LEST WE FORGET

Parvati Hill temple complex

Nanasaheb Peshwa

Artist William Simpson’s impression of Prince of Wales arriving on Parvati Hill in a howdah

Raghunathrao

Parvati Hill

For close to 270 years, the one feature that arrests the broad sweep of the eye across the Pune horizon is the hill temple complex of Parvati. The reigning deity of Parvati was reputed to have curative powers and sometime in the 1740s,’s mother, who suffered from a leg ailment, went to worship the deity. She felt better and the Peshwa decided to build a temple complex there.Nanasaheb was a man of refined taste and built and beautified the city of Pune. On Parvati, he began by building the temple of Devadeveshwar in 1749, consisting of a central Shiv temple and four temples in the four corners — a temple of the Sun seen riding a seven horse chariot, one of the elephantheaded Ganesh, the third, of Parvati as Bhavani, and the last, of Vishnu in the form of Janardan. The Peshwa planned it so that the five chief sects among Hindus who worshipped these deities would find the subjects of their devotion in a single complex.It is said that Nanasaheb obtained the slippers of his king, Chhatrapati Shahu, and placed these under the deity. The chief deity of Shiva was placed behind a shivling. The idol was made of solid silver. The idols of Parvati on the left and Ganesh on his right are made of pure gold. In 1760, a gold pinnacle was added to the temple. Pune was always an open city and whenever subjected to an enemy attack, the deity was shifted to the fort of Sinhagad for safety. When the British captured Sinhagad in 1818 after a four-month-long siege, the idols fell into their hands along with considerable treasure. The British took over the rest of the booty, but wisely handed over the idol to the Parvati priests and these were then restored in the temple. What the invaders did not destroy, however, was finally effected by thieves who stole the original idol in 1932. It was never recovered and a replacement was created based on a photograph, which we see today.Under the Devadeveshwar Temple is a subterranean room that has been subject to various interpretations. A series of explorations in the 1930s found some tunnels that meandered underneath the complex. The tunnels are blocked with brick walls and seem indicative of an older complex under the Parvati temples. There is speculation that Nanasaheb used this room for a ‘suvarna-tula’, to weigh himself in gold that was then given in charity. In the 1750s, the Peshwa added the temple of Madhav-Vishnu at Parvati, so identified by the order in which the shell, mace, lotus and chakra are arranged in the idol. The Peshwa’s younger brother,, is credited with having built the temple dedicated to Kartikeya, the six-headed son of Shiva. Unlike many other places, however, the Parvati devasthan does not restrict women from entering or worshipping at the temple of Kartikeya.The old palace of the Peshwa stands on Parvati to this day. A 250-year-old Plumeria tree still grows next to it. It is in this palace that Nanasaheb Peshwa breathed his last and where a simple memorial was built. A square outside the memorial has been devoted to the memory of those who laid down their lives at the Battle of Panipat on January 14, 1761 and there are plans afoot to make a larger Panipat memorial.Halfway up the hill of Parvati are old caves, about 40 feet wide. These caves have now become reservoirs of water that seep through the rock. Peshwa Bajirao II also attempted to build a waterway from the hills at Dhankavadi, but the work was never completed. He built the stone steps to ascend the hill that we see today. As one climbs the wide, gently climbing steps of Parvati, one can see a platform where a lady had committed ‘sati’. Britain’s Edward VII, then the Prince of Wales, visited Parvati on November 15, 1875, enjoying an elephant ride to climb the hill. The stately procession suffered a blip when the prince’s beast slipped on the 57th step and caused a minor injury to the royal occupants in the howdah.The temples onhave been witness to many of Pune’s triumphs and travails. It was from this temple that Bajirao II watched his army vanquished at Khadki in 1817. It was this temple that Narayanrao Peshwa visited on the morning of the day he was assassinated. And the temples were also witness to the growth of an Empire that once extended from Attock to Cuttack and Kumaon to the Cauvery.