Ahilyabai Holkar

Ahilyabai Holkar (born May 31, 1725, Chaundi village, Hyderabad [now in Ahilyanagar district, Maharashtra], India—died August 13, 1795, Indore, India) was a ruler of the Malwa territory, a part of the Maratha Confederacy, from 1767 to 1795. She is one of the few women to have led an Indian polity during the era. She served first as regent and then as ruler of the Holkar dynasty with its seats at Maheshwar and Indore in central India, in a period considered the zenith of the Holkar dynasty. She was also known for her philanthropy, especially the building of multiple Hindu temples. She is known as Punyashlok (“One as Pure as the Sacred Chants”).

Early life and marriage

Ahilyabai was born in Chaundi (or Chondi) village in the present-day Ahilyanagar district of Maharashtra state in India. Her father, Mankoji Rao Shinde, was the patil (loosely equivalent to “chief”) of the village. He taught Ahilyabai to read and write, even though women of the era did not go to school.

When Ahilyabai was eight, she was noticed at her village’s temple service by Malhar Rao Holkar, the lord of the Malwa territory and a commander in the Maratha army of Peshwa Balaji Rao. Impressed by her bearing, Malhar Rao arranged her wedding with his son Khanderao (1723–54), then aged 10, child marriage being common in that era. In 1745 she gave birth to a son named Malerao. A daughter named Muktabai followed in 1748.

Khanderao was killed by cannon fire in battle during the siege of Kumbher in 1754. Traditions of the time advocated that Ahilyabai commit sati, a practice in Hinduism that required the widow to burn herself alive in her husband’s funeral pyre. But she was stopped from doing so by Malhar Rao, who proceeded to train her in statecraft and warfare. She undertook military campaigns on his behalf and became a trained archer. She also ran the state affairs when Malhar Rao was out on campaigns. Letters exchanged between Malhar Rao and Ahilyabai reveal her abilities and knowledge.

Malhar Rao died in 1766 and was succeeded by Ahilyabai’s son, Malerao. Malerao, however, had a history of mental illness and died within a year of his succession. In the absence of a male heir, Ahilyabai, as regent, was advised to adopt a male child from the Holkar clan and place him on the throne. This advice, from the minister Gangadhar Jeswant, would have secured the latter’s position. But Ahilyabai saw through this plan and appealed to the other Maratha chiefs to support her claim (then unrecognized, on account of her being a woman) to the Holkar throne. A letter from the peshwa soon arrived, recognizing her abilities and guaranteeing his support.

Reign

Ahilyabai appointed Malhar Rao’s adopted son Tukoji Rao Holkar the commander of the Holkar army; he would serve her for the next 28 years. She engaged the Frenchman Chevelier Dudrenec in 1792 to help modernize her army by raising four battalions. But her legacy lies in her diplomatic and administrative skills as well as patronage of construction projects. Her reign is considered to be the zenith of the Holkar dynasty, marked by peace, stability, and progress.

Breaking another norm of the time, Ahilyabai did not observe the custom of purdah (seclusion of women). She was known for being accessible to all her subjects and held daily audiences where people could approach her. She established courts for justice and arbitration in citizens’ disputes. Uncharacteristically for the times, Ahilyabai had her daughter married to a commoner who displayed valor on the battlefield.

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Ahilyabai also helped construct multiple forts, roads, wells, and rest houses. She made Maheshwar (literally, “abode of Lord Shiva”) her capital and offered employment to several craftsmen, artists, and sculptors. She patronized religious monuments, even in regions outside her domain, and helped rebuild the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, which had been razed under the orders of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, in Varanasi and the Grishneshwar temple near Aurangabad. She is said to have established a textile industry in Maheshwar, which gave birth to the Maheshwari sari that are woven to this day.

Upon her death, Ahilyabai was succeeded by Tukoji Rao Holkar, who abdicated in his son Jaswant Rao’s favor two years later. Jaswant Rao was the last Holkar ruler to remain independent until his 1804 defeat by and subsequent peace with the British.

Legacy

The main entrance to the Maheshwar fort is named the Ahilya Dwar (“door”) and leads to the main Holkar palace. Her former throne survives today and is a simple low wooden chair with a silk canopy.

Several roads and locations have been named in her honor. When the social reformer Vitthal Ramji Shinde (1873–1944) established a school for the then socially marginalized class of people called “untouchables” in the early 20th century, its building in Pune was named the Ahilya Ashram for Ahilyabai Holkar. The Indore airport is named the Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport. Two universities, the Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya in Indore and the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar University in Solapur have been named for her.

John Malcolm, the British governor of Bombay Province from 1827 to 1830, wrote extensively about Ahilyabai Holkar in his 1823 book A Memoir of Central India (she is called Ahalya Baee in the book). In his book Discovery of India, Jawaharlal Nehru described her as “a remarkable woman”. In 2002 a biography Lokmata Ahilyabai (“Ahilyabai, Mother of the People”) was written by Arvind Javlekar.

Ahilyabai has been dramatized for the stage and screen as well. In 2017 a play titled Matoshree (“Respected Mother”), a dramatized version of Ahilyabai Holkar’s life, was written and published in Hindi by former Lok Sabha (the lower chamber of India’s bicameral parliament) speaker Sumitra Mahajan. In 2021 a Hindi TV series based on her life titled Punyashlok Ahilya Bai aired on the Sony LIV channel.