“The Story of the Ahalyesvara Mahadeva Temple in Maheshwar”, The Dharma Dispatch, November 05, 2025
“AS YOU ASCEND the spacious, exquisite flight of steps from the Ghats of Puṇyanadi Narmada, you behold the magnificent Ahalyeshvara Mahadeva Mandir in Māhēśvara. As a Bhakta, you step right inside the temple and walk towards the Garbha-Griha. But if you halt for a moment at the entrance of its door, you will spot two smooth black stones measuring 3 ½ by 1 ½ embedded into the doorframe. They narrate the full story of the building of this temple in 37 lines carved in elegant Dēvanāgari calligraphy.
The eponymous Mandir was constructed by Yashwant Rao Holkar as a pious tribute to his sagely grandmother-in-law, Ahalyabai Holkar, the Queen who lived like a Viraktā. She personified her title of Rājamātā. She was a Mother to her citizens, protecting them from invasions, feeding them and lighting their homes, hearths and hearts. But beyond these worldly works of virtue, her hallowed memory has been immortalised in just word: Sādhvi, a word that has no English equivalent. Stories of her piety and her staunch attachment to the ideals of Sanatana Dharma are as abundant as the unfathomable depth of her exalted character; they remind us of Emerson’s memorable words:
The good man has absolute good, which like fire turns everything to its own nature, so that you cannot do him any harm…so disasters of all kinds, as sickness, offence, poverty, prove benefactors.
Emerson wrote this 46 years after Ahalyabai merged with eternity; it is doubtful if he had even heard her name but in describing a universal philosophical truth, he had captured the very essence of Ahalyabai’s character…….”
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