The historic sceptre ‘Sengol’ is set to take pride of place in India’s new parliament building. The Chola-inspired sceptre will be installed near the chair of the Lok Sabha Speaker in the new parliament building which will be dedicated to the nation by PM Narendra Modi on May 28, 2023.
Addressing a press conference today in Delhi, home minister Amit Shah said that the ‘Sengol,’ which is from the Chola dynasty, 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.
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,” Amit 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.”
Reportedly, when the British handed over power to Indians in 1947, the momentous occasion was symbolised by the handing over of a Sengol (sceptre) to the first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru by the last Viceroy Lord Mountbatten through Hindu saints from Tamil Nadu.
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
But what happened to the sceptre in the intervening years?
Mislabelling of the ‘Sengol’ as Nehru’s “golden walking stick” and its revival due to PM Modi
The Sengol, a testament to India’s emergence as a new, sovereign independent nation, had languished in a nondescript museum in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh for nearly seven decades. The display box’s description tag read, “Golden walking stick given to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.”
The five feet long sceptre of the ‘Sengol’ was retrieved from the Allahabad Museum after a one-minute video by Chennai-based Vummudi Bangaru Jewellers (VBJ) reportedly caught PM Narendra Modi’s attention.
“It had been lying there for decades, mislabelled as Nehru’s ‘golden walking stick’. We were not aware of the ‘sengol’ story until we read about it in a magazine in 2018. We found it in the museum in 2019 and planned a press conference with Allahabad Museum officials,” said VBJ managing director Amarendran Vummudi. “That did not happen because of the pandemic. So, we made a video. It caught the attention of PM Modi,” Amarendran said.
The ‘sengol’ had been forgotten by the Vummudi family. Bangaru Chetty, who created the ‘sengol’ out of more than 100 sovereigns of gold and charged the government roughly Rs 15,000, died. His son Vummudi Ethiraj, who was 22 at the time of independence, had vague memories of Madras Presidency VVIPs visiting their shop to inspect the ‘sengol’ before it was packed and shipped to Delhi.
“He told us they took less than a month to make it. But he did not know what it was made of or how it looked,” Amarendran added.
The jeweller’s marketing head Arun Kumar found it at the Allahabad Museum. “It was displayed along with a miniature brass cannon and a multi-component storage box within a glass box. The description tag in the display box read: ‘Golden walking stick gifted to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’,” he said. However, he recognised the sceptre which had Goddess Lakshmi surrounded by flowers on the orb and a Rishabha (sacred bull) atop it.
Later, when a team appointed by the PMO, comprising journalist S Gurumurthy, contacted the Vummudi group, a documentary with input from the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), historians, and Shaivite mutt leaders from Tamil Nadu was made by filmmaker Priyadarshan and National Award-winning production designer Sabu Cyril.
“We recreated a replica of the sengol,” Amarendran said, adding that the piece is kept in his office.
Less than a month ago, the IGNCA officials approached Vummudi Bangaru Jewellers and tasked them with creating a copy of the gold sengol (sceptre). Vummudi had to create a copy of the gold sceptre on a silver sheet this time. Later, it was gold-plated. The silver sceptre will be used for public exhibition, while the original will be retained in Parliament indefinitely.
“We were given just eight days. We had three teams of artists working day and night,” he said. The gold-plated sceptre was handed over to officials at Chennai Airport and flown in a separate seat to Delhi.
The lesser-known facts about the Chola-Inspired Sceptre
The sceptre known as ‘sengol’, derived from the Tamil word for righteousness, was received by Nehru to represent the transfer of power from the British. It was later moved to a museum in Allahabad (today’s Prayagraj) in Uttar Pradesh. For all these years, the historic sceptre was regarded as Nehru’s “golden walking stick”.
Sengol, as few people know, was the brainchild of India’s last Governor General C Rajagopalachari, whom Nehru met after Lord Mountbatten asked how India’s freedom could be symbolised. He studied multiple historic books and informed Jawaharlal Nehru about the Sengol. Rajaji relied on a Chola-era practise in which the state’s high priest would give the new king a sceptre upon assuming power.
After Nehru agreed to the suggestion, Rajaji contacted the Thiruvaduthurai Aadheenam, a 14th-century Saivite mutt in the Mayiladuthurai district town of Thiruvaduthurai. The mutt’s seer arranged for the sceptre. Prominent Chennai jeweller Vummidi Bangaru Chetty was handed over the task to create the sceptre, topped with a statue of Nandi, the bull vahana of Lord Shiva.
On the eve of India’s independence, the Sengol was specifically flown to Delhi, with the deputy pontiff of the mutt Kumaraswamy Thambiran Swamigal initiating the transfer of power. The Sengol was sanctified with holy water minutes before the clock struck 00:00, and verses from the Thirumurais’ Kolaru Padhigam (a collection of poetry honouring Hindu God Shiva) were chanted. Swamigal gave the sceptre to Nehru, completing the transfer of power.
This high-profile historical event was, however, kept under wraps. The historic Sengol vanished after the event because it was housed in a museum. Worse, the sacred totemic Sengol, which represents authority and justice, became known as Nehru’s “golden walking stick.” Thanks to the Nehruvian ecosystem and succeeding Congress governments, the general people eventually forgot about it, and it ended up languishing in a mundane museum as Jawaharlal Nehru’s “Golden Walking Stick” for over 7 decades.
Today, thanks to the Modi government’s efforts, this Sengol has been restored to new life and will be installed in India’s new temple of democracy, majestically near the Speaker’s chair.
More about Sengol can be read on this website.
