Jewish cemetery dated 1812 discovered in Pune

A few weeks ago, when writer and blogger, Sameer Khan was surfing for heritage sites in the city he stumbled upon an article published in dna that spoke about the neglected state of cemeteries. It was mostly about European tombs but has a liner on a Jewish cemetery. Curious and an ardent lover of heritage and history, Sameer decided to go and check the state of the latter. "History has always fascinated me and does not fail to surprise me. This got me to visit some of the creakiest places one can imagine and it was just a few weeks ago that I visited the Jewish cemetery at South Main Road Koregaon park, which is presently used and known as the only Jewish heritage cemetery in Pune. There is no record of any other Jewish Cemetery in Pune and I wasn't aware of any other Jewish burial ground or Cemetery in the city. To the best of my knowledge very few people are aware of it. I happened to stumble upon the information as I was browsing through a heritage website that had posted an old newspaper article about some unknown graves that included few British, French and Jewish grave sites dated as early as 1800 in the city of Pune, that are lying in neglect or being encroached upon. I tried to search and find more information about it but could not," said Sameer.

Among the many departed souls buried at the cemetery along with the Bene Israeli, Maharashtrian Jews, and also the well known Baghdadi Jews, most prominent of which are the Sassoons who built one of the many philanthropist institutions like Sassoon Hospital, Niwara Old home for infirm and old in Pune in mid 17th century and also the well known city landmark like the Ohel Synagogue commonly known as LaL Deval (Red Temple). He added, "The present Jewish Cemetery in Koregaon Park is not a very well maintained place. Yet it has a proper compound and a security guard watching the place 24/7 with a proper entry book to register the visitors. Many of the luminaries of Baghdadi Jews visit the place along with the Local Pune Jews whose number presently stands in hundreds in the city. So, the same needs to be done with this one too."

He managed to get hold of the author of the sole article, who graciously explained its location. "I was still not 100 per cent sure of its exact location. However, I gathered my books and camera and set out to explore and find the old Jewish cemetery, which was located somewhere inside the Army Cantonment Area near Pune Racecourse. As I drove towards the site, the number of army barricades and checkpoints on the way made me nervous, but I still parked my car near the Racecourse and decided to walk towards the place. I decided against carrying my camera because of the proximity of the location to the army cantonment . It would have only made matters worse for me if I had got onto the wrong side of some overzealous individual," added Sameer.

Having reached the farthest end of the road and not being able to locate the graves he started to return and check once more. "I kept looking around and soon discovered something among the trees and thick foliage that looked like an old big decrepit grave. I went near it and realised that it was a small compound with some graves inside it, located among dense vegetation. The largest tomb had its headstone and epitaph removed or perhaps stolen by someone. I noticed few smaller graves that had a headstone and inscribed epitaph on them. I cleaned the headstone with my hands and discovered that the grave had local Marathi inscription on the epitaph was dated around 1842. I found another grave with a headstone nearby which after much cleaning was decipherable and had Hebrew and Marathi inscribed on it, dating back to 1812,"he said.

Most of the Jews buried in this graveyard were from early 17th century, much before the Baghdadi Jews had made Pune their abode. The Jews burried here were apparently the Shaniwar Teli or Beni Israelis,one of the lost tribes of Israel, that had landed at Konkan coast of Maharashtra many centuries ago after a ship wreck.

"I regret not having taken my camera but tried to make up for it by taking whatever hazy pictures I could in my cell phone. I realised it was not too wise to stay longer in such an inhospitable ground and soon decided to jump and climb the wall. I was not surprised that like most of the other places in India, the Jewish graveyard was near an Islamic shrine that explained the centuries of peaceful existence between Jews and Muslims in India along with their Hindu brethren," said Sameer.

On his return he managed to meet two older men, who were amused by his interest in the old Jewish cemetery. "One of them mentioned that in the years gone by, The Jews buried the women with all the jewelry and the graves would often be the target of attacks by grave diggers or thieves from the villages. The other shared that there was some kind of a litigation of the site and the court had ruled the case in favour of the Jewish community a few years ago. Some people from the Jewish community had visited the place a couple of years back, which turned out to be the last time they ever visited that site, given that the place needs high maintenance"

Sameer sincerely hopes that the Jewish community in Pune wakes up to take steps to restore and conserve this important piece of history that is fast fading away and that the departed souls get some kind of dignity and respect they deserve.

(Sameer Khan can be contacted @samkhan999)

(puneinbox@dnaindia.net)