Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal

Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal
Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal
भारत इतिहास संशोधक मंडळ
	Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal, Pune
General information
Town or city	Maharashtra
Country	India
Coordinates	18°30′40″N 73°51′00″E / 18.5109782364365°N 73.8499802953962°E

Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal (Marathi: भारत इतिहास संशोधक मंडळ), 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 in Maharashtra 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 Sanshodhak Mandal in Pune, on 7 July 1910 to facilitate historical research.^[1]

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 activities Rajwade read an essay in the presence of the only listener Sardar Mehendale. Later on, the Mandal moved to its present building located in the 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: the 'Rajwade Sanshodhan Mandir'. The Mandal at Pune, however, continued following its mission to help researchers and contribute to the progress of historical study. It has since then been highly supported by the common people and scholars by way of donations and bequests of books and papers. Rajwade's disciples Datto Vaman Potdar, Ganesh Hari Khare and Vasudeo Sitaram Bendrey are believed to have played major roles in making prominent the Mandal and its activities.

Resources

Presently, the Mandal maintains more than 1,500,000 historical papers and 30,000 scripts mainly in Marathi, Modi, Persian, Portuguese and English. Moreover, it has also preserved over 4,000 coins, 1,000 paintings and a few sculptures and inscriptions at its well equipped museum. The Mandal's library hosts more than 27,000 books written mainly in Marathi and English, which can be made available to researchers for free consultation or, for a nominal fee, on 'Take Home' basis. These resources include sizeable volumes on the history of the Maratha Empire, Maratha culture and Marathi literature. They also contain a large collection of the material on British Rule as well as Mughal 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 and hus couldn't micro-film or digitise its collection.^[2] 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.^[3]

Past presidents

1910 – 1913: Ganesh Vyankatesh Joshi
1913 – 1926: Kashinath Narayan Sane
1926 – 1935: Chintaman Vinayak Vaidya
1935 – 1942: Narsinha Chintaman Kelkar
1942 – 1950: Malojirao Naik Nimbalkar
1950 – 1974: Datto Vaman Potdar
1974 – 1981: Ganesh Hari Khare
1981 – 1983: Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankalia
1984 – 1986: Ramchandra Shankar Walimbe
1988 – 1991: Vishwanath Trimbak Shete

Select publications

Album of Paintings
Annual Research Reports
Bibliography and Index of the Mandal's Publications
Miscellaneous Articles on Indian History
Proceedings of Research in 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

^ Bengrut, Dheeraj (4 October 2021). "Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal in Pune to digitise 250K rare documents". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 6 January 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
^ Damle, Manjiri; Neil Pate (23 January 2004). "Libraries struggle to preserve books". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 29 October 2009.
^ Deshpande, Devidas (25 October 2009). "History in the making money". Pune Mirror. Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 29 October 2009.

'Quarterly Journal', January 1991 published by Bharat Itihas Sabshodhak Mandal, Pune
'Rajwade Lekhsangraha' (Marathi) published by Sahitya Akademi

External links

[hindustan-1] Bengrut, Dheeraj (4 October 2021). "Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal in Pune to digitise 250K rare documents". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 6 January 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2022.

[toi-2] Damle, Manjiri; Neil Pate (23 January 2004). "Libraries struggle to preserve books". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 29 October 2009.

[pm-3] Deshpande, Devidas (25 October 2009). "History in the making money". Pune Mirror. Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 29 October 2009.

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