Work on victory pillar begins near Pune

Express-Nagarik Wadgaon Vijaystambh Pratisthan, a trust formed jointly by prominent citizens of Pune and The Indian Express, plans to erect the victory pillar and a lifesize statue of Mahadji Shinde at Wadgaon and a tableau of five life-size statues depicting the surrender by the Britishers at the popular hill resort of Khandala, where the Maratha army led by Mahadji Shinde, the founder of the Gwalior dynasty of Scindias, intercepted the supply line of the invading East India Company and humbled its army.

In fact, the Pratisthan claims that both the victory memorial and the tableau of statues at Khandala will be unique. Nowhere in the world is there any such tableau depicting the defeat of a colonial army before one from the third world.

The Pratisthan has consciously avoided a modern European design for the 25-ft high victory memorial, and instead chosen the traditional tower of lamps, typical of Maharashtra and Karnataka. Stones for the victory memorial have been carved at Kolhapur in south Maharashtra. The deep-maal is a scaled-down replica of a tower of lamps erected nearly 250 years ago at Jyotiba temple complex in Kolhapur district by Mahadji’s father Ranoji Shinde (Scindia).

Erection of the victory memorial at Wadgaon has been facilitated by Wadgaon Maval group gram panchayat, Shrimant Mahadji Shinde Pratisthan of Wadgaon and the cooperative housing society of primary teachers which owned the plot of land and handed it over to the gram panchayat for the project.

MLA from Maval Digambar Bhegde performed the puja of the mangal kalas — anauspicious urn carved in stone — that is to be installed atop the victory pillar. Speaking on the occasion, Pratisthan trustee and president of Symbiosis, a leading educational institution, S.B. Mujumdar said the victory pillar at Wadgaon and the tableau of statues at Khandala will inspire Indians to give world- class performance in every field of life.

He also thanked Pratisthan trustee and leading industrialist Arun Firodia for his generous donation to the project.

“Indians are second to none” is the theme of the project which pledges to resurrect the glory of Indians in the Battle of Wadgaon, records of which were conveniently ignored by the British.

The Treaty of Wadgaon on January 16, 1779 has a unique place in the annals of the resistance that Indians put up to the establishment of British rule in India.