Shaniwar Wada

Shaniwarwada (Marathi: शनिवारवाडा) is a palace fort in the city of Pune in western Maharashtra, India. It covers six and a quarter acres in central Pune. It was constructed in 1732 as the seat of the Peshwa (prime ministers of the Maratha Empire), and remained the political capital of the Empire until its annihilation. The fort itself was largely destroyed in 1828 by an unexplained fire, but has the surviving structures are now maintained as a tourist and archaeological site.

Construction

Peshwa Baji Rao I, prime minister to Chattrapati Shahu, king of the Maratha empire, laid the ceremonial foundation of his own residence (with a handful of earth) on Saturday, January 10, 1730. It was named "Shaniwarwada" from the Marathi words"Shaniwar" (Saturday) and "Wada" (a general term for any residence complex). Teak was imported from the jungles of Junnar, stone was brought from the nearby quarries of Chinchwad, and lime 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.

The opening ceremony was performed according to Hindu religious customs, on January 22, 1732, another Saturday chosen for being a particularly auspicious day.

Later Peshwe made several additions, including the fortification walls, with bastions and gates; court halls and other buildings; fountains and reservoirs. Currently, the perimeter fortification wall has five gateways and nine bastion towers, enclosing a garden complex with the foundations of the original buildings.

Fort complex

Gates

Shaniwarwada has five gates:
* "Dilli Darwaza" (Delhi Gate), facing north:The "Dilli Darwaza" is the main gate of the complex, and faces north towards Delhi. Chhatrapati Shahu is said to have considered the north-facing fort a sign of Baji Rao's ambitions against the Mughal empire, and suggested that the main gate should be made "chhaatiiche, maatiche naahi!" (Marathi: of the chests of brave soldiers, not mere mud).

:The strongly built "Dilli Darwaza" gatehouse has massive doors, large enough to admit elephants outfitted with howdahs (seating canopies). To discourage elephants charging the gates, each pane of the gate has 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. Each pane was also fortified with steel cross members, and borders were bolted with steel bolts having sharpened cone heads. The bastions flanking the gatehouse has arrow-loops and machicolation chutes through which hot substances could be poured onto offending raiders. The right pane has a small man-sized door for usual entries and exits, too small to allow an army to enter rapidly.

:Even if the main gates were to be forced open, a charging army would need to turn sharply right, then sharply left, to pass through the gateway and into the central complex. This would provide a defending army with another chance to attack the incoming army, and to launch a counterattack to recapture the gateway.

:As the ceremonial gate of the fort, military campaigns would set out from and be received back here, with appropriate religious ceremonies.

* "Mastani Darwaja" (Mastani's Gate) or "Alibahadur Darwaja", facing north:This gate was used by Bajirao's mistress Mastani while travelling out of the palace's perimeter wall.

*"Khidki Darwaja" (Window Gate), facing east:The "Khidki Darwaja" is named for an armoured window it contains.

*"Ganesh Darwaja" (Ganesh Gate), facing south-east:Named for the Ganesh Rang Mahal, which used to stand near this door. It could be used by ladies at the fort to visit the nearby Kasba Ganapati temple.

*"Jambhul Darwaja" or "Narayan Darwaja" (Narayan's Gate), facing south:This gate was used by concubines to enter and leave the fort. It obtained its second name after Narayan Peshwa's corpse was removed from the fort for cremation through this gate.

Palaces

The important buildings in the palace included the "Thorlya Rayancha Diwankhana" (Marathi:The court reception hall of the eldest royal, meaning Baji Rao I), "Naachacha Diwankhana" (Dance Hall), and "Juna Arsa Mahal" (Old Mirror Hall).

Since the buildings were destroyed in the fire of 1828, only descriptions of the living areas of the fort are available. All the state halls in the buildings are said to have doorways 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. Exquisite glass chandeliers hung from the ceilings. The floors were made of highly polished marble, arranged in a mosaic pattern and adorned with rich Persian rugs. The walls contained paintings with scenes from the Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

The buildings are said to have been designed and constructed by many well-known artisans, including Shivaram Krishna, Devaji, Kondaji Sutar, Morarji Patharwat Bhojraja (an inlay-work expert from Jaipur) and Ragho (a painter).

One of the buildings in the Shaniwarwada complex was seven storeys high. It is said that the spire of the Sant Dnyaneshwar temple at Alandi, 17 km away, could be seen from the uppermost terrace of this building.

The Fountain

The complex had an impressive lotus-shaped fountain: the "Hazaari Kaaranje" (Fountain of a thousand jets). It was constructed for the pleasure of the infant Peshwa Sawai Madhavrao. It was designed as a sixteen petal lotus; each petal had sixteen jets with an eighty foot arch. It was the most complicated and intricate fountain of its time.Fact|date=May 2008

Captain Moore who visited the Shaniwarwada 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.”.

History

By 1758, at least a thousand people lived in the fort.

In June 1818, the Peshwa, Bajirao II, abdicated his "Gadi" (throne) to Sir John Malcolm of the United Kingdom and went into political exile at Bithoor, near Kanpur in present-day Uttar Pradesh, India.

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.