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Pune district

District of Maharashtra in India

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History

Ancient and medieval history

According to archaeological discoveries of the Jorwe culture in Chandoli and Inamgaon, portions of the district have been occupied by humans since the Chalcolithic (the Copper Age, 5th–4th millennium BCE). Many ancient trade routes linking ports in western India (particularly those of coastal Konkan) with the Deccan Plateau pass through the district. The town of Junnar has been an important trading and political center for the last two thousand years, and it was first mentioned by Greco-Roman travellers in the early first millennium CE. The Karla Caves in Karli, near Lonavala, are near the Western Ghats and a major ancient trade route running eastward from the Arabian Sea to the Deccan Plateau. The caves are a complex of ancient Indian Buddhist rock-cut shrines which were developed from the second century BCE to the fifth century CE; the oldest of the shrines is believed to date to 160 BCE. Traders and Satavahana rulers financed construction of the caves. Buddhists, identified with commerce and manufacturing through their early association with traders, tended to locate their monasteries in natural formations near major trade routes to provide lodging for travelling traders. Inscriptions at Karla and Junnar suggest that in the early part of the Common Era, the area was controlled by the Shaka ruler Nahapana. Coins found further east in the district, near Indapur, suggest that the region may have been controlled by the Traikutaka king Dahragana in 465 CE; silver coins found at Junnar suggest that the region may also have been ruled by Satavahana kings.

The first reference to the Pune region is found on two copper plates, dated to 758 and 768 CE and issued by the Rashtrakuta ruler Krishna I. The plates call the region "Puny Vishaya" and "Punaka Vishaya", respectively. The Pataleshwar rock-cut temple complex was built during this time, and the area included Theur, Uruli, Chorachi Alandi, and Bhosari. The region became part of the Yadava Empire of Deogiri from the ninth to the 13th centuries.

The Muslim Khalji rulers of the Delhi Sultanate overthrew the Yadavas in 1317, beginning three hundred years of Islamic control. The Khalji were followed by another sultanate dynasty, the Tughlaqs. A Tughlaq governor on the Deccan Plateau rebelled and created the Bahamani Sultanate, which later dissolved into the Deccan sultanates. During the 1400s, Russian traveler Afanasy Nikitin spent many months in Junnar during the monsoon season and vividly describes life in the region under Bahamani rule. The fort at Chakan played an important role in the history of the Deccan sultanates. The Bahamani Sultanate broke up in the early 16th century; the Nizamshahi kingdom controlled the region for most of the century, with Junnar its first capital. During the early 1600s, the Nizam Shahi general Malik Ambar moved his capital there.

Deccan sultanates and the Bhosale jagir

The district became politically important when the Nizamshahi capital was moved to Junnar at the beginning of the 16th century. The Bhosale family received a jagir (land grant), and control of the region shifted among the Bhosale rulers, the sultanates and the Mughals during the century. The district was central to the founding of the Maratha Empire by Shivaji.

Nizamshahi

With the establishment of Nizamshahi rule, with Ahmednagar its headquarters, nearly all of the region was controlled by the Nizamshahi. It was formed into a district (or sarkar), with sub-divisions (paragana) and smaller ranges (prant or desh). Revenue collection was delegated to important chieftains of the Nizamshahi.

At Ahmednagar, the Sultan bore the brunt of a heavy attack from Mughal armies who converged on the capital in 1595. To rally the strongest possible local support against the Mughal invaders, and stabilise the territories ruled by Ahmednagar, local Maratha chieftains were given increased power. Amongst the chieftains was Maloji, who was made a raja in 1595; the districts of Pune and Supa were given to him as a jagir (fief). Maloji was also given charge of the forts at Shivneri and Chakan, which played an important role in the district's early political history.

In 1600, Ahmednagar was captured by the Mughals. Nizamshahi minister Malik Ambar raised Murtaza Nizam Shah II to the throne, with its temporary headquarters at Junnar. For nearly a generation, Ambar guided the Nizamshahi kingdom and the Pune region benefited from his leadership. By his death in 1626, the region's revenue system was sound and fair.

Bhosale jagir under the Adilshahi

The Pune region was administered as a jagir during much of the 17th century by Maloji Bhosale, his son Shahaji and his grandson Shivaji. Its nominal sovereignty changed with shifting allegiances of the Bhosale family. In 1632, Shahaji forsook the Mughals and accepted the friendship of the Adilshahi rulers of Bijapur (the traditional rivals of Ahmadnagar Sultanate).

After the fall of the Ahmadnagar (Nizamshahi) Sultanate, its territory was divided between the Adilshahi and the Mughals with Pune region going to the former. Shahaji refused to surrender Junnar (the seat of the Nizamshahi dynasty) before he finally capitulated. However, Shahaji was apparently considered important enough by the Adilshah to play a key role in the new regime's administration. His jagir was confirmed, continuing the region's connection with the Bhosale family.

Pune district under Shivaji and the Mughals

Shahaji second son, Shivaji (founder of the Maratha Empire), was born on the hill fort of Shivneri near Junnar on 19 February 1630. His mother was Jijabai, the daughter of Lakhuji Jadhavrao of Sindhkhed (a Mughal-allied sardar claiming descent from the Yadavas of Devagiri.

The Pune Jagir which was restored to Shahaji after he joined the Adilshahi service in 1637.Since he was required to be based in Bengaluru as the Adilshah commander, Shahaji selected Pune as the residence for [Jijabai and son Shivaji, and appointed Dadoji Konddeo as administrator of the Pune jagir. Konddeo oversaw the construction of their Lal Mahal palace. Konddeo established complete control over the Maval region, winning over (or subduing) most of the local Maval leaders. He rebuilt the settlement of Pune, and prominent families who had left the town during its 1631 destruction by the Adilshahi general Murar Jaggdeo returned. Among Kondadeo's reported reforms was a tax of one-fourth the cash equivalent of a land's yield, and the Fasli calendar was introduced at this time. He is said to have focused on the western Pune region, and has been credited with overseeing Shivaji's education and training. Kondadeo died in 1647, and Shivaji became his father's deputy.

Many of Shivaji's comrades (and, later, a number of his soldiers) came from the Maval region in the district's western mountains, including Yesaji Kank, Suryaji Kakade, Baji Pasalkar, Baji Prabhu Deshpande and Tanaji Malusare. Shivaji traveled the hills and forests of the Sahyadri range with his Maval friends, acquiring skills and familiarity with the land which would be useful in his military career. Around 1645, the teenaged Shivaji first expressed his concept of Hindavi Swarajya (Indian self-rule) in a letter. According to legend, he took an oath to that effect at the temple of Raireshwar near Bhor in the district.

Shivaji began his rule in 1648 of the Pune region, taking possession of the key Torna Fort and controlling the Chakan and Purandar forts and raiding Junnar. He moved his administration to the renovated Rajgad fort in 1648, and kept it there until his coronation in 1674.

During the 1660s, the Mughals under Aurangzeb began paying attention to Shivaji. Pune and the region's forts frequently changed hands between the Mughals and Shivaji. In the Treaty of Purandar (1665), signed by the Mughal general Mirza Jaisingh and Shivaji, Shivaji ceded control of a number of forts in the district to the Mughals. Shivaji recaptured many of these forts when the truce ended.

He was succeeded on the Marathi throne by his eldest son, Sambhaji, in 1680. Shortly afterwards, the Mughal army under Aurangzeb moved into the Deccan Plateau and remained there for nearly three decades. Sambhaji was captured and executed, at Aurangzeb's order, in the village of Tulapur at the confluence of the Bhima river and the Indrayani Rivers.

The period following his 1689 death was one of political ferment in the Deccan Plateau, and the Pune region experienced major fluctuations in administrative authority. Shivaji's younger son, Rajaram I, ruled after his brother's death. He spent most of his time in Gingee, fighting the Mughal siege. Before the Mughals captured Gingee, Rajaram returned to Maharashtra and died in Sinhagad in 1700. Ambikabai, one of his widows, committed sati at Rajaram's death. The Bhimthadi (or Deccani) horse was developed in the region under Maratha rule by crossing Arabian and Turkic breeds with local ponies.

Peshwa rule (1714–1818)

Shivaji's grandson, Shahu I, appointed the Chitpavan Brahmin Balaji Vishwanath as his Peshwa in 1714. Vishwanath received the area around Pune from the grateful mother of one of Shahu's ministers for saving her son's life. In 1718, Shahu sent him to Delhi to assist the Sayyads; in return for this help, Muhammad Shah (the Mughal emperor in Delhi) granted Shahu sardeshmukhi rights for Pune, Supa, Baramati, Indapur and Junnar. Shahu appointed Baji Rao I Peshwa in 1720, succeeding his father. Baji Rao moved his administration from Saswad to nearby Pune in 1728, laying the foundation for turning a kasbah into a large city. Pune grew in size and influence as Maratha rule extended through the subcontinent in subsequent decades. A well-known saying in the era before the third battle of Panipat was that the "ponies of Bhimthadi drank the water of the Indus river".

Pune under the Peshwas

Pune gained more influence under the rule of Baji Rao I's son, Balaji Baji Rao (Nanasaheb). Maratha influence waned after the disastrous 1761 Battle of Panipat, and the Nizam of Hyderabad looted the city. It (and the empire) recovered during the brief reign of Peshwa Madhavrao. The rest of the Peshwa era was rife with family intrigue and political machinations. The leading role was played by the ambitious Raghunathrao, the younger brother of Nanasaheb, who wanted power at the expense of his nephews Madhavrao I and Narayanrao. After Narayanrao's 1775 murder by order of Raghunathrao's wife, power was exercised in the name of his son Madhavrao II by a regency council led by Nana Fadnavis for most of the century. Under Peshwa rule, the urban elite came from the Chitpavan Brahmin community; they were the military commanders, the bureaucrats and the bankers, and had ties to each other by marriage.

Nanasaheb built a lake in Katraj, on the city's outskirts, and a still-operational underground aqueduct to bring water from the lake to Shaniwar Wada. The city received an underground sewage system in 1782 which discharged into the river. Pune prospered during Nanasaheb's reign. On the southern fringe of the city, he built a palace on the Parvati Hill, developed a garden known as Heera Baug, and dug a lake near the hill with a Ganesha temple on an island in its centre which is called Sarasbaug. Nanasaheb also developed new commercial, trading, and residential localities: Sadashiv Peth, Narayan Peth, Rasta Peth and Nana Peth. During the 1790s, the city had a population of 600,000. In 1781, after a city census, a household tax (gharpatti) was levied on the more affluent: one-fifth to one-sixth of the property value.

Order in Peshwa Pune was maintained by the kotwal, who was a police chief, magistrate and municipal commissioner and whose duties included investigating, levying and collecting fines for offences. The kotwal was assisted by police officers from the chavdi (police station), and clerks collected fines and paid informants who provided intelligence. Crimes included illicit affairs, violence and murder; in the case of murder, sometimes only a fine was imposed. Inter-caste or inter-religious affairs were also resolved with fines. Although the kotwal's salary was as high as 9,000 rupees per month, it included officer salaries (mainly from the Ramoshi caste). The best-known kotwal in Pune during Peshwa rule was Ghashiram Kotwal, and the city's police force was admired by European visitors.

The patronage of the Brahmin Peshwas resulted in Pune's expansion, with the construction of about 250 temples and bridges (including the Lakdi Pul and the temples on Parvati Hill). Many temples like Maruti, Vithoba, Vishnu, Mahadeo, Rama, Krishna and Ganesha temples were built during this era. Their patronage extended to 164 schools (pathshalas) in the city which taught Hindu holy texts (shastras) to Brahmin men.

Pune also had many public festivals. Major festivals were Ganeshotsav, the Deccan New Year (Gudi Padwa), Holi, and Dasara. Holi at the Peshwa court was celebrated over a five-day period. The Dakshina festival, celebrated in the Hindu month of Shravan (when millions of rupees were distributed), attracted Brahmins from throughout India to Pune. The festivals, the building of temples and temple rituals led to religion being responsible for about 15 percent of the city's economy during this period.

Peshwas and knights residing in the city had individual hobbies and interests; Madhavrao II had a private collection of exotic animals, such as lions and rhinoceros, near the Peshwe Park zoo. The last Peshwa, Baji Rao II, was a strength and wrestling enthusiast. The sport of pole gymnastics (mallakhamba) was developed in Pune under his patronage by Balambhat Deodhar. Many Peshwas and their courtiers were patrons of lavani and Maharashtrian dance, and a number of composers (such as Ram Joshi, Anant Phandi, Prabhakar and Honaji Bala) flourished during this period. The dancers primarily came from the Mang and Mahar castes. Lavani used to be essential part of Holi celebrations in the region's Peshwa courts.

Peshwa influence in India declined after the defeat of Maratha forces in the 1761 Battle of Panipat, but Pune remained the seat of power. However, the city's fortunes declined rapidly after the 1795 accession of Baji Rao II. Pune was captured by Yashwantrao Holkar in the 1802 Battle of Pune, precipitating the Second Anglo-Maratha War of 1803–1805. Peshwa rule ended with the defeat of Baji Rao II by the British East India Company, under the leadership of Mountstuart Elphinstone, in 1818.

British rule and independence

In 1818, the Pune region and the rest of the Peshwa territories came under the control of the British East India Company.One of the first tasks that the company did was to destroy Hill forts previously under Maratha control. This was to stop Maratha forces regrouping in the hills. The forts destroyed in Pune district included those in the Junnar region such Shivaji's birthplace of Shivneri, Hadsar, Narayangad, Chavand, and the important for of Sinhagad overlooking the city of Pune. The governor of the new territories, Mountstuart Elphinstone, appointed a commissioner and left the district's boundaries almost intact. Elphinstone and other British officers enjoyed Saswad and the fertile valley around it.

The annual Pandharpur Wari starts in two places in the district, namely Alandi and Dehu. In its present form the wari dates back to 1820s. At that time, Sant Tukaram's descendants, and a devotee of Sant Dnyaneshwar named Haibatravbaba Arphalkar, who was a courtier of Scindias, the Maratha rulers of Gwalior made changes to wari. Haibatravbaba's changes involved carrying the paduka in a palkhi, having horses involved in the procession, and organizing the devotees or varkaris in Dindis (Dindi stands for a specific group of varkaris.).

Company rule came to an end when, under the terms of a proclamation issued by Queen Victoria, the Bombay Presidency, Pune and the rest of British India came under the British crown in 1858.

Villages in the district saw rioting in 1875 by peasants protesting Marwari and Gujarati moneylenders. The disturbances involved peasants getting the moneylenders to burn their documents and, in some cases, torching their houses. The riots were responsible for the Bombay presidency government enacting the Deccan Agriculturists Relief Act to protect peasants from land grabbing by money lenders.

During the first and second Anglo-Maratha wars, it took four or five weeks to move materials from Mumbai to Pune. An 1804 military road constructed by the British East India Company reduced the journey to four or five days. The company built a macadam road between the two cities in 1830 which permitted mail-cart service.

A rail line from Bombay, operated by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR), reached Pune in 1858. In the following decades, the line was extended east and south of the city. The GIPR extended its line east to Raichur in 1871, where it met the Madras Railway and connected the city to Madras. The metre-gauge Pune-Miraj line was completed in 1886, making the city a rail junction. The Bombay-Poona line was electrified in the 1920s; this cut travel time between the cities to three hours, enabling day trips for events such as the Poona races. Many villages in the west, east and south of the district, such as Lonavla, Uruli Kanchan and Daund, were connected by rail.

Pune's first bus service began in 1941 with the Silver Bus Company, and Tanga (horse-drawn carriage) drivers went on strike in protest. Tangas were a common mode of public transport well into the 1950s, and bicycles were a private vehicle choice in the 1930s.

The British installed a telegraph system in Pune in 1858. According to the 1885 Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency: Poona, the city and the GIPR had telegraph offices. In 1928, a relay station was built in Khadki to relay telegraph signals for the Imperial Wireless Chain. In 1885, Pune was a post-distribution hub for the district. There were two post offices in the city, which also offered money-order and savings-bank services.

Areas east of Pune receive less rainfall than areas west of the city adjacent to the Western Ghats. To minimize drought risk, a masonry dam was built on the Mutha River at Khadakwasla in 1878. At the time, the dam was considered one of the world's largest. Two canals were dug on each riverbank to irrigate land east of the city and supply drinking water to the city and its cantonment. In 1890 Poona Municipality spent Rs. 200,000 to install water filtration works.

In the early part 20th century, hydroelectric plants were installed in the Western Ghats between Pune and Mumbai. The Poona electric-supply company, a Tata company, received power from the Khopoli (on the Mumbai side of the Ghats) and Bhivpuri plants near the Mulshi dam. Power was used to electrify trains running between Mumbai and Pune and for industrial and residential use, and a dam was built on the Velvandi River in Bhor.

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