Nana Fadnavis

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with
Nana Sahib
.

Nana Fadnavis
Portrait of Nana Fadnavis by John Thomas Seton
BornBalaji Janardan Bhanu
12 February 1742
Satara, Maratha Empire
(Modern-day Maharashtra, India)
Died13 March 1800(1800-03-13) (aged 58)
Pune, Maratha Empire
(Modern day Maharashtra, India)
ReligionHinduism
OccupationProminent minister and statesman of the Maratha Empire during the Peshwa administration

Nana Fadnavis (Pronunciation:

Machiavelli" by the Europeans.[1]

Early life

Balaji Janardan Bhanu was born in a

Ashtapradhan) on Bhanu. Later, when the Peshwa became the de facto head of state, Phadnavis became the main minister who held key portfolios of Administration and Finance for the Maratha Empire during the Peshwa regime.[citation needed
]

Nana was the grandson of Balaji Mahadji Bhanu and had inherited his grandfather's name, keeping up with the tradition. The Peshwa treated him like family and extended to him the same facilities of education and diplomatic training as his sons,

Narayanrao. He continued to be the Phadnavis, or the finance minister, for the Peshwa.[citation needed
]

Peshwa administration

Nana Fadnavis

In 1761, Nana escaped to Pune from the

Maratha Confederacy, although he was never a soldier himself. This was a period of political instability as one Peshwa was rapidly succeeded by another, and there were many controversial transfers of power. Nana Phadnavis played a pivotal role in holding the Maratha Confederacy together in the midst of internal dissension and the growing power of the British East India Company.[citation needed
]

Peshwa Madhav Rao Narayan with Nana Fadnavis
Peshwa Madhav Rao Narayan with Nana Fadnavis

Nana's administrative, diplomatic, and financial skills brought prosperity to the Maratha Empire and his management of external affairs kept the Maratha Empire away from the thrust of the British East India Company. He displayed his best warfare skills in various battles won by Maratha forces against the Nizam of Hyderabad, Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan of Mysore, and the English Army.[citation needed] However, Nana's policy of fighting the Mysoreans, forming a confederation against Tipu Sultan in the Third Anglo-Mysore War with Hyderabad and the British, weakened Tipu Sultan, whose advanced armies had at that point been the bulwark against British control. Furthermore, his policy of remaining neutral in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, between the British and Tipu Sultan, weakened support for the latter, paving the way for British dominance in the Indian subcontinent. On hearing of the death of Tipu, Nana remarked that the Marathas had only now realized that they were next, and there was "no escape from [this] destiny".[2]

After the assassination of Peshwa

Tukojirao Holkar, Phaltankar, Bhagwanrao Pratinidhi, Maloji Ghorpade, Sardar Raste, and Babuji Naik. During this time, the Maratha Empire was significant in size with a number of vassal states under a treaty of protection who recognized the Peshwa as the supreme power.[citation needed
]

Capture of Nana Fadnavis

While visiting Daulat Rao Sindhia's camp one day in 1798, Nana was suddenly imprisoned, leading to unprecedented looting and anarchy in Pune. He was released a few months later. After a short illness, Nana died at Pune on 13 March 1800. Following his death, Peshwa Baji Rao II placed himself in the hands of the British, provoking the Second Anglo-Maratha War that began the breakup of the Maratha confederacy.[citation needed]

Menavali palace

Rear entrance to Nana Phadanvis' house (Nana phadanvis wada), which is still preserved today in the same condition as when Nana built it in 1780. Location: Menawali near Wai in Satara district of Maharashtra

Bhavan Rao Trymbak

Menavali upon Nana Phadnavis in December 1768. Nana Phadnavis settled the village and built a Wada (A mansion with inner courtyards), a Ghat (steps) leading from the mansion to the Krishna river, and two temples, one dedicated to Lord Vishnu and another to Meneshwar (मेणेश्वर) Lord Shiva. The architectural combination of a wada-type residence, a ghat on a waterbody, and a temple was typical of the Peshwa era. However, most of these palatial structures fell into disuse and disrepair after the lands and estates of the owners were taken away by the government after India became a republic in 1947. The Nana Phadnavis Wada on the bank of the river Krishna at Menavali is one of the very rare places where such a combination is preserved intact. The Nana Phadnavis wada is a large structure with six quadrangles, or courtyards, and a perimeter-protection wall. This construction of the complex was completed around 1780. Other notable wadas nearby are the Raste Wada and Ranade wada in Wai.[3]

After Nana Phadnavis died in 1800, the Peshwa

Governor of Bombay) handed over the property to Nana's descendants. The Nana Phadnavis wada today remains with his descendants. Having split the major part of his properties between themselves, the wada is still owned jointly by them all.[citation needed
]

Ghats, which were originally nothing more than simple stone steps descending into a river, evolved during the Peshwa era into an elaborate arrangement of terraces with separate areas for different activities such as bathing, washing, filling water, and performing religious rites. Temples were traditionally built on ghats.[citation needed]

Nana, being the Peshwas' "Phadnavis", transcribed and maintained their documents of accounts and administrative letters in the ancient "Modi" script. These documents, known as the famous "Menavli Daptar", were preserved in the wada at Menavali.[citation needed]

There is a dark, musty, narrow, steep staircase concealed in the metre-thick wall, leading to the floor above. The staircase was once secret and easily secured, admitting only one person at a time into Nana Phadnavis's darbar hall. Nana Phadnavis's reception "darbar" hall has an attached bedroom with a teakwood bedstead. The bedstead is an intricately carved four-poster. The floor is paved with clay and cow dung.[citation needed]

Wadas are systems of open courtyards with increased security. Nana's corridors on the upper floor are lined with teakwood lattice work. A concealed escape stairway in the wall leads out of the wada. Descending the stone steps leads to the ghat on the river Krishna. On descending the steps and turning right, one sees a peaceful and rather drab view of Pandavgarh in the distance.[citation needed]

The bell house of the Meneshwar temple houses a six-hundred-and-fifty-kilogram bell. This bell was captured by Bajirao I's brother

Portuguese fort at Bassein. Dating from 1707, the five-alloy bell bears a bas-relief of Mary carrying the infant Jesus Christ cast into it. An ancient tree with a massive coniform trunk has a platform constructed around it as old as the wada itself. This tree featured in the Bollywood movie Swades. In the movie, the village elders hold a Panchayat on the stone platform around this tree.[citation needed
]

Several Bollywood movies have been shot there, using the wada as an exotic location, notably Yudh (Jackie Shroff/Tina Munim), Mrityudand (Madhuri Dixit), Goonj Uthi Shehnai, Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehta Hain (Govinda), Gangaajal (Ajay Devgan), Sarja (Ajinkya Deo), and Swades (Shahrukh Khan, Gayatri Joshi).[4] The film crew of the movie Swades once camped at the ghat to shoot some footage. The crew cleaned and painted the old stone walls of the ghat and the temples.

Nana Fadnavis Wada

In popular culture

Notes

  1. ISBN 978-1-4088-6440-1
    .
  2. ^ Mohibbul, Hasan (1971). History of Tipu Sultan (2nd ed.). Calcutta: THE WORLD PRESS PRIVATE LTD. p. 322.
  3. ^ "Baji J. Ram Rao, Menavali".
  4. ^ "Meena Iyer tells us about Bollywood's favourite location, Wai. And why Wai locals love Bollywood". Archived from the original on 25 February 2017. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Nana Farnavis". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 160.

External links

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