Vishnupant Moreshwar Chatre

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Vishnupant Moreshwar Chatre (1840-1905) was an Indian circus owner who is considered as the founder of the modern Indian circus.[1] His circus company Great Indian Circus was the first circus company in India. Chatre met martial arts trainer Keeleri Kunhikannan when Great Indian Circus toured Thalassery, Kerala in 1887. In this visit an agreement was signed between Keeleri Kunjikannan and Chatre, according to that Keeleri Kunjikannan agreed to train the trainees for the circus and Chatre agreed to employ them.[1] This led to the development of first circus academy in the country.[2]

Personal life[]

He was born in a small village called Ankalkhop in Sangali, Maharashtra. His father Moreshwar Chatre was the treasurer at palace of Jamkhandi.[3] Since childhood Chatre loved birds and animals.

At the urging of his father, Chatre got married at the age of sixteen.[3] After marriage he got job at stable of Ramdurg Palace.[3] Later, he gone to Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. There he got a job at stable of palace. At Gwalior, Baba Sahib Apthe, a famous horse trainer of that time taught him horse characters, horse training methods etc. At Gwalior, under Ustad Hadhu Khan, he studied Hindustani classical music also.[3]

After leaving Gwalior he got charge of the stables of Balasahib Patwardhan, the king of the Kurundwad princely state of Sangli.[4] Balasahib also helped Chatre to form his circus company. He trained his second wife Avuda Bai Parulelkar in single trapeze, acrobatics and animal training.[3][5]

In 1890, after handing over circus charges to his brother Chatre settled in Indore with his classical music master Ustad Rahmat Khan.[3] He was an acute diabetic patient. He died on February 20, 1905 at Indore.[3]

Birth of Indian circus[]

Main article: History of Indian circus

In 1879, the Royal Italian Circus by Giuseppe Chiarini toured India. Before all his shows started, he would tell the audience that India did not have a proper circus and would have to wait many more years to develop one. In addition, he offered "a thousand British Indian rupees" and a horse as a gift to anyone who could repeat his daring stage effects within six months.[4]

Accepting the challenge, on March 20, 1880, Chatre came to perform his circus at the Kurundwad Palace Grounds, but Chiarini did not came to see it.[4] After this Vishnupant Chatre bought most of the circus equipment from Chiarini.[6] Within a year, he formed a new circus company called the Great Indian Circus.[6] This is the first circus company in India. Chatre's Great Indian Circus toured various parts of India and other countries. He eventually merged his circus company with his cousin's company to form a new company called the Karlaker Grand Circus. The Karlaker Grand Circus lasted until 1935.[4]

Awards and honours[]

Bombay University honoured him giving the title "Professor".[3]

References[]

  1. ^ a b ":: Welcome to aum9.com ::". aum9.com. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
  2. ^ "A fine balance". The Hindu. 2016-10-22. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Champad, Sreedharan (September 2013). An Album of Indian Big Tops: (History of Indian Circus). Strategic Book Publishing. ISBN 978-1-62212-766-5.
  4. ^ a b c d "Mumbaiwale: How India's circus acts took to the stage". Hindustan Times. 2018-11-17. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
  5. ^ N; Nov 16, ini Sengupta | TNN |; 2014; Ist, 07:17. "Swadeshi girls in the ring - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2020-10-24.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ a b "ഗ്രേറ്റ് ഇന്ത്യന്‍ സര്‍ക്കസ്, ജംബോ സര്‍ക്കസ്.. അറിയാം സര്‍ക്കസ്സിന്റെ കഥ". Mathrubhumi. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
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