Some personalities gives us inspiration how to lead a humble life and Ahilyabai Holkar was one of them," said professor Seema Jayant Meesy.
To observe the birth anniversary of Ahilyabai Holkar, a virtual lecture was held on Monday. It was organised under ;Azaadi Ka Amrit Mahaotsav' by the Directorate of Culture, Madhya Pradesh and Swaraj Sanchanalaya.
Professor Seema Jayant from Indore was the keynote speaker of the event. She threw light on the personality of Ahilyabai Holkar. She said that in many ways Ahilyabai has given people inspiration to lead a humble and constructive life. She has taught people how to work for humanity and society.
Ahilyabai was a great pioneer and builder of Hindu temples. She built hundreds of temples and Dharmashalas across India. Her greatest achievement was to rebuild the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in 1780, which was dedicated to Shiva; the presiding deity of the city of Varanasi, one of the holiest Hindu sites of pilgrimage, that had been plundered, desecrated, demolished and converted into Gyanvapi Mosque on the orders of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in 1696
Among Ahilyabai's accomplishments was the development of Indore from a small village to a prosperous and beautiful city; her own capital, however, was in nearby Maheshwar, a town on the banks of the Narmada river. She also built forts and roads in Malwa, sponsored festivals and gave donations for regular worship in many Hindu temples. Outside Malwa, she built dozens of temples, ghats, wells, tanks and rest-houses across an area stretching from the Himalayas to pilgrimage centres in South India.
The Bharatiya Sanskriti Kosh lists as sites she embellished, Kashi, Gaya, Somnath, Ayodhya, Mathura, Haridwar, Kanchi, Avanti, Dwarka, Badrinarayan, Rameshwar and Jagannath Puri. Ahilyadevi also supported the rise of merchants, farmers and cultivators to levels of affluence and did not consider that she had any legitimate claim to their wealth, be it through taxes or feudal right.