Shahu Maharaj was ardent devotee of Mahalaxmi
This little-known fact about Shahu Maharaj was stumbled upon by Ganesh Khodke, archive officer of the Kolhapur archives recently.
Along with his passion for social work and championing women’s education, social reformer Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj was an ardent devotee of Goddess Mahalaxmi and took pains to build nine temples dedicated to the goddess during his rein. This little-known fact about Shahu Maharaj was stumbled upon by Ganesh Khodke, archive officer of the Kolhapur archives recently. Khodke has been researching on the king’s ‘Tharav Pustke’ (book of resolutions) in which he has found this hitherto unknown information about the king’s life.
“Shahu Maharaj (1874-1922) is known to be a champion of social justice and had left his mark on every aspect of society. Now, this finding throws new light on his life,’’ Khodke said.
As Kolhapur has the ancient temple of the goddess dating back to 700 AD — which is a shaktipeeth in the country, it is quite natural that Shahu was a devotee of the goddess.
Khodke has researched on Tharav Pustke from 1894 to 1910 and the research on the remaining books is still on.
The temples of the goddess were constructed by him in Shahupuri area (in 1903 for Rs6,000), Chanwad in Shahuwadi taluka (in 1900), in New Palace in the city (in 1900, construction cost Rs3,984 besides the grants of Rs237 and Rs1,333 for different works), Radhanagari (1908), Dajipur in Radhanagari (1905, at a cost of Rs49), Ganesh Baug in Kolhapur city (1910, at a cost of Rs512), Rajputwadi in Karveer, Bagalwadi in Bhudargad (1903) and Raibaug in Belgaum district (1906).
The documents show that Shahu made provisions for the daily worship and other expenditure, besides appointing the priests. Interestingly, at most of these locations, Shahu Maharaj had commenced different projects. “It might be reasoned that he wanted to invoke the blessing of the goddess before commencing any important work,’’ Khodke said.
“The temples exist in most of the areas in good condition. However, we are not sure about the location of the temple in Dajipur. I plan to publish a detailed book on this finding,’’ Khodke said.