UPDATE ON THE SHIVAJI MAHARAJA MUSEUM OF INDIAN HISTORY, PUNE - DECEMBER 2023

 

As you may know FACT 5foundation for Advancement of Cultural Ties), which has 501C and is a registered trust, is building a Museum of (TRUE) Indian History in Pune. We have now 22 pavilions & recently we inaugurated our first air-conditioned hall, the Vijaynagar Pavilion, which houses our magnificent Hampi exhibition. At the moment we are working on 4 new exhibitions: Rani Akhabat, who fought the Portuguese; Rani Durgavati, who stood up to the Moghols; a second Shivaji Maharaj exhibition which focuses on his battles - and of course continuing our ongoing Vijaynagar history. We are also in the process of building a new air conditioned hall for our 2d Women Warriors exhibitions, renovating the Aurangzeb hall, flooring and air conditioning the 2d Shivaji Maharaj hall and building a second public toilet, above the Vijaynagar hall. We have also recently employed a full time supervisor, Mr

Rakesh Angrakh, who will look after the Social Media of the Museum.

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FACT needs approximately 10 lakhs rupees (or 15000$), to renovate the Aurangzeb hall (change the roof, painting walls, etc) , as well as to continue our four. We are also starting a new Pavilion which will have touch screens TV's with animated films, PPT's, etc. Each painting costs 25.000 Rs. Those who donate for 4 paintings, will have a plaque with their names below those paintings.

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Some of you may be interested to help funding our unique Bhavani Bharati mandir, the only temple of its kind in India, as it combines Bhavani Bharti offering the sword to Shivaji Maharaj to defend Bharat & a Bhavani Deity, which was empowered by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. There, since two years, we have a permanent pandit. His name is Pradhuman Kumar Tiwari and he is Art of Living trained. Every day he does aartis and pujas, mandir, thereby attracting visitors, who then visit the Museum.We pay him 25.000 a month to which is added another 5000 monthly for temples expenses, (flowers, oil, incense, fruits etc). It comes to approximately 3 lakhs rupees a year or 4000$

 

Thanking you for your support

Yours

 

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François Gautier / Trustee FACT

FACT USA, Foundation for Advancing Cultural Ties

at Chase Bank

Account number : 370132158.

Routing number : 021202337 for direct deposit and ACH transfer only.

For wire transfer use routing number 021000021.

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UPDATE ON THE SHIVAJI MAHARAJ MUSEUM OF INDIAN HISTORY – FEBRUARY 2023

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The month of February started very intensely for us: on the 3rd of February, we had a five hour pooja and homa to install our new Prana Pratishtha of Maa Tulija Bhawani Deity at the Bhawani Temple.

This will make our Bharat Matha Shrine the only temple in India that houses two Deities of Bhawani in different forms.

On the 4th February, we inaugurated our second Women Warrior Pavilion (click here), in the company of Sri Shashi Desai of Mauritius, who has given some donation.

This Pavilion has an exhibition on Ahilyabai Holkar

On the 5th February, HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar performed a special pooja on the Bhawani Mata, and visited the museum. He remained for about 45 minutes (click here), but Namrita and her friends, such as our painter Mrs Anjali Hugay (who did the Jijamata exhibition) or our architect, Mrs Sheetal Harpale, spent a great part of the day buying flowers, cleaning and decorating the temple and the museum, as well as drawing kolams on the floors.

The Museum expansion is going on: we are continuing the building of the Vijayanagar exhibition hall, and also have different painters working on four new exhibitions : Rani Durgavati (who fought the Moghols) ; Rani Akhabat (who fought the Portuguese) ; a second exhibition on Shivaji Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (who had already more than 60 paintings) ; and, of course, the glorious Vijayanagar empire history.

Our expenses have increased: we have about 2 lakhs Rupees (approximately 2500 US Dollars) monthly salaries and recurring expenses (electricity, water, etc…) ; and we need, for both the exhibitions and the development of the museum, around 33 lakhs Rupees (approximately 40 000 US Dollars)

As you know, we have both US and Indian Tax exemption, and this museum remains a sewa project, as Namrita and myself give it our free time, and do not take any salary from the donations.

 

If you wish to donate in Indian Rupees, below are the account details :

Foundation Against Continuing Terrorism (FACT) / account number : 04071450000237

IFCS code: HDFC0000407

If you prefer to donate in US Dollars, you can send an email to our FACT USA coordinator, Mrs Chandrakala Kamath : gr8sage1@aol.com She will guide you on how to get 501C

For any other query, send me an email : fgautier@rediffmail.com

 

Namaste,

François and Namrita Gautier