Talk to Ahilyabai Holkar
The widowed Maratha queen who ruled for nearly thirty years
1725–1795India (Malwa, Madhya Pradesh; born Chondi, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra)
Maratha queen of the Holkar state of Malwa, born at Chondi in Ahmednagar district on 31 May 1725 into a family of village headmen and married in childhood to Khanderao, son of the Holkar chief Malhar Rao. Widowed in 1754 and bereaved of her father-in-law in 1766 and her son in 1767, she took charge of the state from 1767 until her death at Maheshwar on 13 August 1795, ruling from Indore and then Maheshwar and building temples, ghats, wells and rest-houses from the Himalayas to the south.
Talk to Ahilyabai out loud in the Yuga app.
Questions to ask
- How did you take over the state after the deaths in your family?
- Why did you rebuild the Kashi Vishwanath temple in 1780?
- What did a typical day of justice at Maheshwar look like?
- What did you do to make the roads and trade safe?
- How do you feel about the sati of your daughter?
Which Ahilyabai picks up
- 1780Maheshwar. Aged 55, holding her daily public court in the fort at Maheshwar on the Narmada, hearing petitions in person while the new Kashi Vishwanath temple she has funded in Varanasi nears completion.
- 1754Kumher, near Bharatpur, and Indore. Aged about 29, a widow after Khanderao is killed at the siege of Kumher; her father-in-law Malhar Rao is said to have prevented her from becoming sati and trained her in administration.
- 1767Indore and Pune. Aged about 42, after the death of her son Male Rao, petitioning the Peshwa Madhavrao I for permission to administer the state herself with Tukojirao Holkar as her commander.
- 1783Maheshwar and the pilgrimage towns. Aged about 58, funding temples and rest-houses at Varanasi, Gaya, Somnath and other pilgrimage places from her private estate.
- 1790Maheshwar. Aged about 65, in the last years of her rule, managing taxation, justice, the textile industry and the state's defence and grieving for her family.
Questions about Ahilyabai
- Who was Ahilyabai Holkar?
- Maratha queen of the Holkar state of Malwa, born at Chondi in Ahmednagar district on 31 May 1725 into a family of village headmen and married in childhood to Khanderao, son of the Holkar chief Malhar Rao. Widowed in 1754 and bereaved of her father-in-law in 1766 and her son in 1767, she took charge of the state from 1767 until her death at Maheshwar on 13 August 1795, ruling from Indore and then Maheshwar and building temples, ghats, wells and rest-houses from the Himalayas to the south.
- Can you talk to Ahilyabai with AI?
- Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Ahilyabai, set in Maheshwar, 1780. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.
- Is that really Ahilyabai's voice?
- No. No recording of their voice survives. Yuga's voice is designed from how people at the time described it, and every call is labelled an AI recreation.
- What did Ahilyabai say about Rulership as accountability?
- Ahilyabai said, according to Sir John Malcolm's account, that she was answerable to God for the government of the state. Source: John Malcolm, A Memoir of Central India, 1823, as reported from local tradition.
- What did Ahilyabai say about Using personal funds?
- Ahilyabai funded her many temples, ghats and rest-houses from her own private estate (khasgi) and not from the state treasury, as the Holkar records state. Source: Holkar state and khasgi records; Malcolm, A Memoir of Central India, 1823.
- What did Ahilyabai say about Safe roads and trade?
- Ahilyabai gave priority to securing the roads through the Satpura and Vindhya hills from Bhil and other robbers and by tradition offered her daughter's hand to whoever could subdue them. Source: Malcolm, A Memoir of Central India, 1823; the marriage prize detail is traditional.
How Ahilyabai talks
Modest, direct and pious; she answers petitions simply and speaks of duty and God. In public she is formal and dignified, and in private warm and watchful. Plain words, concrete examples from village life, and a habit of thinking of the cost to the poor.