Maheshwar, a temple town on the bank of River Narmada, mentioned in the great Hindu epics ‘Ramayana & Mahabharata’, a glorious city which was known as ‘Mahishmati’, was the capital of southern Avanti at the time of King Kartavirya Arjun. A city famous for its temple, bathing ghats, mighty fort complex which stand in quiet beauty and splendor mirrored in the river Narmada and obviously its exquisitely woven ‘Maheshwari sarees, revived to its ancient position of importance by the Holkar queen Rani Ahilyabai of Indore, who transformed this land into a land of tranquility and prosperity. These sariees are famous throughout India for their excellent floral designs. Maheshwar is a town situated at the geological coordination of 22.11° North and 75.35° east, in the Khargone district of Central Indian State, Madhya Pradesh. The town lies on the north bank of the Holy River Narmada. The commercial capital of the state Indore is at the distance of 91 km from Maheshwar.
glorious city from a very old time, Maheshwar's temples and massive fort-complex presents an unusual charm of architectural grandeur. The city opt its name ‘Maheshwar’ from the great Lord ‘Shiva’, a grand lord in Hindu religion, which literally meant to be the abode of Lord Shiva. The ancient name of the city was Mahishmati, later it changed into Maheshwar. It sustained rich art and cultural heritage under it.
Tourism and religion also hold immense significance in and around Maheshwar. Some of the ancient Temples here are Shiv Jyotirlingam Mandleshwar, Bawangaja and Mandav. Towards 65 kms east of Maheshwar lies Onkareshwar temple, which is one of the 12 most popular Shiv Lingam temples in India. Charmed to its natural, spiritual & historical beauty, many Bollywood & Tamil movies have been shot here like Ashoka, Tulsi. The place witnessed some renowned names of Bollywood, The place also being visited by many foreign nationals round the year, those having strong interest in Indian art & spiritual values.
It is said that there are more than 100 temples are telling the long history of Maheshwar. Main temples good to visit for visitors are SAHASTARARJUN Temple near the holy river Narmada, Rajrajeshwar Mandir, Kashi Vishwanath Mandir, Chaturbhuj Narayan Mandir, Ahilya Mata's Chhatris, Chintamani Ganpati Mandir, Pandharinath Mandir, Bhawani Mata Mandir, Gobar Ganesh Mandir, Banke Bihari, Anant Narayan Mandir, Khedapati Hanuman. Ram and Krishna Mandir. Baneshwar temple, Kaleshwar, Jwaleshwar and Narsingh Mandir are very good for nature lovers. And recently built Ek mukhi Datta Mandir situated in Jalkoti, Sahastradhara. Here the holy river Narmada is in its most serious,calm,adventured and horrible form.
It is a 16th century fort and is famous for its elegant architecture & spectacular view from Narmada River. It is located on the bank of river from where one can enjoy best view of river, boating, sunrise and sunset.
It is also called Shiva Datta Dham and one of the newly constructed temple in Sahastradhara, Jalkote at Maheshwar.
To fulfill the un-impressive look of Ahilyabai Holkar's cenotaph, her daughter-in-law Krishnabai gave special interest in building these impressive royal ghats.
Main building of cenotaph is simple but its surrounding is even more beautiful and shows better sculpture work as it was developed later by her daughter-in-law.