University of Pune turns 65 : Nizam Guest House to Oxford of the East

The University of Pune completed 65 years on February 10. All these years the varsity has scaled to various heights imparting quality education. The varsity tied up with international universities and also many skilled-based courses were started. Here we take you down the memory lane since the Oxford of East's inception.

After the declaration of the formation of University of Poona in 1948 and the subsequent declaration of Dr M R Jaykar as the first vice-chancellor of varsity, its first office was started from the Nizam Guest House, which is the part of Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute on Law College Road.

After the declaration, Dr Jaykar was in search of an office for the varsity where he could start the work. The then secretary of the BORI, Dr RN Dandekar suggested him to start the office from the Nizam Guest House, which was meant for the scholars and researchers who used to come to the institute to study.

And this way, Dr Jaykar started his office from February 10, 1949 from a small room of Nizam Guest House.

Speaking about the history of the guest house, the current secretary of the BORI, Dr Maitreyee Deshpande said that the guest house was built with the funds from the Nizam of Hyderabad.

“The basic objective behind setting up the guest house was to facilitate researchers and scholars from various parts of the country as well as from abroad, who used to come to study at the institute,” she said.

She added that the office of the university was operated at Nizam Guest House till June 1, 1949. Later it was shifted to the current building, which was originally called the Governor House. As its name suggests, it was the seasonal retreat of the Governor of Bombay.

Dr Raja Dixit, author of History of University of Pune, has stated in his book that the varsity was formed as there was a demand of a regional university in Maharashtra.

Once there were 13 affiliated colleges and four recognized institutes under the varsity, and now there are more than 800 colleges and institutes in three districts, Pune, Nashik and Ahmednagar which are affiliated to the varsity. As far as the students are concerned, there were approximately 10,000 students in 1949 under the varsity, and today there are more than 8 lakh students.

In 1981, on the suggestion given by renowned playwright PL Deshpande, the convocation ceremony was Indianised and instead of western gown and caps, Puneri Pagadi was introduced. In 1994, the University of Poona became University of Pune.