For Prince Richard Holkar and his son Yeshwant Rao Holkar III, Maheshwar is more than a historic town, it is part of their royal family story. Richard, son of the last Maharaja of Indore, Yeshwant Rao Holkar II and a descendant of Rani Ahilyabai Holkar, has been closely involved in preserving Ahilya Fort and the Maheshwari handloom tradition. For Yashwant, Maheshwar is woven into childhood memories of its historic spaces and traditions.
In an exclusive interview with HT Lifestyle, the father-son duo talks about everything from Ahilyabai Holkar’s legacy and royal traditions to Maheshwari weaving and culinary heritage. (Also read: Step inside a 250-year-old fort in Maheshwar where Rani Ahilyabai Holkar lived, ruled and left her legacy )
For Prince Richard Holkar, Maheshwar brought his family’s history into sharper focus after he began spending more time there. “The reality of royal traditions really came more into focus for me when I started spending time in Maheshwar and understood that there was a very important legacy, both spiritual and cultural. For Yashwant, Maheshwar was part of childhood . “We grew up in Bombay. We lived this life of urban, cosmopolitan India in the 80s and 90s and at the same time had a wonderful opportunity to go to a place like Maheshwar,” Yashwant recalls. “These old monuments that we lived in were places to play. They were fun places for hide and seek. One childhood memory that particularly stayed with him involved family cook Raja Ram. “That always left an impression on me… that this character from another time, another world, would impress upon a young child the importance of this legacy and honouring it. For Richard, Ahilyabai’s story is inseparable from her determination and her relationship with the people she served. “The determination of a person who starts with… less than an equal playing field, with determination and courage, to achieve what she did is quite remarkable. He also points to the personal nature of her relationship with people across society. For Yashwant, that legacy comes down to service and the willingness to live by one’s values. “It’s an easy motto to say and it’s a very difficult life to live. He adds, “Personal sacrifice to really live that, to uphold your beliefs and values. That is really remarkable and admirable. For Richard, the decision to preserve Ahilya Fort as a lived-in space was deeply personal. He contrasts that with historic properties that have been converted into hotels: “A lot of them are not homes. For him, it ultimately comes down to responsibility. “We built nothing; we’ve just obviously reorganised interior spaces, put in modern plumbing and all the rest of that. For Richard, the Narmada remains part of his everyday relationship with the fort. “I think that’s pretty unique and that’s a daily ritual for me. Yashwant names the Lingajin area as his favourite. He also remembers the imli tree and the two large trees that once stood there. “I think it’s the Lingajin for me. The Holkar family’s connection with Maheshwar is closely tied to its handloom tradition. He traces the weaving tradition to Ahilyabai’s time, when she brought more weavers and looms to Maheshwar, including from Surat and Burhanpur. After Independence, the loss of royal patronage led to its decline. Among the techniques being revived are pajni and ochna. “The yarn was stronger, but it wasn’t as fine. The revival uses traditional sizing with sorghum starch paste, applied to cotton yarn before it is slowly stretched. The nearly forgotten process was recovered from Tulsabai, a woman in her 90s who still remembered it. Four women have since been trained, while traditional tools had to be recreated as they are no longer manufactured. For him, the aim is simple: “It is reviving to keep the highest standards, skills alive. The family’s heritage also survives through traditions that continue to bring communities together. Yashwant speaks about the Holika Dahan tradition in Indore, where the first Holi fire is lit outside Rajwada and people from across the city take the flame back to their homes. The tradition had stopped for some years before being revived around five or six years ago. “People come just quietly and observe and then take a part of this energy back home. Richard points to another tradition associated with the Holkar family: the large tazia made during Muharram . Food is another link to memory for the Holkars. For Richard, it is a simple plate of dal and rice with ghee and lime juice. Yashwant names two of his favourite recipes: hari mirch ka keema and, from Indore, bhutte ka kees. It’s a little chilli. It’s yum. That same philosophy extends to the food served at Ahilya Fort. He compares the experience to being invited into someone’s home, where the meal is not about choosing from an extensive menu but about experiencing what has been prepared for you. For the Holkars, their approach is not to preserve heritage as something frozen in time, but to keep it alive, through historic spaces, weaving, food and traditions that continue to connect communities.
But in terms of the structure which Ahilyabai left to us, 90% was still intact. Today, he estimates the number at 3,000–4,000 or more. Because it was stronger and cheaper, over the past 15–20 years, many weavers shifted to mercerised yarn.
“I’m half American, half Indian and grew up most of my educational and formative life in America,” Richard says. “He would always catch me by the ear and take me to Ahilyabai’s gaddi (Ahilyabai’s royal seat) and say, ‘You pay your respects here,’” Yashwant recalls. “It’s quite remarkable for a woman to be as effective as she was at any time in history, and this in the 18th century was even more remarkable,” he says. “A care for your fellow human… is important because it includes women, it includes tribals,” Richard says. “What I find remarkable… is the idea that the benefit of the people you serve, the people you lead, is centre to your efforts, energy and daily focus,” he says. “It was my home,” he says. “You need to understand what traditional architecture is; you need to have good technicians and good architects who can understand the structure, see what needs to be done and so forth,” he says. “That’s all a matter of a commitment to restoring what was given to you,” he says. Yashwant says preserving the original flow of the spaces was equally important. “One of the things that dad really tried to do is to leave as much of the structure and flow of the space intact,” he says. “I think early morning we have a terrace which looks out over the Narmada,” he says. “It’s a small… intimate space that has a lot of peace and a sort of energy of quiet contemplation,” he says. Richard says the family has been involved with Maheshwari textiles for around five decades. “When my wife and I arrived in the mid-70s, there were 300 or less weavers,” he says. Yashwant says REHWA’s role has since expanded from reviving the craft and creating livelihoods to preserving its quality. “REHWA’s role now is really to uphold the standards of the best of Maheshwari,” he says, adding that its initiatives include reviving older techniques that produced finer textiles. Yashwant says Maheshwari is known for being “a very light, airy textile”, with its lustre coming from silk and fine-count cotton. It made the fabric heavier and less delicate,” he says. “We only made about 20 of these saris, but they flew off the shelf,” Yashwant says. “It’s just a wonderful gathering of community that comes together,” he says. “It’s a very sort of tender moment,” he adds. Historically, he says, it would take five rounds of Rajwada as a way of blessing the state of Indore. “Still today that tazia is made and still processes through Indore,” Richard says, adding that the same community that has made it for generations continues to build it in a designated space associated with Rajwada. “Dal with rice and ghee and lime juice, a little lime juice on top, is one of these things that you remember forever and you were never ever able to recreate,” he says. Despite trying to recreate it over the years, he says he has never quite managed to reproduce that childhood taste. Describing the latter, he says, “You know, fresh, fluffy, it’s the perfect balance of slightly sweet, wholesome, then you have the nimbu on top, little spice. “You are invited to experience the food of the place and go on this sort of journey,” Yashwant says. As Yashwant puts it, the essence of Ahilyabai’s legacy is keeping the benefit of the people at the centre of one’s “efforts, energy and daily focus.”
