Born: 19 November 1828, India
Died: 18 June 1858
Country most active: India
Also known as: Manikarnika Tambe, Lakshmibai
This biography, written by Catherine Capel, is shared with permission from Team Queens, an educational history blog run by a collective of historical scholars. All rights reserved; this material may not be republished without the author’s consent.
Lakshmibai was born on November 19th in Benares in the Kingdom of Kashi-Benares (present day Varanasi, India) and she received a varied education of horse riding, shooting and fencing as well as being educated in warfare.
In 1842, Lakshmibai was married to Gangadhar Rao Newalker, Maharaja of Jhansi and a son was born in 1151, who sadly died aged only four months. After the death of their son, the Maharaja adopted the son of his cousin, who was renamed Damodar Rao.
The Indian Rebellion in 1857 saw Lakshmibai raise an army and she successfully defended Jhansi from the control of the British. This ended, however, in 1858 with the Siege of Jhansi when the Rani’s troops were only able to hold back the British for three days. She fled with her adopted son to Kalpi, where other rebel forces were stationed, but the Rani and rebel leaders were forced to flee again from the British in May to Gwalior. In the final battle of her life, Likshmibai donned a military uniform and led her forces in an attack against the British where she was fatally injured by a gunshot wound.
Recommended Reading
Bhawan Singh Rana, Rani of Jhansi (New Delhi: Diamond Publishing, 2005)
Harleen Singh, The Rani of Jhansi: Gender, History and Fable in India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014).
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
Lakshmi Bai became a widow when she was quite young. She had no children. She ruled the Maharashtra Kingdom of Jhansi with the ability and statesmanship of a veteran ruler. During the middle of the 19 th Century the East India Company extended its petition and rulership over India, Lord Dalhousi the Governor General of India annexed to the territory of the East India Kingdom after Kingdom ruled by the Hindu Chief. On the plea of misgovernment Jhansi was proposed to be annexed to the British territory. Stubbornly and with a good deal of determination Lakshmi Bai resisted the annexation policy of Dalhousi.
Soon after a rebellion broke out in India against the British domination of the East India Company and the hatred for the British ran like wildfire from one corner of India to the other.
The Indian Ruler, the Chiefs and also the army were organized under a few very able generals to fight the British out of India.
In 1857 a severe battle was fought between the Indian rulers and the British. Immediately Lakshmi Bai became one of the leaders of this battle for Independence of India against the British; she dressed herself as a man and marched at the head of a highly disciplined army. It was stated by the British general who fought against the army of Lakshmi Bai that never in his life had he seen a greater hero than the general of this army. He did not know it was a woman who was the leader of the opponent.
Lakshmi Bai was killed in battle. Her body was captured and eventually it was discovered that the valiant soldier and general who fought so stubbornly was none other than Queen Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi. Her name is cherished by all patriotic Indians with the deepest honor and reverence. The mention of her name conjures a spirit of nationalism and patriotic determination in the heart of every Indian.
The following is excerpted from “Female Warriors: Memorials of Female Valour and Heroism, from the Mythological Ages to the Present Era,” by Ellen C. Clayton (Mrs. Needham), published in 1879 and shared online by Project Gutenberg.
The city of Jhansi is situated in Bundelcund, to the south of the river Jumna. Previous to 1857, it was the strongest and most important place in the entire of Central India. The people were nearly all Brahmins, a religion held in common with their rajahs. In the days when the Peishwa was still a person of importance in Hindostan, the ruler of Jhansi was merely a wealthy zemindar, or land-owner, and he rendered such good service to the British that Lord William Bentinck (Governor-General from 1828 to 1835), raised him to the position of Rajah. On the death of this man, he was succeeded by his brother, Gungadhur Rao. The latter, having no children, made a will some weeks before his death, publicly adopting a little boy nearly related to himself, and at this time six years old. Lukshmi Baee, the Rajah’s wife, was to be the guardian of this boy and Regent of Jhansi till he had attained his eighteenth year. Gungadhur gave due notice of this to the British Governor-General; and in presence of the British Resident and his assembled subjects, took the child in his lap, as a public declaration of adoption.
Gungadhur Rao died in 1854. Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General, refused to acknowledge his right to adopt an heir, and the little province of Jhansi was annexed to British India. The young Rajah and the Ranee, his mother by adoption, were pensioned off; the latter receiving six thousand a year, paid monthly. Her troops were disbanded, and replaced by a few regiments of Sepoys and Sowars.
The Ranee was powerless to resist; she could only bide her time. She had not long to wait. Three years later, India was in a blaze. The Bundelcund Sepoys were amongst the first to mutiny. On the 14th of June, the native troops at Jhansi broke into rebellion, murdered several of their officers in the cantonments, and seized the “Star Fort.” Some few English escaped to Nagoda, but the rest, numbering fifty-five men, women, and children, barricaded themselves in the “Town Fort.” But after a brave resistance of four days, the mutineers burst open the gates on the 8th; and the English, having been promised life and liberty, laid down their arms. Thereupon a massacre commenced, which for barbarity, almost equalled that which took place shortly after at Cawnpore. Nineteen ladies, twenty-three children, twenty-four civil service employés, two non-commissioned officers, and eight officers were butchered in a manner familiar to all who can remember the Indian Mutiny.
It was generally believed at the time that this massacre took place by order of the Ranee, who is said to have stood by while the heads of ladies were chopped off, and the brains of babies were dashed out upon the flags. Nay, some have declared she laughed aloud when some deed of atrocity worse than the rest came under her notice.
Shortly after this massacre, the Ranee took the field at the head of some hundreds of Sepoys, and marched towards Gwalior, where Scindiah, the descendant of our old enemy whom we routed at Assaye, remained faithful to the British. But little was known of her movements during the rest of 1857; in August of that year, a female, dressed in a green uniform, was captured at Delhi, while leading on a party of Sepoys. This woman was at first supposed to be the terrible Ranee, and a rumour sped through the British Camp that she was leading the Gwalior rebels; but it was afterwards found that Lukshmi Baee still remained in the territories of the Maharajah. The prisoner was described as “an ugly old woman, short and fat.” She was a species of prophetess, held in high estimation by the rebels around Delhi.
In January, 1858, Sir Hugh Rose (Lord Strathnairn), commanding the second brigade of the Central India Field Force, set out against the rebels south of Delhi; his chief object being the capture of Jhansi. Having been joined by Brigadier Stuart, they invested the fortress on the 21st of March following.
The city of Jhansi measured about four miles and a half in circumference. It stood on a level plain, surrounding the east, north, and part of the south sides of an elevated rock on which the fort stood. Altogether it was a fine specimen of modern fortification; and since the first outbreak of the Mutiny, its strength had been considerably added to by the Ranee, who took care to arm the batteries with heavy ordnance of long range. On the 25th a tremendous cannonade was opened from the British lines. Throughout the siege the intrepid Ranee tried every means to defend the town; all through the day she remained in the fort directing the fire of the artillerymen, save when she visited the different points of defence, watching and planning to strengthen the weak parts of her entrenchments.
Tantia Topee marched to the relief of Jhansi with twenty or twenty-five thousand men, and an obstinately contested battle was fought on the 1st of April.
But Tantia Topee, after proving himself to be a brave man and an able general, was totally routed with the loss of all his ordnance.
Next day a general assault was made on the city; under a murderous fire the British forced their way through the streets. When they had more than half conquered it, the news of the Ranee’s flight put an end to all further resistance on the part of the rebels. It was then found that the brave old tigress, utterly disheartened by the defeat of Tantia Topee, had fled during the previous night, under cover of the darkness. Followed by about three hundred rebels, she joined Tantia Topee at Koonch. Sir Hugh Rose, as soon as he had settled matters in Jhansi, directed his march towards Calpee. He was intercepted at Koonch by the Ranee and her ally; when a spirited action took place on the 9th of May. The mutineers were driven from their entrenched camp, with great loss, and the town fell into the hands of the victors. Tantia Topee and the Ranee fled to Calpee, where they were besieged on the 16th by Sir Hugh; Calpee fell on the 23rd, the Ranee and Tantia having previously retired towards Gwalior. The Maharajah, refusing to join the rebels, was driven to take refuge in the British cantonments at Agra.
On the approach of Sir Hugh Rose, Tantia Topee fled, leaving the Ranee to defend the city. But she was not a woman easily dispirited. She disposed her forces (chiefly composed of the Gwalior Contingent) most skilfully, so as to command all the roads leading to Gwalior. She was scarcely ever out of the saddle; dressed in a sowar’s uniform, and attended by a picked, well-armed escort, she rode from post to post, superintending all the operations.
Sir Hugh Rose reached the Moorar cantonments on the 16th of June, and carried them with but slight loss. To intercept his reinforcements, the Ranee marched to the banks of the little river Oomrar. Brigadiers Smith and Orr, who were marching from Antree to join in the attack on Gwalior, reached Kota-ki-Serai, on the banks of this stream, on the morning of the 17th. Between this village and Gwalior, from which it is distant about three or four miles, the road winds through a succession of hilly ranges. Some rebel pickets were observed in front of and below the first range; a squadron of the 8th Hussars immediately crossed the stream to reconnoitre, when they were fired upon from a masked battery. Two troops of the same regiment were ordered to charge; and riding at full speed through a narrow ravine, they captured a battery armed with three guns. Thence they pressed on to the rebel camp, where the enemy was driven to bay. The Ranee of Jhansi and her sister, both in the dress of sowars, fought desperately, and lost their lives in a gallant charge made to check the British troopers.
The Ranee’s death was caused either by the bullet of a British rifleman, or by the fragment of a shell which pierced her breast. Her body was never found; it was said to have been burned by her followers immediately after the battle.
Upon her death the rebel hosts melted like snow before a sunbeam. The British infantry speedily carried the first range of heights; and the enemy, after losing about four hundred men, and seeing their camp in flames, were compelled to fly. The British, after losing about fifteen men (ten of whom died from sunstroke and fatigue), and spiking three rebel guns, resumed their march; and the same evening rejoined Sir Hugh Rose. The combined forces now advanced on Gwalior, routed the sepoys in the battle of Gurrowlee, June 19th, and recaptured the city, June 20th, when Scindiah was restored to his throne.
The death of the Ranee excited very little interest in this country. The newspapers of the time, with but one or two exceptions, barely chronicled the event, without making any comments; but it was universally felt by every British soldier serving in India that, with the death of Lukshmi Baee, we had lost the foe who was able to do us most injury. For courage and military skill she was acknowledged to be far superior to any of the other rebel chiefs. The message flashed along the wires announcing that the Ranee had fallen, added that “the deaths of Moulvie and the Ranee were more gain to us than half-a-dozen victories.”