01A mother’s cure, a Peshwa’s hill
Before the Peshwas the hill held only a small Devi shrine of the local Taware family. Kashibai, mother of Balaji Bajirao, suffered from a painful leg, and the account goes that the angara, the sacred ash, of this Devi relieved her. In gratitude the Peshwa bought the hill and from 1749 raised a temple complex on its top: the Devdeveshwar temple of Shiva, with silver murtis of Shiva, Parvati and Ganesh, and shrines of Vishnu, Kartikeya and Vitthal around it. A wide stone stairway of 108 steps, easy enough for elephants, climbs from the foot.
02After Panipat
On 14 January 1761 the Maratha army was destroyed at Panipat; the Peshwa’s son Vishwasrao and his cousin Sadashivrao Bhau were among the dead. The coded message that reached Nanasaheb spoke of two pearls dissolved and twenty-seven gold coins lost. He never recovered. He withdrew to Parvati and died there in June 1761. A small museum on the hill keeps Peshwa-era objects, and from the top the whole of old Pune lies spread out below.
The life of this place
- 1749Nanasaheb Peshwa begins the Devdeveshwar temple on Parvati hill.
- June 1761Nanasaheb Peshwa dies at Parvati after the defeat at Panipat.
- 1817The last Peshwa, Bajirao II, is said to have watched the battle of Khadki from the hill.
The steps start from Parvati Paytha in south Pune; the climb takes about 15 minutes. Mornings are cool and the view is clear.
