HISTORICAL INFO

HISTORICAL DETAILS: 1820 - 1857

Sticking this together because I am A) a nerd, and B) like it when people can access my source material free of myself! Granted this is nothing more than a series of quotes I use to inform my own writing and characterization of Lakshmi Bai pre the events of The Order: 1886, during her formative years in the First Independence War of India in 1857.

Sources are taken from: Excerpts are taken from the writings of Mahsweta Devi's The Queen Of Jhansi, translated by Sagree & Mandira Sengupta, published 1956, 2009 edition.

... Not that this is a historical paper, etc, but just in case you would like to do your own reading!

POEMS, LEGENDS, ETC

"She made soldiers out of soil,
And swords out of wood;
She picked up mountains and made horses,
And off she rose to Gwalior. "

"You would say, 'who are they speaking of?', They will reply, 'The Queen of Jhansi'. They will say, 'If the Queen picked up a handful of dust, it became an army. A piece of wood would transform into an upright sword at her magic touch. She touched a rock to make it into a horse and then rode off to Gwalior.' If you meet an aged farmer on your way to Kalpi, he will tell you: 'The Queen fought on this Kalpi soil, and she's hiding somewhere, perhaps in the bosom of the very earth here. Her days are long gone, there's no chance for her anymore. Thay's why the humiliated Queen no longer shows her face to any-one.' Everywhere in Jhansi, Kalpi and Gwalior - ordinary people will tell that the Queen will never die."

"[The Ancient man ] will tell you with absolute conviction that when the earth lies dreaming under chill breezes and a flood of moonlight, deep in the night in late autumn, he has seen Rani Lakshmibai standing still as a painting on the fort wall. An unbeliever would say, 'That's impossible'. He would retort, 'You just don't know, that's all. The Queen hasn't died! Baisaheba jarur jinda houni!' "

"If the essence of our land could be personified, that embodiment would be Rani Lakshmibai. "

"As long as people insist, 'Rani margai na houni,' - 'the Queen did not die' - the Queen will be alive. "

"The people of India will remember this debt of yours (O! Rani Laxmaibai),
may you be blessed, dear Rani,
Your life sacrifice will awake an indestructible soul of freedom in the people,
History may be made silent or if truth is hanged or killed,
or if the drinkers become victorious or if they destroy Jhansi with cannonballs,
You, by yourself, be the memorial of Rani because you had been an eternal token of courage.

From the mouths of the Bandelas and the Harbolas,
we heard the tale of the courage of the Queen of Jhansi
Relating how gallantly she fought like a man against the British intruders: such was the Queen of Jhansi."
- excerpt from the longer poem, Jhansi Ki Rani.

JHANSI

LAKSHMI & CHILDHOOD

LAKSHMI & PERSONAL

LAKSHMI & MARRIAGE / FAMILY / CHILDREN

LAKSHMI & RULING

SIEGE OF JHANSI

BATTLE OF KALPI

BATTLE OF KUNCH

TAKING OF GWALIOR

DEATH

OTHER