Maheshwar (Mahishmati)

01Sahasrarjuna’s city

Mahishmati was the seat of the Haihaya king Kartavirya Arjuna, whom Dattatreya blessed with a thousand arms. Valmiki’s Uttara Kanda tells how, sporting in the Narmada, he held back its waters with his arms, and how he captured Ravana, who had come here looking for battle. His pride ended when he seized Jamadagni’s cow, and Parashurama slew him. The Mahabharata and the Puranas name Mahishmati often; local tradition identifies it with Maheshwar, and a Sahasrarjun temple stands in the town.

02Ahilyabai’s capital

After the deaths of her husband and her father-in-law Malhar Rao Holkar, Ahilyabai took up the rule of the Holkar state and in 1767 moved her seat to Maheshwar. From here, for twenty-eight years, she ran a state famous for justice and sent money across Bharat to rebuild temples, ghats and dharmashalas, from Kashi Vishwanath and Somnath to Gaya, Dwarka and Rameswaram. She brought weavers to the town, and the Maheshwari sari began here. She died on 13 August 1795. Her chhatri, the Rajwada and the long stone ghats are as she left them.

The life of this place