DAILY NEWS WRAP | 22 OCTOBER 2026
What happened
Vummidi Ethiraj, the Chennai jeweller who was part of the team that crafted the historic Sengol, died in Chennai on 21 October 2026. He was 99, born on 25 November 1926, a month short of his 100th birthday. He was the patriarch of the family behind Vummidi Bangaru Jewellers, a firm more than a century old.
The Sengol is a gold-plated silver sceptre topped by a figure of Nandi. It was made by Vummidi Bangaru Jewellers in 1947 and presented to Jawaharlal Nehru on the night of 14 August 1947 by priests of the Thiruvaduthurai Adheenam, a Shaivite monastery in Tamil Nadu, as a symbol of the transfer of power. Ethiraj was about 20 at the time and was among the craftsmen who worked on it.
For decades the Sengol was kept in the Allahabad Museum. In 2023 the government gave it a place in the new Parliament building: on 28 May 2023, at the inauguration, the Prime Minister installed it near the Speaker’s chair in the Lok Sabha chamber. The Sengol was therefore made in 1947; it was not made for the new Parliament, but installed there 76 years later.
The word ‘Sengol’ comes from the Tamil ‘semmai’, meaning righteousness. The 2023 ceremony described the sceptre as drawing on a Chola-era tradition of handing over a sceptre to mark a new ruler’s authority and duty to govern justly.
President Droupadi Murmu, Vice-President C. P. Radhakrishnan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to Ethiraj. The Prime Minister recalled his role in crafting the sceptre presented to Nehru and noted that in 2023 the Sengol was given its due place in the new Parliament.
- Sengol: a Tamil sceptre symbolising just rule; the name is linked to the Tamil ‘semmai’ (righteousness).
- Adheenam: a Shaivite monastic institution in Tamil Nadu.
- Transfer of power: the handover of authority from British rule to independent India in August 1947.
- Made in 1947 by Vummidi Bangaru Jewellers, Chennai; presented to Nehru on 14 Aug 1947.
- Installed in the new Parliament (Lok Sabha chamber) on 28 May 2023.
- Vummidi Ethiraj: born 25 Nov 1926; died 21 Oct 2026, Chennai, aged 99.
- A link between India’s independence moment and its new Parliament building.
- Persons in news + culture: a classic GK pairing in CLAT, SSC and state exams.
- Sengol material: gold-plated silver, with a Nandi on top; the name links to the Tamil word semmai (righteousness).
- Kept at the Allahabad Museum before 2023.
Sources: ThePrint (21 Oct 2026), Organiser (21 Oct 2026), ETV Bharat (21 Oct 2026), UNI India (Oct 2026).
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