Historian, Padma Vibhushan awardee Babasaheb Purandare passes away

Pune, Nov 15: Noted historian and Padma Vibhushan awardee Balwant Moreshwar Purandare, popularly known as Babasaheb Purandare, passed away at a Pune hospital on Monday after a brief illness, a doctor said. He was aged 99.

After being diagnosed with pneumonia, Purandare was admitted a week ago to the Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital where he died.

As per the hospital, he was diagnosed with pneumonia owing to advanced age and was on ventilator support in the hospital's intensive care unit. His health deteriorated on Sunday and he had been in an extremely critical condition since then, the doctor said.

On Sunday, there were rumours of his death in a section of the vernacular media and a number of local news portals.

Who was Balwant Moreshwar Purandare?

Purandare, who was known by his moniker 'Shiv Shahir' (literally Shivaji's bard), was an authority on the Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

His two-part Raja Shivchhatrapati was a 900-page magnum opus on Shivaji Maharaj in Marathi. It was first published in the late 1950s and has since been a staple in Marathi households. Over the decades, it went through numerous reprints.

Purandare had also conceived and directed a play on Shivaji Maharaj's life titled Jaanta Raja in the mid-1980s.

Earlier this year, tributes had flown in from across the political spectrum on the occasion of the historian having completed 99 years, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeting Purandare via a video message.

"Babasaheb's work is inspirational. I visited Pune to see Babasaheb's play 'Janata Raja', based on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Even when Babasaheb used to visit Ahmedabad I used to attend his programmes," Modi had said.

In 2019, Purandare, born on July 29, 1922, was awarded with Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award. PTI