Punyakatha – Pune's Story Of A Million Years
Who doesn’t love a story well-told? Most particularly one replete with all the navarasas---including romance, drama, intrigue and adventure. Punyakatha—Pune’s story of a million years is just such a saga waiting to unfold. Both Pune city and district have been much-coveted by rulers and power-brokers down the ages for several reasons, thereby leading to its transition from a small riverside settlement to the very seat of political power and its modern-day avatar as an educational, industrial and cultural hub of international standing—not to forget an exciting future tipped for megapolism. And yet, the last thing Heritage India wanted to do was to bring out yet another history text-book. So hop on to our Time Machine along with our young protagonists—Aarav, Aadiya, Rohan, Mishka, Saayuri, Sameer and Raul as they trace the ebb and flow of Pune’s fortunes against the backdrop of Maharashtra and India—from as far back as the Stone Age through an unforgettable maze of fun facts, pictures, maps, vignettes, puzzles and activities.
It is a 248 pages hard bound coffee table book covering the History, Geography, Culture, Education, Industry and Environment of Pune – city as the focus and encompassing the District to a smaller extent. The target audience of the book is anyone from 9 to 90 years of age with a connect to Pune. Punyakatha is actually a family encyclopedia to be explored by multiple generations.
The narrative is woven around a unique concept: Children traveling through the different eras in a time machine and discovering each era through a conversation with a protagonist of that era. For example, Punyadimanav for Pre History and queen Naganika for the Satavahana period. More information around pertinent points is given in boxes for a serious adult reader.
The book is divided into 9 sections – starting with
- Pre and Proto History,
- The Satavahana era,
- Eight centuries of various dynasties like the Rashtrakutas, Shilahara, Vakatakas, Yadavas and others ;
- Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj era;
- Peshwai,
- British Raj, Freedom Movement and Social Reform,
- Modern Pune,
- Exclusive Pune and
- Environment
Research scholars and academicians have contributed to the making of the book and a team of creative writers have converted raw data into interesting reader friendly material. All narrative text is accompanied by illustrations, paintings and photos. Every chapter also has a page of fun activities like find the odd man out etc… and another page for quiz to tickle the brain and reinforce information.
The text has been contributed by an array of scholars, with a core team of Dr G B Deglurkar, Prof P K Ghanekar, Dr Ajit Apte and Dr Manjiri Bhalerao. It has been written by Kalyani Sardesai and enriched with more than 1000 illustrations, photographs and designs by Sunil Gokarn, Tejas Modak and Anant Dere.