Khaserao Jadhav

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Khaserao Bhagwantrao Jadhav, the second of three brothers Jadhavs, was about the same age as the Gaekwar and a distant relation of his. He was a graduate in agriculture from a British college. He had entered the Baroda Civil Service where he first served as a District Collector, then was posted at Baroda itself as Revenue Commissioner. Khaserao looked after the education of the Maharaja’s grandson for some time.

He was an elder brother of Madhavrao, a close friend of Sri Aurobindo at Baroda. The Gaekwar got a house built for Khaserao at Baroda. The address of the house is 15 Dandia Bazar (currently Sri Aurobindo Niwas). When this two-storeyed redbrick house was finished in 1896, Madhavrao and his family moved in (Khasirao then was sent to another state). Sri Aurobindo stayed there on and off during his years at Baroda. It is this house where Sri Aurobindo spent most of his time at Baroda.

Barin’s recollections of the house: “A rather big hall, facing the lawn, beyond which ran the main street from the railway station to Luxmi Vilash Palace, two rooms on its right and a covered inner courtyard, with a dining-room on one side and servants’ quarters on the other this was how the house was built. The same number of rooms were repeated upstairs, of which the hall was Sri Aurobindo’s study. A table, a sofa, a number of chairs, all heaped pellmell with books and a revolving book-case groaning under their weight — all thinly covered with dust.”

On 21 January 1939, Sri Aurobindo recollected: “Khaserao Jadhav and myself went to receive her [sister Nivedita] at station at Baroda. She saw the Dharamshala on the station and exclaimed: «how beautiful!» Loking at the new College buildings, she uttered: «how ugly!» Khaserao said: «She must be a little mad!»”