar Gokhale, Ratnakar Matkari and P. L. Deshpande starting off as playwrights. The journey from tradition to modernity had begun. Revolutionary plays like Khanolkar’s Ek Shunya Bajirao (1966) and Tendulkar’s Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe (1967) changed the course of the Marathi theatre tradition. This period also saw theatre personalities like Madhukar Toradmal - Sainik Navacha Manus, Kaley Bet Laal Batti, Jhunj, Tarun Turka Mhatare Ark etc. and Purshottam Darvhekar - Warhadi Mansa (1964), Abol Jhali Sataar (1968), Katyaar Kalajaat Ghusali etc. emerge as playwrights and directors. The commercial drama scene brightened up with V. V. Shirwadkar’s Aamcha Naav Baburav, Natasamraat, Vidushak and Veej Mhanali Dhartila as well as by the plays written by Suresh Khare and S. N. Navare.
Vasant Kanetkar set a new benchmark as a commercial theatre playwright with the quality of his plays as well as the number of shows that were done of his plays like Vedyacha Ghar Unhat, Raigadala Jevha Jaag Yete, Ithe Oshalalaa Mrutyu, Vishavrukshaachi Chhaya and Himalayachi Savali. Kanetkar wrote plays on a variety of themes and tackled a wide array of issues through his plays. His control over the design of a play and ease in dialogue structure make his plays special. He can be said to be the most popular playwright ever on the commercial Marathi stage.
The first playwright responsible to take Marathi plays beyond the frontiers of Maharashtra and even India was Vijay Tendulkar. Plays like Gidhade, Sakharam Binder, Baby, Ghashiram Kotwal, Mitrachi Goshta, Kamala, Ashi Paakhare Yeti etc. created ripples throughout Maharashtra and elsewhere. Tendulkar stretched the limits of daring and experimentation in an otherwise conventional theatre tradition. An in-depth understanding of the medium enabled him to go beyond the boundaries of the Marathi language. He realistically portrayed the complex relation between the common man and society with all its nuances and intricacies. Neither was he in search of simplistic resolutions to problems that exist in society, nor did he find naïve and convenient endings to his plays, hence making his art large.
Jaywant Dalvi made the commercial audiences watch plays and think about them differently with thought provoking plays such as Sabhya Gruhastaho and Sooryaasta. He also adapted his novels into plays like SandhyaChhaya, Mahasagar and Barrister.
The generation of playwrights that followed included names like Mahesh Elkunchwar, Satish Alekar and G. P. Deshpande. Elkunchwar experimented with form in his plays Garbo, VaasanaKand, Party and RaktaPurush. His trilogy Wada and Atmakatha talks about the complexity in interpersonal relations and the rising communication gap between individuals. He used humour, wit, sarcasm and verse to achieve the desired effect.

Satish Alekar brought freshness into Marathi theatre with his one-act plays like Bhajan, Jhulta Pool, Bhinta and Walan and plays like Mickey ani Memsaheb. Through personal experiences, Alekar tackled the absurdity in his times in the middle class in Pune and its lifestyle using black comedy as a tool in his play MahaNirvan. He has portrayed the problems of hangover of the Sangeet-Natak tradition and the problems pertaining to the middle class in Begum Barve. Mahapur is an excellent work on issues of the youth, the trauma of heartbreak and ideological differences between two generations.

Udhwasta Dharmashala a play written by G. P. Deshpande was staged first in 1974. This play is a verbal political play considered to be a very important play to have been written in the 70s. a few other important plays written and staged in the 70s were Chal Re Bhoplya Tunuk Tunuk by Achyut Vaze, Thank You Mister Glad, HamidaBaichi Kothi and Putrakameshti by Anil Barve and Ti Phulrani and Teen Paishyacha Tamasha by P. L. Deshpande.

Important plays written after 1985 include Kon Mhanto Takka Dila by Sanjay Pawar, Chahul and Charchaughi by Prashant Dalvi, Adhaantar by Jayant Pawar, Kirvant by Premanand Gajvi, Mumbaiche Kavle, Shobhayatra and Samadvibhaj Trikon by Shafaat Khan, Chaarshe Koti Visarbhole and Surya Pahilela Manus by Makarand Sathe, Wata-Palwata by Datta Bhagat, Saavalya by Chetan Datar and Sathecha Kaay Karaycha by Rajiv Naik.

Rajiv Naik has also written theoretical books on Marathi theatre. Naatakatil Mithak and Khel Naatakacha are two such books which discuss in detail the concept in theatre such as time, space etc.
The amount of theatre that is being done on the commercial as well as parallel stage in Marathi is very encouraging. The Marathi theatre scene is the most happening in the whole of India.
www.artists-india.com
www.wikipedia.com
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Bal Gandharva, artist par excellence of Marathi Sangitnatak.

Bal Gandharva was born in the year 1885. But there is some controversy between 1885 and 1886. He was born Narayan Shripad Rajhans in Pune, he had a sweet cherubic face and divine voice, started singing at public functions as a boy, and, heard by nationalist leader Bal GangadharTilak

Bal Gangadhar Tilak was felicitated by him as Bal Gandharva as `young celestial singer`.

He joined the Kirloskar Natak Mandali in 1905 and breathed new life into it with the roles of Kirloskar`s established heroines Shakuntala in Shakuntat and Subhadra in Sanbhadra, and created the brave-yet-coy part of Bhamini in Khadilkar`s Manapaman i.e. `Honour and Dishonour` in 1911.

In 1913 Bal Gandharva established his own Gandharva Natak Mandali in partnership with Govindrao Tembe and Ganesh Bodas, who trained him in acting, and playwrights Khadilkar and Deval. The range of his characters was wide, from mythological to historical and social, but always emotionally expressive. His classical roles included Subhadra, Shakuntala, and Devyani or Khadilkar`s Vidyaharan, his domestic ones Bhamini, Sharada i.e. Deval`s Sharada, Revati i.e. Deval`s Samshaykallot, Sarojini i.e. S. K. Kolhatkar`s Mukanayak, and the unforgettable, self-sacrificing Sindhu in Gadkari`s Ekach pyala i.e. `Just One Glass` in 1919. The elegance of his female impersonation made middle-class women emulate his style and costume, particularly the fashionable coiffures and drape of his saris. His posture epitomized the classical tribhangi i.e. thrice bent` pose of head and legs gently angled to the body, looking with three-quarters profile at the spectators. He influenced and set standards of aesthetic sensibility even for movies. But after entering cinema by portraying the male saint-poet Eknath in Dharmatma i.e. `Soul of Dharma` in 1935, he soon rejected film acting as uncomfortable.

Bal Gandharva learnt classical music from Bhaskarbuwa Bakhle and employed it in evoking various rasas with unsurpassed dramatic intensity. He popularized Hindustani and Carnatic classical by basing his songs on authentic forms such as khayal, thumri, dadra, and ghazal, thereby reaching classical music from the concert halls into kitchens and women`s rooms. He founded a vocal idiom conducive to acting with his clear, melodious voice, sense of rhythm, and endearing modulations. According to Tembe, he managed to achieve an impossible synthesis of organ and sarangi i.e. instruments completely diverse in nature and in his singing. Gandharva Natak Mandali also launched such great vocalists as Pandharpurkar Buwa, Vinayakrao Patwardhan, and `Master` Krishnarao, and accompanists like Ahmadjan Tirakawa in tabla and Kadar Baksh in sarangi. Unfortunately, Bal Gandharva`s extravagant tastes in personal and professional life led him into heavy debts. He was too proud to accept a purse of Rs 1.5 lakh collected by his rich fans. His company was famed for lavish sets such as arches and staircases, carpets, and period furniture, drapery of satin, velvet, and gold, the stage sprayed with perfume, and production budgets up to Rs 75,000. It carried on the work started by Kirloskar in popularizing Sangitnatak and eventually dominated the genre. However, after the emergence of realistic Marathi theatre it gradually lost its hold. Ironically, Bal Gandharva left it in 1944 to perform elsewhere. He married the singer-actress Goharbai in 1955, and lived in retirement in Bombay. This famous theatre personality died in the year of 1967.
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