A fierce controversy over Pathri village in Parbhani district being declared as birthplace of Saibaba blew over on Monday, after Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray withdrew his earlier statement and said that Pathri would be developed as a pilgrim centre and not as the birth place of the 19th century saint.
The people of Shirdi and 30 neighbouring villages — who had on an agitation for the past few days in protest against the chief minister’s recent statement that Pathri would be developed as Saibaba’s birthplace — called off their indefinite agitation after a delegation of their leaders, Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust (SSST) CEO, local elected representatives met Uddhav, his Cabinet colleagues Ajit Pawar, Congress Balasaheb Thorat and Aditya Thackeray.
At the meeting, Uddhav told the aggrieved villagers that he was withdrawing his earlier statement describing Pathri as the birthplace of Sababa. He said that Pathri village in Parbhani district of Marathwada region would be developed as pilgrim centre at a cost of Rs 100 crore and not as the birthplace of Saibaba.
The people of Shirdi and neighbouring had opposed the chief minister’s reference to Pathri as the birthplace of Saibaba so much so that they had observed a total bandh in the temple town on Sunday, causing considerable inconvenience to thousands of devotees visiting the place for a darshan of the presiding deity at the temple there.
During his meeting with the delegation from Shirdi, the chief minister said: “I do not know if Pathri is the birthplace of Saibaba or not. I am not a researcher. Based on the information that I had received, I had made a mention of Pathri being the birthplace of Saibaba.”
“You should have taken me into confidence before resorting to a bandh in Shirdi... Let’s not have a controversy over Saibaba’s birthplace. The state government will allocate funds to Pathri village as a pilgrim centre. As the Chief Minister, all the people are equal to me. Let’s all of us pray before Saikaba,” Uddhav told the delegation of villagers that met him. In all, there were 40 representatives in the delegation. The delegates from Shirdi and neighbouring villages told the chief minister that they had no objection whatsoever in Patri village being developed as a pilgrim centre and not as the birthplace of Saibaba.
Shiv Sena MP from Shirdi Sadashiv Lokhande, local BJP MLA Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil and SSST’s CEO Deepak Muglikar were prominent among others who were present at the meeting.
The controversy over the birthplace of Saibaba had arisen after a delegation of people from Pathri village met the chief minister, during the latter’s recent tour of Marathwada. They had claimed that Pathri was the birthplace of the 19th century saint and urged the chief minister to make financial allocation for developing the place into a pilgrim centre.
On his part, the chief minister had announced that Pathri would be developed as as a birthplace of Saibaba, that the state government had prepared a development plan for the purpose and that it would soon perform a bhoomi pooja for developing a pilgrim centre there.
Following the announcement, the people of Shirdi and neighbouring villages were up in arms against the State Government’s Pathri development move. What has surprised many as to how the claim of Pathri being the birthplace of Saibaba has come up all of a sudden.
There is no concrete evidence as to the date or place of birth of Saibaha. However there is evidence to suggest that Saibaba came to Shirdi when he was about 16 years’ old in 1858 and he remained there till his death in 1918.
Three months ahead of his death on October 15, 1918, Saibaba told his devotees he would soon be “leaving his mortal body” (dying). By the end of September 1918, he had high fever and stopped eating. As his condition deteriorated, he asked his disciples to recite holy texts to him and continued to meet visitors. On October 15, 1918 which happened to Vijayadashami, he breathed his last.
His mortal remains were interred at “Buti Wada” in Shirdi, after which it has now become place of worship known today as Shree Samadhi Mandir or Shirdi Sai Baba Temple.
The claim that Saibaba was born in Pathri village in Parbhani district of Marathwada region is based on a reference made in the eighth edition of “Sai Charitra” (history of Saibaba), a Hindi publication brought by the Sai Sansthan between 1972 and 76. So far, the Sai Sansthan has brought out 36 editions of “Sai Charitra”.
Incidentally, the eighth edition of “Sai Charitra” in which a mention of Saibaba’s birthplace has been made has gone missing. The Shirdi temple authorities have ordered an inquiry into the missing publication which can no way be considered as an authenticated document.
