Dhany hai Bharat teerathdhaam
Posted on: August 30, 2024
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Today’s song is from the film Sakshi Gopal-1957.
Wednesday, 28th August 2024 was a very sad day for me. On this day, I learnt about the sad demise of Shri Harish Raghuwanshi ji from Surat. He was one of the most well known Hindi and Gujarati film Historians in India. He had a very large circle of admirers and friends all over India, but he hardly moved out of Surat, as far as I know.
I first came to know about him in 2010. I wanted confirmation of some information, so I phoned him and introduced myself. He readily gave me the information. He was a regular visitor to this Blog. When my first post appeared here on 1-10-2012, that evening Harish ji phoned me to congratulate me. He advised me to keep writing regularly so that my knowledge is made available to others freely. Our friendship deepened and the flow of mails and WA messages, both ways, became a regular feature. This had continued till about the last 6 months when he almost became bedridden and his activities became limited. I missed his mails and messages, though I kept on sending mine to him. I do not know if they were seen by him, though I received one or two mails from him. He was very sick.
I first visited him in 2016, when I specially went to Surat only to meet him. He was very much delighted by my visit. He introduced me to all his family members. Lastly, he took me to a room, where his sick son was bedridden due to paralysis for a few years. Tears flowed from his eyes while telling me this.
During that visit, he enthusiastically showed me his books, magazines, newspapers collection as well as CDs/Cassettes and DVD collection of films and songs. Most of it was stored on the first floor in a big hall, full of shelves and steel racks. While going through his collection, I was attracted and fascinated by a big, fat book, ” Filmdom-The All India Film Directory and Who’s who in the Indian film industry-1946 “. It contained so many Bios etc. of old time artistes and others. After spending about 4-5 hours with him, I returned to my Hotel. I was to drive back to Mumbai the next morning. At about 9.30 in the night, Harish ji gave me a surprise visit in the hotel. He had xeroxed the entire book ” Filmdom” for me and he had come to give that copy to me. He even refused to take any money for xeroxing. The book was about 300 pages on both sides. This was his precious gift to me on my First visit.
Second time I visited him was in 2018, along with some Atulites- Sadanand ji and Bharat Bhai. Avinash ji joined us directly at Surat. He came from Vadodara. We had gone by Train. Harish Ji had sent his son to the station to receive us. We had a gala time with Harish ji. He took us out for Lunch. We had a group photo and we returned to Mumbai in the evening by road in a hired Taxi.
He had been very friendly, kind and helpful to me. He sent me all his books, including Mukesh Geet Kosh. When he came to know that I could read Gujarati very well, he was excited and sent his Gujarati books also to me. My cherished message from him on the Gujarati book ” बॉलीवूडमा गुजरातिओ ” was ” बॉलीवूड के बारे में ज्यादा एवं सही जानकरी रखनेवाले अरुणकुमार जी को सप्रेम भेट ” – हरीश रघुवंशी.
Harish ji’s exit from this world is my personal loss, so is to all his fans and friends. May his soul rest in Eternal Peace !
Coming to today’s film Sakshi Gopal- 1957, I had seen this film in Hyderabad, along with some elders of the family. Later on I read about this story in detail and decided to visit the temple in Orissa sometime. After my retirement, when I went on a sightseeing tour of East India, with my wife, we went to Bhubaneshwar . We not only visited the Jagannath Temple at Puri, but also visited and saw the Sakshi Gopal Temple which is at a distance of about 10 Kms. from Puri.
The edited story of this film is….
It is said that a poor young man of the village- Vidyanagar, later named Sakshigopal, fell in love with the daughter of the village headman. However, being of a higher economic status, the headman opposed marriage between this young man and his daughter. The villagers, including the headman and the young man, went on a pilgrimage to Vrindavan. The village headman fell ill and was abandoned by fellow villagers. The young man tended to him so well that he soon got well, and, in gratitude, promised his daughter in marriage to the young man, in front of the Gopal Temple in Vrindavan. As soon as they returned to the village, the headman went back on his promise, asking the young man to produce a witness in support of his claim.
Lord Gopala, impressed by the young man’s devotion, agreed to come and be a witness to the promise on one condition: that the young man lead the way, and he would follow. But the young man must never look back. He led the way to the village, passing a mound of sand. As they passed, the man could not hear the Lord’s footsteps and turned back. Immediately the Lord turned into a statue of stone rooted to the spot. The villagers were still so impressed that God (Gopal) himself came to be a witness (Sakshi) and to back the young man’s claim, that the youngsters were married off; they were later appointed as the first priests of the temple built in Lord Gopala’s honour who came to bear witness. Hence the name SAKSHI GOPAL.
The film was produced by 2 people- Vikram and Lallubhai. It was directed by 2 people – Balchandra Shukla and Ramnik Vaidya and the music was by 2 people – Chitragupta and his assistant Dilip Dholakia. Even in the cast there were 2 pairs of 2 brothers ! The cast of the film was, Bharat Bhushan, Nanda (billed as Kumari Nanda. ), Chaman Puri and Madan Puri, Seetaram and Teekaram, Niranjan Sharma, Achala sachdev, and many others.
Today’s song is sung by Manna Dey and Chorus. As per a note in HFGK, this song was added to the film much later. Let us enjoy….
I dedicate this post to Shri Harish Raghuvanshi ji !
Song-Dhanya hai Bharat Teerath Dham (Sakshi Gopal)(1957) Singer- Manna Dey, Lyricist- Bharat Vyas, MD- Chitragupt ( asstt. Dilip Dhlakiya)
Chorus
Manna Dey + Chorus
Lyrics
janani janmabhoomisya
swargadapi gariyasi
jiski god mein khele thhey
Shri Krishn aur Shri Ram
ye paawan manbhaawan bhoomi
Bharat teerathdhaam
dhany hai Bharat teerathdhaam
jahaan jamne thhey Krishn aur Ram
dhany hai Bharat teerathdhaam
jahaan jamne thhey Krishn aur Ram
Kahin hai Gokul kahin Dwarka
Vrindawan hai swarg samaan
Jagannathpur Puri jahaan par
milte bhakton se Bhagwan
Rameshwar ka dhaam Ram ne
jisko swayam banaayaa thhaa
muktidaayini Kashi jisko
Shankar ne apnaayaa thhaa
ek ek se sundar mandir
karte chalo pranaam
dhany hai Bharat teerathdhaam
jahaan jamne thhey Krishn aur Ram
Haridwar Ganga tat pe
jiski lahron mein paap katey
Amarnath him dhawan dhaam
jahaan sabhi ??
Jai Badri Kedar jo leta
patiton ko ??
dhany hai Bharat teerathdhaam
jahaan jamne thhey Krishn aur Ram
Sabhi dhaam Abhiram hain
sabka roop vishaal
yatra safal na ho kabhi
bin Sakshi Gopal
Sakshi Gopal sabke pratipal hain
darshan ki mahimaa mahaan hai
unke darshan ki mahimaa mahaan hai
unki katha sun mitati vyatha
ye to aise niraale bhagwan hain
ye to aise niraale bhagwan hain
naye naye sthhaanon se aaye hain yaatri
mandir ke pat ab khol de
Sakshi Gopal jai Sakshi Gopal
sab bhakti magan bhakt bolte
Sakshi Gopal jai Sakshi Gopal
sab bhakti magan bhakt bolte(?)
jai Sakshi Gopal
7 Responses to "Dhany hai Bharat teerathdhaam"
August 30, 2024 at 9:20 am
The reminiscence about Harish ji is so poignant and came to know about him so many information and his large heartedness. My tributes to him.I am fortunate one to have inaugural copy of his MUKESH GEET KOSH as also INHE NA BHULANA. Thanks ARUN ji for sharing information .
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August 30, 2024 at 7:27 pm
I’m deeply saddened by the loss of Shri Harish Raghuwanshi ji.
Arun Sir’s heartfelt tribute brought tears to my eyes, capturing the essence of a remarkable individual who shared his vast knowledge and love for music and cinema.
Harish Ji’s generosity and wisdom will be greatly missed by all who had the privilege of knowing him.
May his soul find eternal peace.
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August 30, 2024 at 8:32 pm
Gandhi Vadlapatla ji,
your tribute is better than what I could express.
The loss is beyond words.
Thanks.
-AD
September 2, 2024 at 11:40 am
tributes to Shri. Harish Raghuvanshiji🙏🏻
what little I know of him is from what I have read here in this post & Maheshji’s mentions about him. Plus what Avinashji had written about your visit to Surat a few years back
thanking him for his love of everything connected with indian films specially Hindi & Gujarati films which led to the documenting their history. Also thanks to him there is a Mukesh Geet Kosh
from this post I also learn that he was also a collector of books, magazines, cds/ cassettes, DVDs etc
May he rest in peace
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
August 30, 2024 at 8:13 am
Our Tributes to Harish jee !!!
I will always cherish the memory of meeting him. And even though I met him only once I always feel that I met him in several discussions in our meetings (gang outs), several communications and posts on this blog.
I remember when I had visited you last I had read Harish jee’s message in his book to you, that you mentioned above.
Thanks for this post.
We will miss Harsih jee a lot !
Regards,
Avinash
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August 30, 2024 at 10:04 am
Thanks for sharing your feelings.
-AD
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