01A boy’s oath before Bhavani
Damodarpant Savarkar and Radhabai had three sons and a daughter in their house at Bhagur: Ganesh, called Babarao, Vinayak, Narayan and Maina. Their mother died when Vinayak was nine, and plague took their father in 1899. Savarkar wrote later that as a boy, moved by the hanging of the Chapekar brothers, he stood before the family’s Bhavani in this house and swore to fight for freedom till his last breath. In 1899 he and Babarao formed the Mitra Mela at Nashik, which grew into Abhinav Bharat.
02The wada today
The old two-storey house with its courtyard was taken over and restored as the Swatantryaveer Savarkar Smarak, and it keeps the family’s rooms, the shrine corner and photographs of the brothers’ lives, from India House in London to the Cellular Jail. Bhagur lies beside Deolali cantonment, about 15 km from Nashik, and on Savarkar’s birth anniversary, 28 May, the town holds processions and lectures in his memory.
The life of this place
- 28 May 1883Vinayak Damodar Savarkar is born at Bhagur.
- 1899Savarkar and his brother found the Mitra Mela at nearby Nashik.
