Intangible Heritage Aspects of Sacred Groves and Deities in North Western Ghats of Maharashtra

The Project aims at documenting the intangible heritage of the sacred groves, its customs, beliefs, folklore, rituals and the changes it has faced. Its major focus is in and around Pune in Maharashtra.

Pune city originated as a tiny agricultural settlement called “Punnaka” or “Punnyavishay”, in the 8th century AD. In the mid-18th century Pune became the seat of the Peshwas and grew as a flourishing town. Later in British rule, when the Pune Municipality was formed it started growing exponentially; turning into Pune Metropolitan Region of over 1600 sq.km.
But apart from being the urban town throughout history, Pune has another side to it too. It harbours rich bio-diversity, which is recognised and protected by govt at various sites. And it also has natural heritage sites traditionally marked, worshipped, looked after and managed by the local communities as their traditions.
Nature worship which is an ancient Indian tradition and considers all forms of life as sacred, is also found in these rich natural heritage sites. Sacred Groves, natively known as “Devrai”, are forest patches conserved traditionally by communities in the name of a deity. It is a pre-historic practice and so these groves are often the last patches of the original vegetation in that area which houses rich endemic biodiversity. These Groves are also repositories of rich oral traditions about many customs and traditions and the related myths and stories centring around the concept of a “presiding deity” in most of these groves.
Methodology adopted for the study is as followed:
⦁ Literature survey, interaction with subjects
⦁ Photo documentation of shrines and associated objects.
⦁ Interviews of people, learned and associated people
⦁ Video and audio documentation of the folklore, custom and traditions.
List of sites surveyed in this are as follows:
⦁ Durgabai- Ahupe
⦁ Bhimshankar
⦁ Morachi-Chincholi
⦁ Ajeebali-Chikhalgaon
⦁ Bhuleshwar
⦁ Ghol
⦁ Padsthal
⦁ Jejuri
⦁ Nageshwar
⦁ Mandharadevi.
The report gives a basic overview of the history of these sites and how its present has been shaped. It goes on to give details about the traditions, beliefs, folklore and rituals associated with these places. Its a starting point for the study of this community based heritage which is getting neglected or over exploited due to resource extraction.

The Project was undertaken by INTACH Pune Chapter along with INTACH ICH.