Meenaxi Patel asks ASI to preserve ancient monument at Teen Darwaja.
Woman’s right to property? It has been there in black and white all along — at least for two centuries. That is if one goes by the marble plaque on the wall of the Teen Darwaja. And mayor Meenaxi Patel, flush from World Heritage Week celebrations that came to an end on Monday, was spellbound by the inscription during her visit to the historic monument in the walled city on Tuesday.
Irked by the neglect of the plaque, the mayor has shot off a letter to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), asking it to take immediate steps to restore the whole thing. Moreover, she categorically stated that restoration should be done with mayor’s funds.
Inscribed in 1812 by then Maharaja Fatehsinhrao Gaekwad, the plaque has a message of equal rights for women in property and legal inheritance.
During her visit, the mayor was amazed how the plaque had a message in Sanskrit and Gujarati. “We are still fighting for women-related issues. But, it is amazing how 200 years ago, women’s equality and women’s rights prevailed as these had been made mandatory by the then rulers.
However, it’s painful how this historic and heritage inscription lies neglected today,” lamented Patel. She added that preserving the plaque would be the first stone towards respecting women and catering to women-related social issues.
The plaque, measuring 79x33 cm, is right there in the centre of the pillar on the northern side of the monument.
It also begins with a sun and the moon and in Devnagari script with Gujarati language. It was on October 10, 1912, that the city got a historic decision in terms of socio-economic field with the installation of the plaque. Those days, it served the purpose of a public notice, which was put up in the middle of the city, on Teen Darwaja, to announce the new rules that daughters had equal right to inherited property.
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