Thread by @SanatanTalks

A thread🧵: The Philosopher Queen Lokmata Maharani Ahilyabai Holkar!

Justice was such that she sentenced her son to death for his mistake, gave property rights to women

Ahilyabai was born on 31 May 1725 in village Chandi of Jamkhed town in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. Now this district is called Ahilyanagar. Her father Mankoji Rao Shinde was a soldier in the Maratha army who later became a hero. Mother Sushila Bai also belonged to a simple farmer family of the village.

The women of the families of Maratha soldiers were given some military training and were made to practice self-defense. The reason for this was that when the youth of the village were on military campaigns, anti-social elements would attack the village in a planned manner. Along with looting the border villages, women were also targeted.

That is why Shivaji Maharaj started giving some weapon training and increasing physical strength to women of military families and daughters of the village for self-defense. Ahilyabai had learned archery and spear throwing along with her mother. Mother Sushila Bai was a devotee of Shiva, due to which Ahilyabai also became a devotee of Shiva. She did not even drink water without worshipping. Along with self-defense, she was also given good education.

Born in a very ordinary soldier family in a rural environment, Ahilyabai later became a queen and Maharani. In 1733, she was married to Khanderao Holkar, son of Maharaja Malhar Rao Holkar of Indore. She was just eight years old then. Khanderao was two years older than her. It was a child marriage. Therefore, Ahilyabai stayed in her parents' house for four years after marriage. Her gauna ceremony took place in 1737. Now she had become a royal bride from the daughter of an ordinary soldier.

Her personal life was full of adversities. It was as if mountains of grief and sorrow fell on her, but she remained steadfast. When she was only 29 years old, her husband died. Then her father-in-law and guardian Malharrao ji died. Then her son died, then her grandson Natho died, then her son-in-law died and then her daughter became sati on her husband's funeral pyre, she saw all this with her own eyes. When Khanderao Holkar died, Malharrao ji stopped Ahilyabai from becoming sati and connected her to the state affairs.

After Malharrao's death, his grandson Malerao became the governor of Malwa. But his conduct was not good due to which Ahilyabai was very unhappy. Ahilyabai used to do puja-paath. She used to give donations to the poor and Brahmins. Malerao did not like all this. He considered it a waste of money. He used to behave harshly and ruthlessly with his subjects. He used to get more pleasure in harassing Brahmins.

It is said that he used to put snakes and scorpions in the food, sweets etc. given to the Brahmins. As soon as they picked it up, poisonous insects would bite them. The poor creatures would writhe in pain. Malerao would be very happy to see them writhing and screaming. There was a herbal seller in Maheshwar. Despite being innocent, Malerao got him killed.

One day Ahilyabai ordered that Malerao should be crushed by an elephant. He is a disgrace to the family. The officers got Malerao crushed under the elephant's feet. This incident caused a very severe mental shock to Ahilyabai. She was so sad that she thought of leaving everything and living in seclusion. But soon she remembered her subjects and realized her duty. Just as she had given up the idea of ​​becoming a sati on the advice of her father-in-law Malharrao and got involved in the state affairs, she again gathered the same courage and got involved in her duty.

Ahilyabai herself was an emotional woman. She was more sensitive towards the honour and rights of women. She never listened to the woes of women in the presence of men. There was a rule in those days. If a man died and he had no children, then all his property went to the treasury. If the son died and there was no male heir, then the woman had no right over this property either.

Ahilyabai changed this rule and ensured the rights of the mother or wife on the death of the husband or son. She was the ruler of Indore but her vision was wide-ranging. She started a campaign for cultural renaissance in the entire country. There is no region in the country where she has not established a temple, discourse hall, Annakshetra, school or gymnasium.

She got Dharamshalas and Annasatras constructed in faraway Badrinath, Haridwar and Kedarnath. She got a road constructed from Calcutta to Banaras. Annapurna temple in Banaras, Vishnu temple and ghats in Gaya were built by her. Apart from this, she built temples and Dharamshalas at 130 places like Somnath, Ayodhya, Mathura, Dwarka, Rameshwar, Jagannath Puri etc.

Ahilyabai also built ashrams for widows, orphans and handicapped people within the boundary of Indore state and in other states in the memory of her husband Khanderao and father-in-law Malharrao. Apart from Shiva bhakti, daily darshan of Narmada river, feeding fish and donating to the poor were part of her daily routine.

Ahilyabai breathed her last on 13 August 1795.