Avabai was born the daughter of Framji Batlivala, a Parsi merchant from Daman who carried out a trade in bottles in the Fort area of downtown Mumbai (Bombay).
As a merchant, Jamshetjee enjoyed success far beyond his expectations and accumulated a vast fortune; by some estimates, he was worth a stupendous two crore (twenty million) rupees by age 40.
This was dangerous during the monsoons, when the seas around Mumbai are extremely rough; people sometimes lost their lives merely in crossing between Mahim and Bandra on the ferries.
The government deliberated upon the matter, estimated the required expense as being one lakh rupees, and made it known that paucity of funds precluded the expenditure of what was then a vast sum of money.
As the daughter of Framji, who had funded Jamshetjee's early mercantile ventures and received a share of the proceeds, Avabai was a lady of independent means.