Mr MN Vasanth Kumar after his retirement undertook a challenging
task of compiling the history of our family. Bits and pieces of information
about our family were told to us by our parents, aunts and uncles. Somehow in
our mind, it remained more of a folk lore than history. His untiring research
took him to many places in Karnataka, number of libraries, museums and record
offices. In December 2001 a large number of family members gathered at the
residence of Mr MS Shankar Rao in 1st block Jayanagar, Bangalore for the book
release function. On that auspicious day “THE
BANAJI FAMILY AND THEIR DESCENDANTS” was released. The book is an outcome
of excellent research work painstakingly carried out by Vasanth over a number
of years. The book has chronologically documented the history of the
"Banajis".
Historical records
mention about Nagoji Rao who was perhaps the earliest known member of the
Banaji family. He was born in "Jejuri"
a small temple town some 50 km South East of Pune, Maharashtra. The family
of Nagoji Rao migrated to Mysore, Karnataka sometime in the early 1700. They
later on became an integral part of history of Karnataka. I am a very proud
descendant of this lineage, like many other members of our large family.
Vasanth Kumar who
later on changed his name to Vasanth Banaji is responsible for taking us 300
years back in history and connecting us with our ancestors. I am extremely
proud to be able to trace my roots back to eight generations. It is an
extremely exhilarating experience to be able to trace ones lineage.
To preserve this
excellent work of Vasanth and make it available on line for future generations,
I entered all the data and notes in https://www.geni.com on 27 Aug 2008. Since then I cherished a very
strong desire to visit Jejuri. Visiting Jejuri was a pilgrimage of sorts.
I along with Jayanti
went to Pune Khadhakvasla to attend a function in the National Defence Academy.
I took this opportunity to visit Jejuri on 17 June 2018.
 |
| The Main Temple |
The town is
known for being the venue of one of the revered temples in the state, known as
the Khandobachi Jejuri. We decided to go around the town and visit the temple. The temple, which was
constructed between the 15th and 16th centuries by Maloji Raje Bhosale,
grandfather of Chhatrapati Shivaji, currently has only one way to its sanctum
sanctorum. Devotees have to climb 400-odd stairs and there is no other route by
which vehicles can reach.
After a very daunting
climb we reached the temple premises to join thousands of devotees who had come
to seek the blessings of the deity. We choose to go through the fast track
entrance to avoid extremely long queues. We were ushered in to the sanctum
sanctorum, only to be pulled out within a minute of seeing the deity. In that
short time I prayed for the well being of all the Banajis.
 |
| The wait |
 |
| Hanuman Idol outside the temple |
 |
| Huge stone lamp structure |
 |
| The main entrance |
His Idol is typically
depicted with four arms, in one of which he holds a Bhandara-patra or the bowl
of turmeric powder. Bhandara in Marathi means turmeric. Khandoba is worshipped
with turmeric, belfruit-leaves, onions and other vegetables.
The temple premises
are covered in a layer of haldi – turmeric powder, giving it a very distinctive
and different experience to what we have been used to. Haldi is very freely thrown on all the devotees,
their face and forehead is smeared with haldi and all the idols are soaked in
layers of haldi. The air is full of fine haldi particles.
 |
| After the visit - all haldi |
 |
| Jai after visiting the sanctum sanctorum |
Visiting Jejuri and the
Khandoba temple was extremely satisfying. It took us back some 300 years and I suppose
this was the closest we could reach out to our ancestors.
 |
| View of the town from the top |
 |
| Another view |
 |
| Another temple below the hill. |
No comments:
Post a Comment