Ahilyabai Holkar, or ‘Devi’ as she was fondly called by her subjects, was a Maratha ruler in Central Bharat in the 18th century. The story of her rise to power and glorious rule has attracted less attention than it ought to have in modern India. This could be because it is difficult to fit her into any of the stereotypes regarding historical heroes and heroines.
As one writer said, “Unlike the other Viranganas, she is not commonly pictured in male dress, but instead wore..plain white clothing without jewellery…”Her valour in the battlefield and large wealth was only surpassed by her humility.
Referring to the “perfect order and good Government” that pervaded under Ahilyabai, in The Discovery of India, Pt Nehru said: “During the very period when Bengal and Bihar, under the new rule of the East India Company deteriorated and there was organised plunder…central India… (was) in a prosperous condition”. In the same book Nehru wondered “what was the secret strength?” that made India’s “cultural basis” endure progressively for “five or six thousand years or more”. Perhaps the secret always lied in the way personalities like Ahilyabai lived. She ensured 30 years of peaceful and prosperous reign for her subjects when the situation in the rest of the country was completely volatile. How she did this is most fascinating.
Overcoming Emotional Trauma
Ahilyabai took over the reins of Malwa as a young widow who lost her only son. It was not just a matter of serendipity that a single woman gained power in pre-modern India to set an example of benevolent administration for future generations. Something about the much vilified Indian patriarchy had a role. Ahilyabai was dissuaded from committing Sati and trained in the art of warfare and administration by her father-in-law, Subedar Malharrao Holkar. Even after his time, she managed to stabilise her rule against male claimants and rebels with the express support of the Peshwa Madhav Rao. The true light of her character shone in her piety and her love for her subjects. The lack of internal and external threats allowed her to keep taxes low, build highways, forts and wells and perform innumerable charities. Her kindness towards animals and wildlife has also been written about. She held court daily and is said to have rejoiced when she saw bankers, merchants, farmers and cultivators rise to affluence. At the same time she devoted a major part of her day to prayers, listening to scriptures and calmly contemplating the magnificent view of the Narmada from her window. Through all this she went through one tragedy after another in personal life. Ahalyabai’s life including her daughter’s Sati, which she failed to prevent despite all efforts, was dramatised by the Scottish poetess Joanna Bailee in a poem.
Enriching Culture Beyond Malwa
The most commented upon aspect of Ahilyabai’s reign is how she took cultural revival to territories outside her kingdom and to almost every corner of the country. As one scholar notes in the proceedings of the Indian History Congress of 1939- “In places under the rule of Musalmans, whether those headed by the Mughuls in Northern India or the Nizam in the South, she re-constructed temples…She spotted out the ancient Naimisharanya,… then in the Kingdom of the Nawab Vazirs and started charities there.” She was held in so much prestige throughout the country that no ruler could interfere with her activities or refuse her requests.
A lesson for Scottish Historian
It can always be a matter of wonder as to how someone with such saintly disposition could achieve so much in the secular realms of politics and administration. This is what Sir John Malcolm, the only near-contemporary chronicler of her life, speculates about when he lists out Ahilyabai’s seemingly contradictory traits- “a bigot without intolerance; a mind imbued with the deepest superstition, yet receiving no impressions except what prompted the happiness of those under its influence.” To see contradictions in these traits would have been natural for a 19th century Scotsman, for by then the enlightenment had taken a stronghold in his country. It was hard to separate scientific rationality from all walks of life including politics. Yet he realises soon enough that there must be something complimentary in the way Ailyabai led her personal life with ‘superstition’ and the brilliant administration she delivered to her subjects. Malcom recounts an answer he got from an ‘intelligent Brahmin’ when asked about Ahliyabai’s wisdom in wasting “the treasures of the state in erection and maintenance of edifices in distant lands”. The Brahmin replies first by asking as question; “Whether Ahalya Baee, by spending double the money on an Army that she did in charity and good works, could have preserved her country for above thirty years in a state of profound peace, while she rendered her subjects happy and herself adored?”. Then he goes on to elaborate- “I was in one of the principal offices at Poona during the last years of her administration, and know well what feelings were excited by the mere mention of her name. Among the princes of her own nation, it would have been looked upon as sacrilege to have become her enemy, or, indeed, not to have defended her against any hostile attempt. She was considered by all in the same light. The Nizam of the Deckan and Tippoo Sultan granted her the same respect as the Paishwah; and Mahomedans joined with Hindus in prayers for her long life and prosperity.”
The lesson that Malcolm or other modern readers may have drawn from Ahilyabai’s life is that religion could also have practical consequences in public life and should be used to maximise administrative efficiency. This is the wrong lesson to learn. Even people who support the spiritual politics of leaders like Gandhi or Tilak tend to highlight the purely instrumental or rational reasons behind their use of religion in enthusing the masses or affecting their behaviour. More than that, according to philosopher Charles Taylor, they reflect “deeper and more human ways of carrying out the unavoidable struggle for a better world…Their inspiration was spiritual in nature, and…spiritual visionaries have been sources of fresh ethical insight.” Ahilyabai was such a spiritual visionary from whom we, moderns, have a lot to learn.
