When Purandare spoke, he brought Shivaji Maharaj to life before the audience

PUNE: Babasaheb Purandare lived for and breathed Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. His 10-volume Shivcharitra Raja Shivchhatrapati, thousands of lectures and the epic play Janata Raja not only took the illustrious life and battles of valour of the Maratha king to every household in Maharashtra and beyond, but also infused the ideals of the mighty warrior in the very conscience of the people.
Purandare, an eminent history scholar, passed away at 5.07am in a Pune hospital of old-age related pneumonia on Monday. He was 99. The last rites were performed at Vaikunth crematorium with state honours.
For more than seven decades, Purandare was a Shivaji Maharaj bard (Shivshahir). But his words were grounded in solid proof and facts. He had trekked to hundreds of forts that the Maratha king had conquered and had visited every home that could give him original documents, a weapon or anything connected to Shivaji Maharaj. He meticulously preserved every little acquisition with great love for posterity.
History never seemed dull or dry when Purandare took the podium. His powerful oratory brought to life his idol before the audience who always felt as if they were witnessing the life of Shivaji Maharaj unfold before their eyes.
Purandare honed his research skills under the guidance of renowned historians G H Khare and Shankarrao Joshi at Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal, a place of eminence in history in Pune. He was a poet, an excellent story-teller and narrator, an author, a playwright and a novelist. His participation in the Dadra Nagar Haveli liberation movement made him a freedom fighter too.
He celebrated his 99th birthday three months ago. At a felicitation, Purandare said, “One needs to be obsessed with history if one wants to understand it. I love Shivaji Maharaj, but I am not his pujari (priest) or his gulam (slave). I am enamoured with his intellect, his bravery and his wisdom. But most of all, I am in awe of his idea of nation building,” Purandare had then said.
Renowned humorist P L Deshpande captured the essence of Purandare’s greatness in his pen sketch in the book ‘Gangoat’.
Deshpande wrote: Babasaheb took the life of Shivaji Maharaj to the most common people in an easy-to-understand and vivid language, but he never lost sight of the fact that history research is a science. He displayed the openness of mind to study new material and incorporate it in his writings provided it was based on facts and solid proof, he said.
Deshpande was appreciative of Purandare’s command over details which ensured that history did not get disconnected from the present. “He reads literature with equal interest. He can watch a Hindi film, listen to Radio Ceylon, attend classical music concerts and knows the score of a cricket match. While trekking to forts, he takes equal interest in the birds that nest there or the flowers that bloom,” Deshpande wrote.
Purandare was so immersed in the life of Shivaji Maharaj that he could almost see some of the events from his life unfold while commuting on Pune’s roads.
Deshpande recalled one such instance in his pen sketch: “We were travelling in a car on the road below the Nava Pul and going towards Sambhaji Park. When we passed the Rokdoba temple near Congress Bhavan, Babasaheb told me to stop. ‘See that spot? Shivaji Maharaj's horses had waited there for him. It was April 6, 1663. Maharaj had severed the fingers of Shahiste Khan at Lal Mahal and escaped. He came straight here, took his horse and rode to Sinhagad’,” wrote Deshpande, adding that one had to be prepared to get delayed while travelling with Purandare as he often ended up narrating some exciting episodes from the life of the king he adored.
Purandare leaves behind a wealth of unparalleled work on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. In his passing, the state has lost an ardent scholar.