With Pune sprawling in every direction today, it is difficult to imagine that there was a time several centuries ago when the city was enclosed in a compound wall. Historical documents talk about a compound wall that was built to safeguard the settlement and its administrators. Although the first such wall was built as early as the 15th century, similar efforts were made later as well during the Peshwa era, only to be abandoned midway.
The compound walls or ‘Gao Kusu’ as they were called locally were in vogue at the time with several prosperous settlements in the Deccan region being enclosed in a compound which had gates that controlled the entry of the people.
Pandhari Kot or the white wall
In the mid-15th century, Pune, as part of the Junnar pargana under the Bahmani kingdom, came to be ruled by an Arab sardar named Qasam Beig Shafat Khan who was locally known as ‘Barya Arab’ (‘barya’ likely a corruption of ‘bada’). During his time, he took up the construction of a compound wall that enclosed the military portions of the settlement.
The Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, published in 1885, gives a detailed description of this structure, the ruins of which could be seen around the city in the 19th century. It also refers to some historical documents to conclude that the wall – built on the lines of other ‘Deccan village walls’ – was made of mud and bricks on a stone and mud foundation.
“The wall was called the Pandhri or white wall and is now called the Juna Kot. It stretched from the younger to the elder Shaikh Salla’s tomb along the bank of the Mutha river, leaving both the mosques outside of it. From the elder Shaikh Salla’s tomb the wall turned south to the north-east corner of the Mandai, where there was a gate called the Konkan Darvaja. The stone steps which led to this gate remain. From the Mandai the wall passed east along the backs of houses on the north side of Dikshit and Pethe streets to Pethe’s cistern. It then turned north and continued almost straight to the younger Shaikh Salla’s tomb. Midway between Pethe’s cistern and the younger Shaikh Salla’s tomb was another gate facing east called Nagar Darvaja. The site of the Nagar gate can still be traced, exactly opposite Lakdi street. The Maruti which belonged to this gate remains,” reads the description in the Gazetteer.
It says that the wall was in the form of an irregular rectangle, the sides being north 280, south 260, west 130, and east 200 yards and had several bastions and loopholed parapets. “Two small gateways which led to the river on the north have only recently disappeared. Flights of steps leading to the river from these gates remain and are known as Purandhare’s Steps and Sapindya Mahadev’s or the Twelfth Day Funeral God’s Steps. On the south, to the east of Moghe’s mansion, was another small gate but neither its site nor its name is known. The remains of the wall may be traced all along its course, and in many places the foundations and plinth are unharmed. The wall, which was about fourteen feet high and four feet wide, rested on a plinth of stone and mud sixteen feet high and six feet wide,” reads the description.
As per Pune: The Queen of the Deccan written by Jaymala Diddee and Samita Gupta, the compound wall had enclosed three settlements. “… original villages of Kumbharli, Kasar Ali, and Punewadi were unified within a wall. Inside were housed the garrison, the administrative offices, and government officials. This was named Kasba Pune. Most of the other people – traders, cultivators, village officials and Brahmins – were left outside the fort,” says the book.
Later attempts to build a city wall
In Pune Shahrache Varnan, written by NV Zoshi and published in 1868, there is a mention of another attempt made to construct a city wall – for the expanded Pune of the Peshwa era – that would cover a much larger area. This plan made during the rule of Balaji Bajirao in the mid-18th century did not come to fruition due to an intervention made by Rajaram II, the Satara-based king of the Maratha empire.
“Jiwajipant Anna Khasgiwale was supervising the work. When Satarkar Maharaj got to know about the work, he sent an order that the compound should not be constructed. Such a compound is suitable for villages where there is no protector. When you – valiant like lions – are there in the city then why do you want to live like mice by shutting off the outside. Because of this, the work of the compound along the Nagzari remained incomplete and was never taken up again by any of the Peshwas,” Zoshi wrote.
He further said that the incomplete compound wall could still be seen in his time. “From what remains, one can assume that the planned wall was 10 hands wide. Had the compound wall been built it would have created hindrance to expansion of the city. Besides, it would have confined the airflow and restricted the fresh air to come from outside,” wrote Zoshi.
James Grant Duff, the British soldier and historian from Scotland, observes in his A History of the Mahrattas that the project may have been abandoned because the Peshwa, on second thoughts, decided that walls might be a danger as their strength might tempt the head of the state to stand a siege in the city instead of retiring to the strong hill fort of Purandar.