Ministry of Information and Broadcasting:

The Sacred Sengol, blessed by high priests from Tamil Nadu, carries the spirit of just rule and represents the values of fair & equitable governance.

To be installed in the New Parliament Building by PM Narendra Modi, the revered artifact will shine near the Lok Sabha Speaker’s podium as a fitting symbol of the Amrit Kaal, an era that will witness the new India taking its rightful place in the world.

Amit Malviya – BJP leader:

Sengol At New Parliament

There is a rich history associated with the Sengol and this is how it goes…

Vesting the Sengol in the hands of the new ruler by Rajaguru is the Tamil Chola Empire tradition of anointing a new ruler.

An ancient Tamil Shaiva Adheenam [Math] performed the ceremony and vested the Sengol in the hands of Jawaharlal Nehru, on the eve of India’s independence.

The Sengol – which symbolises virtual and ethical rule – is highly spoken of in the ancient Tamil texts, and saint-poet Tiruvalluvar has written 10 verses celebrating Sengol and “Songonmai” – which means rule based on “Aram” – the Tamil world for Dharma.

The sacred Sengol ceremony took place just before Pundit Nehru hoisted the national flag and addressed the nation with the message of ‘Tryst with Destiny’.

Indian and even foreign media had reported, preceding and succeeding August 14, 1947, on the Sengol ceremony.

The transfer of power had to be held in a nation, ravaged by partition and violence, and as such the Sengol ceremony had to be arranged in post-haste. Since it wasn’t a legal or formal matter, it was undertaken by oral orders, and hence remained unrecorded.

As a result, the sacred Sengol and its vesting ceremony seem to have disappeared from the institutional memory of the Indian state.

But reports had appeared in popular Tamil language media from 2017 onwards about how minutes before Jawaharlal Nehru addressed the nation as the Prime Minister, the government of India had followed the sacred Sengol vesting model of Chola Kings of Tamil Nadu [who used to assume power] for transfer of power from the Britishers to Indians.

The Tamil Media had reported that the vesting of power and the assumption of it by Nehru, on behalf of the people of Independent India, was administered by the saint who belonged to Tiruvavaduthurai Math and their team of musicians and Oduvars [grantis] who were specially invited by the government to perform the vesting of the Sengol.

Adopting the traditions the Chola Kings had adopted the Adheenams handed over to the Prime Minister a golden Sengol with the Nandi [Bull] at its top, purified with waters from holy rivers, and singing sacred Tamil text Thevaram, symbolic of the divine blessings and command to rule just and fairly.  

The reports had said that the background to the ritual was the query by the Viceroy Mountbatten to Jawaharlal Nehru, as to what was the traditional ritual to be followed to symbolize the transfer of power. Nehru sought the advice of Rajagopalachari, Rajaji as he was popularly known. And it was Rajaji who conceptualized the Chola model of assumption to the throne and approached the Tiruvavaduthurai Math and requested to perform the sacred function at Delhi.

He made travel aarrangements for the Adheenam team to travel to Delhi and administer the vesting of the Sengol in the hands of the Prime Minister on the model of the age-old ritual prevalent at the time of the Chola kings.

The Tamil media also reported that the idea of the Sengol vesting was to avoid assuming the power from the British directly and to get the authority from the hands of saints.

The media had also reported that it all happened in post haste. The Adheenam got a 5-ft long gold plated Sengol made by Vummidi Bangaru Chetty, a well-known house of jewellers in Chennai. As the senior Adheenam was unwell he sent his junior along with the entire team of saints, singers, and musicians. Some 15 minutes before Nehru addressed the nation at zero hours on 15th August, the saint handed over the Sengol to Jawaharlal Nehru, who held it when the 11 verses of the Thevaram, called the Kolaru Pathikam, which was sung to invoke the blessings of Lord Shiva, which assured the king assuming power to rule in eternity.

The photos of the event with Jawaharlal Nehru, which were available with the Tiruduthurai Adheenam, showing Pundit Nehru holding the Sengol with devotion, as the Saints performed the singing of the verses was also carried in the media.

The media had also reported that the photos of the event were displayed in the Ashram of the Tiruvaduthurai Adeenam premises. The description of the event by the media was meticulous. It had detailed that Vummidi Bangaru Chetty jewellers had made the Sengol as per the design provided by Adeenam. The media had also reported that the entire sacred ceremony was suppressed from the public and the Sengol which symbolized the transfer of power was kept in Anand Bhavan in Allahabad.

Following this, the popular Tamil Weekly Thuglak founded by the famous Tamil journalist Cho Ramaswamy published a detailed account of the historicity of the event tracing it to the recorded conversation of one of the most revered saints of the last century, the Kanchi Paramacharya, with his disciples.

The text of the conversation showed that it seemed to have taken place on Independence Day in 1978. The conversation, as found in a book, that was published much later, after the Kanchi Acharya had attained Siddhi in 1994. The Thuglak magazine also cited the Tamil media reports and also the photos of Nehru standing with the Sengol. The Thuglak article appeared in May 2021. Immediately thereafter Dr Padma Subrahmanyam, one of the most well-known classical dance artiste and also winner of Pama Bhushan and other awards translated the article into English and sent it to the office of the Prime Minister. She had pleaded that such a profound, sacred, historic ceremony of Sengol vesting has been kept out of public knowledge and history. She requested that the government must make this public on the occasion of nation’s Independence Day in 2021.

This set off the government to verify the media reports and authenticity of the Sengol vesting ceremony on the intervening night of 14/15th August 1947.