Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced Wednesday that Ahmednagar city would be renamed Ahilyanagar after the Maratha warrior queen Ahilyabai Holkar — a development that came on the 298th birth anniversary of the 18th century ruler of Malwa’s Holkar dynasty.
“Respecting the public demand, Ahmednagar will now be after Ahilyadevi Holkar,” CM Eknath Shinde said at a public rally organised in Chondi, Ahmednagar. “This decision was taken by the state government. And I’m proud that both Devendra ji and I are a part of this historic moment.”
This is the third city in Maharashtra to be renamed in a year — this February, the state government formally approved a proposal to rename Aurangabad as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv.
Born into the Dhangar caste — a herding caste in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh — Ahilyadevi Holkar was one of a handful of women rulers in that period and has been credited with building several temples not only in Malwa but also across India.
Located in western Maharashtra, Ahmednagar was named after Ahmad Nizam Shah I, the founder of the Nizam Shahi dynasty. The city has been a part of various kingdoms — including the Rashtrakutas, the Western Chalukyas, the Delhi Sultanate and the Deccan Sultanate.
The demand to change the name of Ahmednagar after Ahilyabai was started by BJP leader and MLC Gopichand Padalkar. In June 2022 — days before the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray fell — Padalkar reportedly wrote to him with his demand.
Also Read: ‘Argument, arson, tear gas’: What happened in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar on Ram Navami eve
Other name changes
The MVA government under Thackeray first approved renaming Aurangabad and Osmanabad — a longstanding demand of his then undivided Shiv Sena — in June in what was its last cabinet meeting before it fell.
While Aurangabad was named after Aurangzeb, the Mughal ruler who killed celebrated Maratha king Shivaji’s son, Sambhaji, in 1689, Osmanabad was named after Mir Osman Ali Khan, the last ruler of Hyderabad.
Soon after it came to power, however, the Shiv Sena-BJP government led by Shinde stayed the decision and instead sent a fresh proposal, which was finally approved in February 2023.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
Also Read: Aurangabad or Sambhajinagar? Far from Kashi, communal politics simmers in Aurangzeb’s capital