Legacy Works
This section preserves and presents the unpublished and historically significant literary and theatrical work of Dasharath Sonar — including original plays, stories, poems, and curated theatre-history material.
These works are shared as an archive first — not as products, and not as promotion — but as a cultural record. Some were commercially staged and widely performed in their time. Others remained unpublished, despite their literary and historical value.
This archive exists to preserve authorship, enable discovery, and allow serious inquiry — academic, cultural, or theatrical — without reducing the work to inventory.
Original Works by Dasharath Sonar
This section preserves original theatrical, literary, and narrative works authored by Dasharath Sonar — spanning plays, stories, manuscripts, and unpublished writings created over several decades.
The body of work includes:
Historical and devotional stage plays
Commercial comedy plays were successfully performed during the 1980s and 1990s
Award-winning dramatic works recognized at national and regional levels
Short stories and literary manuscripts
Unpublished texts made accessible here for the first time
At this stage, the works are presented by title only.
Details such as storyline, structure, performance history, and thematic depth are intentionally withheld — not to limit access, but to preserve context, authorship, and the integrity of each work. These materials are shared selectively, through direct and meaningful engagement.
This archive is not a catalogue for quick consumption.
It is an invitation to those who value theatre, literature, and cultural continuity.
Plays by Dasharath Sonar
Har Har Mahadev
Putra Sambhav
Chitrālekha (Award-winning dramatic play)
Sharmishtha
Ek Chatur Naar
Chanduchi Love Story
Purushanna Jeva Dohale Lagtaat (Comedy stage play)
Mi Duryodhan, Mi Suyodhan
Attribution:
Written by Dasharath Sonar
Preserved and presented by Shriharsh Sonar
(Archival visuals, clippings, and original materials related to these works are displayed below.)
This archive unfolds best on a larger screen. Desktop viewing is recommended for the intended experience.
Marathi Theatre Heritage Collection
- Curated Archive
A rare curated collection documenting the contribution of early Marathi theatre artists — including performers from the Bal Gandharva era and pioneers of stage performance during a formative period in Indian theatre history.
This section includes:
Archival photographs and stills
Restored and color-interpreted images from black-and-white sources
Contextual notes and references
Commentary for cultural and academic use
This material is presented for preservation, study, and reference.
Access & Inquiry
Some works are viewable in full.
Others are available as previews or records only.
For archival access, revival discussion, academic reference, or cultural inquiry, communication may be initiated through the contact page.
This archive is not exhaustive.
It is careful.
Sample Pages
Manuscripts and Writings
Handwritten Texts - Poems, Notes, Scripts, Thoughts
Calendar & Magazine Design
Archive
Before design became software, it was composition, patience, and intuition.
Alongside literary and theatrical work, Dasharath Sonar was also sought after for commercial illustration and design.
Local publishers, institutions, and businesses commissioned him for:
Calendar artwork
Magazine and Diwali special covers
Souvenir and memento illustrations
Printed visual material for public circulation
These works were professionally commissioned, published by respective stakeholders, and distributed widely during their time. They reflect an era when design was executed entirely by hand — without templates, references, or digital tools — and when visual trust was earned through craft alone.
What is preserved here is not a complete catalogue, but representative examples from surviving material — offered as historical record rather than reproduction.
Attribution:
Artwork by Dasharath Sonar
Preserved and presented by Shriharsh Sonar
(Selected published samples are displayed below.)
Narahari Sonar — When Art Reveals the Oneness of the Divine
This artwork draws from the devotional legend of Narahari Sonar, a goldsmith-saint of Pandharpur and an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva. According to tradition, Narahari was once asked to craft a golden waist ornament for Lord Panduranga. Reluctant to work for a deity he believed was different from his chosen Lord, he agreed only on the condition that he would measure the idol while blindfolded.
Inside the sanctum, as he touched the idol to take measurements, Narahari sensed unmistakable attributes of Shiva — the matted locks, the serpent, the crescent moon, the divine presence he had worshipped all his life. Yet when he finally removed the blindfold, the form before him was Panduranga. In that moment, Narahari realized the spiritual truth celebrated in Bhakti tradition — that Hari and Hara, Vishnu and Shiva, are not separate, but expressions of the same divine reality.
What makes this painting remarkable is not merely its devotional subject, but the artistic intelligence behind its composition. Long before digital tools or visual manipulation existed, Dasharath Sonar conceived and painted a composition that subtly blends iconographic elements of Shiva within the form of Panduranga. Through visual storytelling, he captures the very confusion, revelation, and spiritual unity experienced by Narahari.
This work therefore stands not just as a piece of devotional art, but as evidence of the artist’s deep cultural understanding, storytelling ability, and compositional brilliance — where art, philosophy, and devotion meet on a single canvas.
An artwork that speaks as much to the intellect as it does to faith.