Balwant Moreshwar Babasaheb Purandare was a noted Indian writer, poet, storyteller, narrator, author, playwright, novelist, historian, and theatre personality from Maharashtra and an authority on the 17 th century Maratha King Chhatrapati Shivaji.
Born in Saswad near Pune, his passion from childhood about the Maratha empire history, battles, and the fort ramparts were shaped hearing his father’s stories of the warrior king at Kondhana (Sinhagad Fort).
For the next nine decades, his sole preoccupation was to study and chronicle every little piece of information. Never claiming to be a historian, he would however be honoured as Shiv Shahir (Shivaji’s Bard), the warrior king’s living embodiment across Maharashtra.
He authored a vast repertoire of books, focused mostly on Shivaji. His earlier writings were published in a book titled Thingya (Sparks). In a prolific 50-year writing career, Purandare wrote almost 36 books, including a two-volume 900-page biography titled Raje Shivchhatrapati in Marathi, published in the late 1950s going through numerous reprints.
There was no fort, structure, or historical area conquered by Shivaji that Purandare didn’t study and trek to. He meticulously preserved every little acquisition – documents, weapons — for posterity.
Honing his research skills with renowned historians at Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal, he single-handedly brought alive the epoch of Shivaji through 12,000 lectures over seven decades, in India and abroad.
History seemed exciting when Purandare took the podium. Narrating with passion, stories of each fort the King held without reference notes, his knowledge and oratory would bring the life and times of Shivaji alive. His words were grounded in solid proof, yet lucid.
He felt one needed to be obsessed with history to understand it. He never encouraged deification for its sake. “I love Shivaji Maharaj, but I am not his pujari (priest) or his gulam (slave). I am enamoured with his intellect, his bravery, and his wisdom. But most of all, I am in awe of his idea of nation-building”, he enunciated.
In Rome and London, he watched grand Roman ballets, held in open area theatres with huge sets, numerous extras, and even live animals, especially inspired by Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap and observing its sound design. That gave him the idea of creating a show around Shivaji’s life.
With no parallel in Indian theatre, he penned, conceived, and directed a historical mammoth 3-hour mega extravaganza Janata Raja (1985), with spectacular production values. It was performed by over 200 artistes, several horses, and elephants. It has been since translated and enacted in different languages and performed more than 3,000 times across in India as also in the US.
In the past few years, Purandare, a Brahmin, was targeted by Maratha outfits, accusing him of distorting history and sullying the reputation of the warrior king by casting aspersions on his parentage and of writing the history with a Brahminical pro RSS prism.
It reached a crescendo after Purandare’s biography of Shivaji formed the research basis of American scholar James Laine’s book – Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India, published in 2003. Sambhaji Brigade vandalised the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) in Pune, in protest. An unfazed Purandare refused to give clarifications.
He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan (2019) and the Maharashtra Bhushan (2015). For drama, he was awarded the Kalidas Samman by the Madhya Pradesh Government (2007–08).
A freedom fighter in the Dadra Nagar Haveli liberation movement, he was also one of the earliest ideologues of Bal Thackeray’s Shiv Sena in the 1970s. His autobiography Bel Bhandara was authored by Sagar Deshpande. The Wax Museum, Lonavala has his wax statue.
He passed away aged 99 and was given a state funeral. His late wife Nirmala was a veteran social activist. He is survived by two sons and a daughter