Sambhajiraje, historians rail against Waghya dog statue in Raigad Fort

In a letter to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Sambhajiraje said, "There is absolutely no historical basis for any such 'Waghya' dog during the era of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj"

The statue is located close to the samadhi of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (Express Photo)

FORMER MP Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati, the descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and historians, have urged the state government to remove the statue of the dog Waghye from Raigad fort. The statue is located close to the samadhi of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

In a letter to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Sambhajiraje said, “There is absolutely no historical basis for any such ‘Waghya’ dog during the era of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. The statue of the dog has no mention in history. The dog’s statue has hurt the sentiments of the followers of the Shivaji Maharaj. It is a betrayal to the history of the Maratha Warrior King and therefore it should be removed from Raigad fort. We demand that the statue be removed by May 31. We are giving enough time to the state government to think about it and remove it.”

Historian Shrimant Kokate said, “Waghya dog has no mention in the contemporary reference books of the era of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. The statue was apparently erected in 1936… It first came to light through the play of Ramesh Ganesh Gadkari. It was a creation of his imagination.” Kokate said false stories have been spread for decades that the dog jumped into the funeral pyre of the Maratha Warrior King.

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Kokate said the demand to remove the statue is an old one. “First it was made by Sambhaji Brigade more than a decade ago. We fully support the demand by Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati. We hope the government will do the needful and not fall prey to false narratives,” he said.
Historian Indrajit Sawant has also urged the state government to act on the request of Sambhajiraje.

“Though there are no historical references available or documents to the existence of ‘Waghya’, a statue has been erected in his memory and that too close to the samadhi of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. It is an insult to the great king… In the entire life period of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, there is no mention of the existence of the dog… It is surprising that the statue is also getting protection.”

Lahu Landge, an activity of Maratha Kranti Morcha said, “This is a conspirancy by those who worked against Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj during his regime. There were some people who had joined hands with Aurangzeb and the same mindsets are behind the setting up of the statue of the dog. The dog has no relations to the Shivaji Maharaj’s era. Yet it has a statute near the samadhi of the Maratha warrior king. It is a creation of the imagination of people who tried to demean his great achievements in the face of several odds.”

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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