Haunted palace, Shaniwar Wada Fort, Pune, India rahulbemba.blogspot.com |
There are many strange places including some historical monuments of considerable antiquity across the globe that are shrouded in mystery and the source of mystery in those places is a controversial one. The idea of the existence of a force far beyond our world is found in all cultures, following different religions. Though the belief has been around us for a long time, a proper scientific explanation is not yet available. India being an ancient land, has lots of historical monuments, dating back to centuries and some of them are classified as haunted. These places seem to witness strange sightings of blurred images or bright light moving across the place, apparitions of women with disheveled hair, coming out of the house in white dress, or eerie voices, scary wailing, moaning (may sound like Bollywood or Kollywood ghost movies) so on and so forth. For centuries humans have a strong belief in black magic, spells, ghosts, paranormal activities, etc. No doubt such places gain notoriety and people are anxious to visit them during days and avoid visits after sunset. A night visit to such scary places would give them goosebumps or the runs. The general consensus has been that one can not discard them as figment of one's imagination.
Haunted palace, Shaniwar Wada Fort, Pune, Indianeeshu.com |
Shaniwar Wada fort built by Peshwa Bajirao I, prime minister to Chattrapati Shahu, King of the Maratha empire during the period 1730 C.E to 1732, is a well known tourist place near Pune, Maharastra, W. India. This massive fort covering 625 acres of land with several bastions and gates, was once the seat of the Maratha power. It is also one of the most haunted places in the western part of India. At night after 6 PM people are not allowed to enter the fort and a guard has been posted there to prevent the people from trespassing on the historical ground.
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According to local belief that on full moon days,
the fort comes to life by the presence of some paranormal activities. Several people claim
that the fort turns into a place of horror and disquietude, and they have heard the shrieking sounds of a 13-year-old boy in the dead of the night apparently signaling that his life was in danger. They hear a strange sound '' Kaka mala Vachwa'' (uncle save me).
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Far beyond the majestic walls of Shaniwar Wada there is a tragic story behind this strange sound coming from the fort on full moon days. In many royal families of olden days, behind the portals of power there existed shadow activities such as assassination of legal heirs, betrayal of trust, greed for power, whistle-blowing, etc., and they were accepted as part of a ruler's life. Upon the death of Peshwa Nanashaheb in the third battle of Panipat, among his three sons Madhavrao ascended the throne, unfortunately, his brother Vishwasrao accepted death in the battle. Madhavrao, unable to bear the pangs of his brother's untimely death became dejected and later died. Now Peshwa Nanashaheb' s third son, just 13 years of age,
was eligible for the throne, As he was a minor, his uncle Raghunathrao was running the state
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on behalf of young nephew. In 1773, Narayanrao, who was the fifth and ruling Peshwa then, became a victim of a plot hatched by the wife of Raghunathrao, Anandibai, a jealous woman. On the full moon night, the assassins from the hunting tribe on orders from Anandibai, entered the Chamber, where Narayanrao was sleeping. Upon seeing
the assassins, the young prince ran towards his uncle shouting ''Uncle save me"(in Marathi : ''Kaka mala Vachwa'. He was brutally murdered by them, hacked into pieces and then dumped in the near-by river. The other version of the story is that both Raghunathrao and his wicked wife Anandibai, wanted the boy eliminated soon and, upon their orders, this most heinous crime was carried out on the palace premises.
Since that gory murder the young Peshwa Prince's spirit has been a restless resident there, strangely shrieking every Moon night,
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hoping he would be saved one day from the clutches of death.
Ref:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaniwar_Wada