Place · Shivaji's boyhood residence · India
Lal Mahal, Pune
Also known as Lal Mahal, Shivaji's Lal Mahal, Red Palace Pune
The residence Shahji Bhonsle built for his wife Jijabai and infant son Shivaji at Pune around 1630 — Shivaji grew up here under Jijabai's and Dadaji Konddev's tutelage, and the house was his base for the first fort captures that began the Maratha state in the 1640s. The famous 1663 night raid in which Shivaji entered Shaista Khan's residence (which was being used as the Mughal governor's quarters, then within the Lal Mahal enclosure) and cut off three of the Mughal commander's fingers while he escaped through a window is set here. The present reconstructed Lal Mahal on the Shaniwar Peth site dates from 1988.
- Date
- 1630–None
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Patron dynasty
- Bhonsle
- Tradition
- Sabhasad Bakhar; Shivaji chronicles; Jadunath Sarkar on Shivaji; Pune municipal records on the 1988 reconstruction.
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 18.520, 73.855
Worth knowing
The Shaista Khan episode of 5 April 1663 — Shivaji with ten men in a Mughal wedding procession entered the house, cut Shaista Khan's fingers through a window as he escaped into the women's quarters, and left before the Mughal garrison could react — is the central Shivaji-at-Pune story and the one most-told in Maharashtra. The present reconstruction holds a Jijabai bust, Shivaji murals and a Shaista Khan diorama; the original structure was destroyed in subsequent centuries of fighting around Pune.
Connections (3)
- Residence ofChhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj
Lal Mahal at Pune was built by Shahji Bhonsle for his wife Jijabai and infant son Shivaji around 1630, and was Shivaji's boyhood home — the base from which he received his tutelage under Jijabai and Dadaji Konddev, and from which the first fort captures that began the Maratha state in the 1640s were planned. The famous 1663 night raid in which he cut Shaista Khan's fingers inside the Mughal governor's residence (then within the Lal Mahal enclosure) is set here.
- Site withinPune
Lal Mahal sits in the Shaniwar Peth neighbourhood of Pune, within walking distance of the Shaniwar Wada the Peshwas later built — the two Maratha residences bracket Pune's seventeenth- and eighteenth-century political history. The present reconstruction of 1988 is in the same location as the original seventeenth-century house that Shahji Bhonsle built for Jijabai.
- Site withinPune/ Poona
Lal Mahal, the 17-century Peshwa-era residence at Kasba Peth in central Pune, Maharashtra, was built by Shahaji Bhonsle for his wife Jijabai and young son Shivaji in 1630 and became Shivaji's childhood home. The 1663 incident in which Shivaji escaped Shaista Khan's assassination attempt by cutting off three of the Mughal general's fingers took place at Lal Mahal. The modern reconstructed palace (1988 Pune Municipal Corporation rebuild) remains a Pune heritage landmark.