Legacy In Thread: Three Centuries Of Maheshwari Woven Anew For The Ahilyadevi Collection

At 47-A Gallery in Bombay’s charming Khotachiwadi, the air feels charged with history. The ground floor of a 19th-century Portuguese-style home has become the stage for a textile tribute, ‘The Ahilyadevi Collection’ — a collaboration between the REHWA Society, WomenWeave, and curator Srila Chatterjee. On display until September 28th, the exhibition honours the 300th birth anniversary of Devi Ahilyabai Holkar, the warrior-queen of Malwa, whose vision not only shaped temples and towns but also seeded one of India’s most enduring textile traditions: the Maheshwari saree.

To imagine Ahilyabai’s Maheshwar is to picture a town alive with looms, the rhythmic clack of shuttle and thread echoing through narrow lanes. In the 18th century, she invited weavers from Surat and Burhanpur to her capital, creating a sustainable livelihood for her people and a textile that carried her spirit of dignity and resilience. More than two centuries later, REHWA Society — founded in 1978 by Prince Richard and Sally Holkar — continues that mission, ensuring that Maheshwari weaving remains not just a heritage craft, but a living, breathing one.

A Tribute in Thread

The sarees of this commemorative collection aren’t just garments; they’re stories rewoven from memory, portraiture, and archive. Inspired by Holkar family portraits and Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings, the textiles draw upon old motifs, temple architecture, and riverside ghats reminiscent of the sarees Ahilyabai herself once wore. Traditional shades like chutney green and gulbasi pink sit alongside softer hues like angoori teal and biscuti beige, making the collection both timeless and relevant for modern wearers.

One of its crown jewels is the ‘Chandravati saree,’ which is a shimmering recreation of a piece once worn by Maharani Chandravati Baisaheb of Indore. Featuring 111 lines of delicate booti, woven painstakingly in real gold zari, it takes over 100 hours to complete. Prince Richard Holkar calls it a “fitting tribute to her timeless elegance, to the skill of the Maheshwari handloom weaver, and to the weaving tradition itself, which Devi Ahilyabai Holkar so successfully established.”

Equally remarkable are the garvareshmi sarees — feather-light creations woven using the nearly-lost pajni and ochna techniques that are delicate processes of yarn sizing and warp stretching that make the fabric impossibly soft and durable. At the heart of this revival is 92-year-old Tulsa Bai, the last living custodian of this knowledge, whose guidance anchors the collection in authenticity.

The Challenges and the Rewards

For Sanra Shaw, COO of REHWA and WomenWeave, the project has been both a privilege and a test of endurance. “Some of the challenges in reviving these sarees were that many weavers today don’t want to take up such labour-intensive, time-taking work,” she says, noting that intricate butidar sarees can take nearly three weeks to complete. Convincing younger generations to stay with these fragile crafts required patient training and storytelling.

And yet, the reward has been overwhelming. “Each piece is so loved and appreciated by our patrons — it shows us how relevant these textiles still are. Every buyer is, in fact, a revivalist,” Shaw reflects.

Reimagining, Not Just Recreating

For curator Srila Chatterjee of 47-A, the collection was about balancing reverence with reinvention. “I love the way REHWA has gone into her history and archives and not merely recreated but re-imagined a series of sarees that just look so cool,” she says. Her personal favourite? The ice-pink and metallic Netra saree, which she describes as love at first sight.

Chatterjee’s curatorial eye has also shaped the storytelling of the exhibition, where every saree feels less like a museum relic and more like a living heirloom waiting to enter someone’s wardrobe. Visitors don’t just encounter textiles; they encounter Ahilyabai’s governance, her humanity, and her deep commitment to craft as a means of empowerment.

 Why It Matters Now

The Ahilyadevi Collection is more than a fashion story — it is a meditation on continuity. In an age of mass production, these sarees remind us that slowness, fragility, and patience have value. They also highlight the pressing need for cultural preservation: without revival projects and dedicated patrons, centuries of skill could fade away with a single generation.

For Ahilyabai, weaving was never just about aesthetics; it was about dignity, employment, and empowerment. That her vision still resonates, three centuries on, is perhaps the greatest testament to her legacy.

Closing Thread

As you walk out of 47-A’s sunlit rooms, the sarees linger in your mind not as textiles but as time-travel threads binding a Maratha queen, master weavers across generations, and a new wave of wearers who carry these legacies forward. In its essence, ‘The Ahilyadevi Collection’ is not just a tribute to the past but a gentle reminder that history, when worn, feels alive.

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