The new parliament building of India will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 28 May. On this occasion, a historic event will be revived, when a historic sceptre, ‘Sengol’, will be placed in the new parliament.
Addressing a press conference today in Delhi, home minister Amit Shah said that the ‘Sengol’ will be introduced as a ‘significant historical’ symbol of Independence, as it was a symbol of the transfer of power from the British to Indians. He informed that the sceptre, which is from the Chola dynasty, will be kept in the new parliament.
Amit Shah said that while the historically significant sceptre was used as a transfer of power in 1947, it vanished after that as it was kept in museum, and the successive Congress governments and the general public quickly forgot about it. Now the Modi government is reviving the glory of the Sengol by placing in India’s parliament.
Sengol is a Tamil world, which means full of wealth. “This Sengol has huge significance. When PM Modi got to know about this, he asked to get more info on this,” Amir Shah said. He added, “August 14, 1945, around 10:45 Nehru accepted this Sengol from the people of Tamil Nadu. It is a sign of a shift of power from Britishers to the people of this country.”
Union Home Minister Amit Shah announces that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will instal the sacred Sengol, gifted by a group of Priests on the eve of India's independence, in 1947, marking the transfer of power, in the New Parliament on 28th May 2023.
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) May 24, 2023
The sacred Sengol… pic.twitter.com/jLjQqZiWAB
When it was decided that the British will hand over power to the Indians, Lord Mountbatten asked Pandit Nehru about the cultural symbol that should be used as a representation of the transfer of power. However, Nehru was also not sure, he sought some time to discuss with others. He discussed the matter with C Rajagopalachari. He studied multiple historic books and informed Jawaharlal Nehru about the Sengol.
The Sengol was used by the Choals when power was transferred to a new king. Adheenams, the Saivite priests, had presided over the rituals. And the same Sengol was adopted in 1947 to mark the transfer of power from Mountbatten to Nehru.
The gold-plated silver Sengol that was handed over to Nehru was hand-crafted by Jeweller Vummidi Bangaru Chetty in Madras and was ordered specially for the occasion. The golden sceptre is studded with jewels and was worth about Rs 15000 at that time. Nandi, the bull vahana of Lord Shiva, sits on the top of the sceptre. Nandi is the protector and symbol of justice, said the description given at the press conference. The Sengol is 5 feet long, which is a masterpiece of Indian art with rich workmanship from top to bottom.
Following that, the head of the Thiruvaduthurai Mutt Sri La Sri Ambalavana Desika Swamigal sent the Sengol to Nehru, who accepted it to use as a symbol of power. The seer had sent a delegation carrying the sceptre in a special aircraft arranged by the government.
The sceptre was then handed over to Lord Mountbatten by Sri La Sri Kumaraswamy Thambiran. The British Viceroy then handed it back to the seer. After that, a purification ceremony of the Sengol was carried out by Sri La Sri Kumaraswamy Thambiran. The Sengol was taken to the Constituent Assembly Hall in a procession accompanied by the ‘nadaswaram’ of Adinam Vidwan TN Rajaratnam Pillai.
Amit Shah said that the use of the Chola Dynasty Sceptre during the transfer of power was widely reported by world media, and Time magazine had published several photographs. But the sceptre vanished from public view after August 1947, and people forgot about it. 31 years later in 1978, Chandrashekarendra Saraswati told his disciple Dr BR Subramaniam about the sceptre, who wrote about it in books. Amit Shah said that Tamil media had covered it widely, and the Tamil Nadu government also mentioned it.
The home minister said that the government considers that keeping the Sengol in a museum is inappropriate, and nothing can be more appropriate place for the sceptre then the parliament building. He said that on the new Parliament House will be inaugurated, PM Modi will accept the Sengol from Tamil Nadu, and place it near the chair of the Lok Sabha speaker.
न्याय और निष्पक्षता का प्रतीक ऐतिहासिक सेंगोल।
— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) May 24, 2023
28 मई को संसद के नए भवन के लोकार्पण के शुभ अवसर पर PM @NarendraModi जी, भारत की धार्मिक और सांस्कृतिक धरोहर पवित्र 'सेंगोल' को ग्रहण कर नए भवन में इसकी स्थापना करेंगे। आइए इस पुण्य अवसर के हम सभी साक्षी बनें।#SengolAtNewParliament pic.twitter.com/IIb3j6kN2r
“I believe that this will be a rare and important moment to relate with the Indian traditions,” he said.
The home minister added that one person who witnessed the 1947 transfer of power event will also attend the inauguration of the new parliament house.
