Shri V.B. Kher, a Sai devotee and researcher, conducted extensive research in 1975 to discover the birthplace of Sai Baba. His systematic study of all the available material pointed to Pathri, a small village in the Marathwada district of Maharashtra, as the possible birthplace of Baba. Baba had referred to his family and birthplace in conversations with Mhalsapati and Swami Sai Sharan Anand, two
of his close disciples. The well known saints Madhavnath and Satya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi have also indicated Pathri to be the birthplace of Sai Baba. Kher decided to visit Pathri and conduct further research. He made contact with late Shri Dinkarrao Chaudhari, a lawyer and farmer from the respected Chaudhari family of Pathri. In one of his conversations with Kher, Dinkarrao recalled how his late father had once pointed to one Bhau Bhusari and remarked at the sad plight of a descendant of Sai Baba! Later, some Muslim clients who came to see Dinkarrao stated that Sai Baba had been born in a Brahmin family in Pathri and had been taken away by a fakir when he was a child. Kher then visited numerous residents of Pathri and made lists of all the Brahmin families, with details about their sects, family deities etc. From all the information garnered, one very interesting fact emerged; only one Brahmin family had Hanuman as the family deity and that was the Bhusari family, a Yajurvedi Deshastha Brahmin family. Knowing Baba’s special fondness for Hanuman, it was an exciting piece of information. He began correspondence with Prof. Raghunath Bhusari, the only direct living descendant of the Bhusari family who provided information about the family tree. The circumstantial evidence indicated that Sai Baba was Haribhau Bhusari, who left home at the age of 8 in search of God. “The theory advanced is probable. I leave the matter to the readers to judge for themselves,” says Kher.
