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Rani Lakshmibai
Rani Lakshmibai
Rani of Jhansi
Rani Lakshmibai (portrayed as a sowar)
Predecessor Rani Rama Bai
Successor British Raj
Spouse Jhansi Naresh Maharaj
Gangadhar Rao Newalkar
Issue Damodar Rao, Anand Rao
(adopted)
House Maratha Empire
Father Moropant Tambe
Mother Bhagirathi Sapre
Born Manikarnika Tambe
19 November 1828
Varanasi, India
Died 17 June 1858 (aged 29)
Gwalior, India
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lakshmibai pronunciation (helpinfo)(19 November 1828 17
June 1858;
[1][2][3]
was the rani (queen) of theMaratha-
ruled Jhansi State, situated in the north-central part of India.
She was one of the leading figures of the Indian Rebellion of
1857 and for Indian nationalists a symbol of resistance to
the rule of the British East India Company in the subcontinent.
Contents [hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Indian Rebellion of 1857
1.1.1 May July 1857
1.1.2 August 1857 June 1858
2 Cultural depictions and memorials
2.1 Literature, film and television
3 See also
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links
Biography [edit]
Lakshmibai was born probably on 19 November
1828
[1][3][4][5][6]
in the holy town of Varanasi into
a BrahminMaratha family.
[7]
She was named Manikarnika and
was nicknamed Manu.
[8]
Her father was Moropant Tambe and
her mother Bhagirathi Sapre (Bhagirathi Bai). Her parents came
from Maharashtra. Her mother died when she was four. Her
father worked for a court Peshwa of Bithoor district who brought
Manikarnika up like his own daughter
[clarification needed]
.
[9]
The
Peshwa called her "Chhabili", which means "playful". She was
educated at home and was more independent in her childhood
than others of her age; her studies included archery,
horsemanship, and self-defence.
[citation needed][10]
Manikarnika was married to the Maharaja of Jhansi, Raja Gangadhar Rao, in 1842,
[4]
and was afterwards
called Lakshmibai (or Laxmibai).
[11]
She gave birth to a boy, later named Damodar Rao, in 1851, who died
when four months old. The Maharaja adopted a child called Anand Rao, the son of Gangadhar Rao's
cousin, who was renamed Damodar Rao, on the day before the Maharaja died. The adoption was in the
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presence of the British political officer who was given a letter from the Maharaja instructing that the child be
treated with respect and that the government of Jhansi should be given to his widow for her lifetime. After
the death of the Maharaja in November 1853, because Damodar Rao was adopted, the British East India
Company, under Governor-General Lord Dalhousie, applied the Doctrine of Lapse, rejecting Damodar
Rao's claim to the throne and annexing the state to its territories. In March 1854, Lakshmibai was given a
pension of Rs. 60,000 and ordered to leave the palace and the fort.
[12][13]
Rani Lakshmibai was accustomed to ride on horseback accompanied by a small escort between the palace
and the temple though sometimes she was carried by palanquin.
[14]
Her horses included Sarangi, Pavan
and Badal; according to tradition she rode Badal when escaping from the fort in 1858. The Rani Mahal, the
palace of Rani Lakshmibai, has now been converted into a museum. It houses a collection of archaeological
remains of the period between the 9th and 12th centuries AD.
According to a memoir purporting to be by Damodar Rao he was among his mother's troops and household
at the battle of Gwalior; together with others who had survived the battle (some 60 retainers with 60 camels
and 22 horses) he fled from the camp of Rao Sahib of Bithur and as the village people of Bundelkhand
dared not aid them for fear of reprisals from the British they were forced to live in the forest and suffer many
privations. After two years there were about 12 survivors and these together with another group of 24 they
encountered sought the city of Jhalrapatan where there were yet more refugees from Jhansi. Damodar Rao
surrendered himself to a British official and his memoir ends in May 1860 when he has been allowed a
pension of Rs. 10,000, seven retainers only, and is in the guardianship of Munshi Dharmanarayan.
[15]
Indian Rebellion of 1857 [edit]
May July 1857 [edit]
A rumour that the cartridges supplied by the East India Company to the soldiers in its army contained pork
or beef fat began to spread throughout India in the early months of 1857.
[16]
On 10 May 1857 the Indian
Rebellion started in Meerut; when news of this reached Jhansi, the Rani asked the British political officer,
Captain Alexander Skene, for permission to raise a body of armed men for her own protection and Skene
agreed to this.
[17]
The city was relatively calm in the midst of unrest in the region but the Rani conducted
a Haldi Kumkum ceremony with pomp in front of all the women of Jhansi to provide assurance to her
subjects,
[when?]
and to convince them that the British were cowards and not to be afraid of them.
[18][19]
Till this point, Lakshmibai was reluctant to rebel against the British. In June 1857 a few men of the
12th Bengal Native Infantry seized the fort containing the treasure and magazine, and massacred the
European officers of the garrison along with their wives and children. Her involvement in this massacre is
still a subject of debate.
[20][21]
An army doctor, Thomas Lowe, wrote after the rebellion characterising her as
the "Jezebel of India ... the young rani upon whose head rested the blood of the slain".
[22]
Four days after
the massacre the sepoys left Jhansi having obtained a large sum of money from the Rani, and having
threatened to blow up the palace where she lived. Following this as the only source of authority in the city
the Rani felt obliged to assume the administration and wrote to Major Erskine, commissioner of
the Saugordivision explaining the events which had led her to do so.
[23]
On 2 July Erskine wrote in reply that
he requested her to "manage the District for the British Government" until the arrival of a British
Superintendent.
[24]
The Rani's forces defeated an attempt by the mutineers to assert the claim to the