Born in an age when the notion of women was to be confined to the home, Lilavati Lalbhai stepped out and actively contributed to the family business of Lalbhai Textiles as the Director of the Raipur mills. A staunch believer that ‘education was a means of free thinking and independence’, she worked to improve the status and livelihood for lesser privileged children and women.

The youngest of seven children of Shri Lalbhai Dalpatbhai, Lilavatiben was educated at Banaras Hindu University, under the renowned scholar Pandit Anand Shankar Dhruv. Her excellent handwriting compelled Shri Anand Shankar to take her help to write his lectures and thesis, which in turn nurtured her studies of philosophy. She was fondly called by her teacher as “Vidushi”.

About the Collection:

Lilavati ben is well known as a book lover and collector, but she also had a keen eye and highly developed aesthetic taste as an art and craft collector. The LD Museum collection is enriched by her donation of wood carvings representing the finest traditions of Gujarati wooden architecture, fine bronzes and art books.