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Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said the inauguration of the new Parliament building on May 28 will see Prime Minister Narendra Modi install a historic sceptre from Tamil Nadu next to the Lok Sabha Speaker’s seat.
Known as Sengol — derived from the Tamil word semmai, meaning righteousness, according to an official document — the sceptre is a “significant historical” symbol of Independence that signifies the transfer of power from the British to Indians, Shah told reporters.
“Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru accepted Sengol at around 10:45 pm of August 14, 1947, through the Adhinam of Tamil Nadu, it was a sign of the shift of power from Britishers to the people of our country,” he said.
Why was the Sengol given to Nehru?
Before Independence, Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy, asked Nehru if there was a ceremony that should be followed to symbolise the transfer of power, as per the official document.
The soon-to-be Prime Minister consulted C Rajagopalachari, the last Governor-General, who suggested that the newly formed nation should follow a tradition of the Chola dynasty, where the transfer of power from one king to the other was sanctified and blessed by high priests.
“The symbol (for the transfer of power) used was the handover of the ‘Sengol’ from one King to his successor,” says the document. The newly crowned ruler would be given the Sengol with an “order” to rule his subjects “fairly and justly”, it says.
How was the Sengol made?
Historian Anirudh Kanisetti, author of Lords of the Deccan: Southern India from the Chalukyas to the Cholas (2022) told The Indian Express that to arrange a sceptre, “Rajagopalachari reached out to various mutts in Tamil Nadu and it was Thiruvaduthurai Atheenam (a well-known mutt in Tanjore district) that provided it”.
According to the official document, the leader of the mutt commissioned the manufacturing of the Sengol to Chennai-based Vummidi Bangaru Chetty jewellers, and it was built by Vummidi Ethirajulu and Vummidi Sudhakar, both of whom are still alive and remember making it.
The sceptre is five feet in length and has a Nandi, Lord Shiva’s sacred bull, on the top, symbolising justice.
What happened at the ceremony?
In their book, Freedom at Midnight, Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre described a ceremony that took place in Delhi on August 14, 1947.
“One of the two (priests) bore this evening of August 14 a massive silver platter, upon which was folded a strip of white silk streaked in gold, the Pitambaram, the Cloth of God. The other carried a five-foot sceptre, a flask of holy water from the Tanjore river, a pouch of sacred ash and a pouch of boiled rice which had been offered at dawn at the feet of Nataraja, the Dancing God, in his temple in Madras,” they wrote.
The procession moved through the streets of the capital until it came to a stop in front of Nehru’s house on 17 York Road (now Moti Lal Nehru Marg).
“They (priests) sprinkled Jawaharlal Nehru with holy water, smeared his forehead with sacred ash, laid their sceptre on his arms and draped him in the Cloth of God,” Collins and Lapierre wrote.
A special song, known as Kolaru Padhigam, which was “composed by the 7th-century Tamil saint Tirugnana Sambandar”, was also rendered during the event, as per the official document. The ceremony was attended by Dr Rajendra Prasad, the would-be first President, among others.
What will happen at the new Parliament’s inauguration?
Sources told The Indian Express that as part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, the celebration of the 75th year of Indian independence, the event of August 14, 1947 will be re-enacted on May 28. The leaders of several Adheenams from Tamil Nadu will be present for the occasion. The Sengol will be purified with ganga jal, and will be handed over to Modi as a sacred symbol.
The Sengol will be installed near the Lok Sabha Speaker’s chair, and will be brought out during special events.
Is the event of August 1947 officially recorded?
Official sources in the Ministry of Culture said Time magazine published a report in its issue dated August 25, 1947. Apart from Collins and Lapierre, Yasmin Khan (The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan) also mentions the ceremony.
The officials said Indian and foreign media did report on the Sengol ceremony before and after August 14, 1947; however, with the nation ravaged by Partition and communal violence, and because the Sengol ceremony was arranged in haste without the issuance of formal orders, it remained unrecorded.
“As a result, the sacred Sengol and its vesting ceremony seem to have disappeared from the institutional memory of the Indian state,” an official said. The story emerged during the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations in Tamil Nadu last year, and came to the Prime Minister’s notice.
