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In 1642, when Shahajiraje Bhosale shifted his family to Pune, as he left to take up an assignment in the southern part of Bijapur Sultanate, he brought them to a specially built palace that came to be known as Lal Mahal. At this time, his son, the future Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, was 12 years old. He would go on to spend his formative years in the mansion with his mother Jeejabai.
As per historians, Shahaji constructed the palace on land bought from Zambare Patil, a little distance from the existing village but close to the temple of the village deity Ganesha, now known as Kasba Ganpati.
The original palace not only had arrangements for the family’s stay, but also for a small troop for which it was equipped with horse sheds and an animal shed. Since it was constructed in red (lal) bricks it got the name ‘Lal Mahal’, historians said.
Chhatrapati Shivaji lived here until 1657 when he shifted base to Rajgad in the hilly outskirts of Pune soon after he began military campaigns to acquire important forts in the Deccan.
As per historian Pandurang Balkawade, Marathas lost Pune in 1660 to Mughals, following which General Shaista Khan camped in Lal Mahal for three years.
“His occupancy of the palace ended when King Shivaji raided the place with about 400 soldiers, entering the city at night disguised as a wedding party. Several palace guards, a son of Shaista Khan and a few women from the family were killed during the raid and Khan also reportedly lost three of his fingers,” said Balkawade.
Following the debacle, Emperor Aurangzeb removed Khan from Pune unceremoniously and he left Pune on the third day of the raid.
In the following century, as succession battles ensued and the power seat shifted and Kolhapur to Satara, the palace suffered huge damage due to neglect. The city was captured by Marathas in 1717, whereupon the Peshwas made Pune the seat of power in 1730. During this time, the dilapidated palace became an ‘ambarkhana’—a storehouse of grains and for elephant-carriages or ‘ambaris’.
Historians also cite references that Bajirao Peshwa had directed two of his statesmen—Ramoji Shinde and Ramchandra Pant Shenvi—to construct a new building at the spot. It is not known what became of these orders. By the second half of the 19th century, the dilapidated structure had further been reduced to ruins.
Narayan Vishnu Zoshi, writing in Pune Shahrache Varnan in 1868, says, “The ‘Lal Mahal’ is presently called ‘ambarkhana’. One can see that Lal Mahal was a well–constructed building with many large underground chambers, of which, some can still be seen there.”
A description of the remains of Lal Mahal is also found in ‘Glimpses of India: A Grand Photographic History of the Land of Antiquity – the Vast Empire of the East’ was published in 1895, edited by JH Furneaux. “…Parts of it (Lal Mahal) still remain, and some ground-floor rooms, those walls of enormous thickness are almost untouched by the rude hand of time which has destroyed the rest, and even where the building has disappeared, foundations remain, which serve to show its size and shape,” reads the description.
As per the Gazetteer of Bombay State published in 1954, the Mahal acquired the name ‘Ambarkhana’ during the Peshwa period after Ambaris – elephant-mounted carriages – were stored there. “Nothing remains now of the old palace or of the Ambarkhana,” says the Gazetteer.
By 1954, a garden had bloomed at the place which was dedicated to the memory of Jijamata. The Gazetteer describes the municipal garden thus: “Covering an area of about half an acre in the vicinity of the Ganpati temple in Kasba Peth, this pretty municipal garden perpetuates the memory of Jijabai aka Jijau, the revered mother of Shivaji the Great.”
As per Balkawade, on popular demand, the PMC decided to construct a replica of Lal Mahal as a memorial to Chhatrapati Shivaji and Jijau in the late 1980s.
“The progress was painfully slow. Hanuman Amrale and I went on a hunger strike to press for faster completion. After it was finally completed, we formed the Lal Mahal Utsav Samiti under his presidency. We carry out various activities around events such as Jijau Jayanti, Shiv Rajyabhisek, Shiv Jayanti, the anniversary of the Shaiste Khan raid,” said Balkawade.
Recently, in a fresh project, PMC has built a new fort-like stone compound along with a front gate. The second-floor gallery will now host a permanent exhibition of Shivaji-era arms and ammunition, and correspondence of Maratha rulers.
Charudatta Kadu, who owns a shop right opposite the Lal Mahal, is witness to the transformation of the place over the last few decades. “When we were young, the sprawling Jijamata Garden extended over the entire area. In the 1980s, the replica of Lal Mahal was built in the premises. The garden still exists in the remaining area and is privy only to women and children,” he says. “I believe the original Lal Mahal would have been much larger. This replica is very small,” he adds.
