About Shivshahir Babasaheb Purandare

The blog about Shivcharitra By Babasaheb Purandare is incomplete without a proper introduction of Babasaheb Purandare. Here I gathered basic information about Babasaheb Purandare and going to present in a simple manner.

The full name of Babasaheb Purandare is Balwant Moreshwar Purandare, and he was born in Pune on July 29, 1922. The first glance of introduction about him is a historian, writer and theater person. He has probably known for work related to history of Shivaji Maharaj and that’s why people offered him an appellation as Shiv-Shahir.

He is mostly popular with his play/drama called Jaanta Raja, which is historical presentation of phases of life of great Maratha King Shivaji Maharaj. This play is not only popular in Maharastra but also in Goa and Madhya Paradesh. Apart from great Shiavaji Maharaj’s history he also has considerable study about history of Peshwas. He was part of Shivsena in early 70’s along with Madhav Deshpande, Madhav Mehere and one and only Balasaheb Thackeray.

Babasaheb started story writing at very young age, which is mentioned in his book named ‘Thingya’, it means ‘Sparks’. His famous books among all are ‘Raja Shiva-Chatrapati’ and ‘Kesari, which are on the life of great Shivaji Maharaj and  Narayanrao Peshwa respectively. We can say that Babasaheb Purandare made his identity in the year 1985 by launching Jaanta Raja to the world. Since the 1985 it has been 864 times staged all over the world including United States of America. The Jaanta Raja play includes more than 200 artists and numbers of elephants, camels and horses. This larger than life experience always makes drama live on stage.

Personal Life/Family

Babasaheb purandare’s wife Nirmala Purandare is a social worker; she works for rural women and children's development project, and runs her own organization named 'Vanasthali' at Pune city. Babasaheb has two sons and one daughter. His daughter is a writer, painter and good singer.  His son’s names are Amrut Purandare and Prasad Purandare. Prasad is a Marathi theater and film personality, with several Hindi films to his credit.