Guruwar Peth, Pune — Area Guide & Where to Stay

What are the main landmarks in Guruwar Peth?

One tower marks the peth. The Church of the Holy Name, built by the Society of St John the Evangelist and finished in December 1885, stands behind a free-standing belfry, the only one of its kind in Pune. Eight bells cast in 1883 by Taylor & Sons of Loughborough hang inside it.

The mission around the church, Panch Haud, is named for five water tanks. Two graded heritage buildings sit deeper in the lanes: the Chandraprabhu Maharaj Digambar Jain Mandir and the Vetal Temple.

What is the history of Guruwar Peth?

Peths are Pune's old wards, and seven of them carry the names of weekdays because trade in each ran on that one day. Guruwar is Thursday. Jivajipant Khasgiwale laid out this one in 1750, in the middle of the Peshwa century that pushed the city south and east from its older core at Kasba Peth.

Anglican missionaries came later. On 14 October 1890 the sisters of the Panch Haud Mission served tea and biscuits to Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Mahadev Govind Ranade and Gopal Krishna Gokhale, and the quarrel that followed over caste and ritual purity ran for years. Ranade accepted prayaschitta rather than argue.

Where is Guruwar Peth?

Guruwar Peth lies in the flat old-city grid south of the Mutha, hemmed in on three sides by Shukrawar Peth and opening east toward Ganj Peth, renamed Mahatma Phule Peth. Raviwar Peth adjoins it on the north. Swargate closes the southern end, where the old city stops and the roads out to Katraj and Hadapsar begin, and Ghorpade Peth runs along that same edge. The lanes are narrow.