Vintage Pune

The Pune Native General Library, opposite the Belbaug temple, was established in the city by Henry Brown at the insistence of the Bombay ...

The Pune Native General Library, opposite the Belbaug temple, was established in the city by Henry Brown at the insistence of the Bombay Governor, Sir George Russel Clark. To decide on this issue, a meeting was held on February 8, 1848. After making the purchases of the books to be stacked here, the library was opened in the famous Budhwar wada. Some people even donated books to the library then.

However, in the fire that razed the Budhwar wada to ashes on May 13, 1879, the library and the watch tower were destroyed. Only six books were salvaged from the site, and a file and 60 books that were with the library members remained. After this fire, the library shifted for a while to the Nagarkar wada, and then to the Walvekar wada.

On May 14, 1882, land was bought from Phadnis, of the Belbaug Sanstha, and in 1886, the construction of a two-storeyed building for the library commenced. The library flourished under the guidance of stalwarts like Lokhitwadi, Krishnashastri Chiplunkar, Kerunana Chatre, Justice M.G. Ranade and Dr. Bhandarkar.

To quote N.V. Joshi, as he described the library when it was at Budhwar wada: “At that time, there were few people who took advantage of the presence of a library, and sadly things have not changed much.

“In 1852, the library had funds amounting to Rs. 4,252.85. The expenditure incurred to purchase books was Rs. 3,684. The members paid a monthly subscription fee, and could avail of three membership schemes. From them, the library earned an approximate total of Rs. 43 every month.”

In 1868, the library stacked the following number of books: 1,800 English books worth Rs. 2,500, about 36 maps and graphs worth Rs. 200, 257 Prakrit books worth Rs. 400, 50 Parsi books worth Rs. 100. The readers also had four English and four Marathi newspapers to read…

Thanks to Brown, the city got the library, and in gratitude, he was awarded a citation that was signed by 6,000 people.