Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal, popularly known as Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal or just ‘Mandal’, is an Indian institute providing resources and training for historical researchers. It is located at

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

state. The institute was founded in 1910 by the veteran Indian historian V. K. Rajwade and Sardar K. C. Mehendale.V.K.Rajwade founded 'Bharat Itihas Samshodhak Mangal in Pune, on 7th July 1910 to facilitate historical research.

Objective

The main objective behind setting up the ''Mandal'' was to provide ready resources to the historians and researchers, to save their time and to motivate them. Rajwade conceived this idea long back but could not fulfill it until Sardar Mehendale met him and on his own expressed his readiness to support him for anything that he wished to do for the betterment of history.

History

The ''Mandal'' was founded on 7 July 1910 by the veteran Indian historian Vishwanath Kashinath Rajwade and Sardar Khanderao Chintaman Mehendale at Sardar Mehendale’s palace at Appa Balwant Chowk in Pune. To commence the activity Rajwade read an essay in the presence of the only listener Sardar Mehendale. Later on, the ''Mandal'' moved to its present building located in Sadashiv Peth area in the heart of the city. In March 1926 the short tempered Rajwade left Pune due to differences with the then Administrators of the ''Mandal'' and shifted to Dhule to form another institute which was named after him as ‘Rajwade Sanshodhan Mandir’. The ''Mandal'' at Pune, however, continued following on its mission to help researchers and contribute to the progress of historical study. It has since then been highly supported by the people and scholars by way of donations and bequests of books and papers. Rajwade’s disciples

Datto Vaman Potdar Dattatray Vaman Potdar (5 August 1890 – 6 October 1979), better known as Datto Vaman Potdar, was an Indian historian, writer, and orator. He was the Vice-Chancellor of University of Pune during 1961 - 1964. The British colonial Government of ...

, Ganesh Hari Khare and

Vasudeo Sitaram Bendrey Vasudeo Sitaram Bendrey (13 February 1894 to 16 July 1986) was born in Raigad. His early education took place in Pen and he completed his matriculation at Wilson high school in Mumbai. In those days you were required to be 16 years old to t ...

are believed to have played major role in prospering the ''Mandal'' and its activities.

Resources

Presently, the ''Mandal'' maintains more than 1,500,000 historical papers and scripts mainly in

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from V ...

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, Portuguese and English. Moreover, it has also preserved over , and a few sculptures and inscriptions in its well equipped museum. The ''Mandal''’s library keeps more than books written mainly in Marathi and English, which can be made available to the researchers for free consultation or, for a nominal fee, on ‘Take Home’ basis. These resources hold sizeable volumes on the history of the

Maratha Empire The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern Indian confederation that came to dominate much of the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century. Maratha rule formally began in 1674 with the coronation of Shi ...

, Maratha culture and Marathi literature. They also contain a large collection of the material on British Rule as well as

Mughal Mughal or Moghul may refer to: Related to the Mughal Empire * Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries * Mughal dynasty * Mughal emperors * Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia * Mughal architecture * Mug ...

Rule over India. The ''Mandal'' issues a Quarterly Journal called ‘Trai-Masik’ wherein essays and articles on new discoveries are presented. It has also published books written and edited by veteran historians and reports of annual conferences and historians' meets. The ''Mandal'' periodically organises lectures, workshops, training, seminars and study tours for the young researchers and historians.

Funding

It was reported in 2004 that the ''Mandal'' was insufficiently funded to micro-film or digitise its collection. In 2009, as it entered its 100th year, it planned to create a permanent fund of Ten Million Rupees and use the interest from this fund to pay its expenses.

Past presidents

*1910–1913

Ganesh Vyankatesh Joshi Ganesh Vyankatesh Joshi (9 June 1851 – 20 May 1911) was an economist. Early life of G.V Joshi Ganesh Vyankatesh Joshi was born at Miraj on 9 June 1851. The family is known as the Utturkar family in that province, as it held hereditary la ...

*1913–1926 Kashinath Narayan Sane *1926–1935

Chintaman Vinayak Vaidya Chintaman Vinayak Vaidya (18 October 1861– 20 April 1938) was a Marathi language, Marathi-language historian and writer from Maharashtra, India. He was Chief Justice of Gwalior State for a period. He was born in a Chitpavan Brahmin family. In 19 ...

*1935–1942 Narsinha Chintaman Kelkar *1942–1950 Malojirao Naik Nimbalkar *1950–1974

*1974–1981 Ganesh Hari Khare *1981–1983

Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankalia Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankalia (10 December 1908 – 28 January 1989) was an Indian Sanskrit scholar and archaeologist specialising in proto- and ancient Indian history. He is considered to have pioneered archaeological excavation techniques in In ...

*1984–1986 Ramchandra Shankar Walimbe *1988–1991 Vishwanath Trimbak Shete.

Select publications

*''Album of Paintings'' *''Annual Research Reports'' *''Bibliography and Index of Mandal’s Publications'' *''Miscellaneous Articles on Indian History'' *''Proceedings on Researches on Pune'' *''Proceedings of the Annual Conferences'' *''Quarterly Journals'' *''Vijayanagar Commemoration Volume'' *
Sadhan Chikitsa
' ;Records and sources *''Records of the Shivaji’s Period'' *''Persian Sources of Indian History''; by G. H. Khare *''Miscellaneous Sources of Indian History'' *''Sources of Maratha History''; by V. K. Rajwade *''Sources of the Medieval History of the Deccan''

References

*‘Quarterly Journal’, January 1991 published by Bharat Itihas Sabshodhak Mandal, Pune *‘Rajwade Lekhsangraha’ (

) published by

Sahitya Akademi The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...

External links

250 ayurveda-related manuscripts digitised
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Research on historical documents written in Modi script
Education in Pune 1910 establishments in India Historiography of India