2 years after arriving, wagh nakh to be displayed at Mumbai museum

Mumbai: Two years after the wagh nakh (a dagger looking like tiger claws) that is said to be used by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj to kill Afzal Khan was brought to Maharashtra from London’s Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum, it will be brought to Mumbai. The wagh nakh will be exhibited at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) from Nov 2026. The state govt will spend Rs 20 lakh for the relocation of the wagh nakh from Laxmi Vilas Palace in Kolhapur to CSMVS in Mumbai.

The state has formed two committees, one for Mumbai and one for Satara, Kolhapur and Nagpur districts, where the wagh nakh was to be displayed. Local district collectors, police commissioner/superintendent, PWD officials and museum officials are part of the committee to ensure the wagh nakh’s safety. The committee will chalk out plans for its display. The Mumbai committee is headed by Dr Sabyasachi Mukherjee, director general of CSMVS.

The wagh nakh was brought to India in July 2024 on a three-year loan.

Officials said the tiger claw, made of steel, has four claws mounted on a bar with two rings for the first and fourth fingers. An officer of the East India Company, James Grant Duff, was given the tiger claws when he was Resident (Political Agent) at Satara by the Prime Minister of the Peshwas (of the Marathas). Duff served in the court from 1818 to 1824, after which he took it to Britain with him, and his descendants donated the weapon to the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum in London. The weapon is accompanied by a fitted case, made after Grant Duff returned to Scotland.

In Oct 2023, the Maharashtra govt, led by the then minister for cultural affairs Sudhir Munganthiwar, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Victoria and Albert Museum to get back the famed wagh nakh. The MoU set out the ‘details of a three-year loan agreement for a unique pair of tiger claws in the V&A collection’, the Victoria and Albert Museum said in its statement.

“The standard loan agreement is three years, and proposes that the tiger claws will travel to CSMVS, as well as the four other proposed venues,” a Victoria and Albert Museum spokesperson told TOI.