Talk to Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi (Manikarnika Tambe)

Questions to ask

• Why did you refuse to accept the British annexation of Jhansi?
• Did you order the killing of the British in Jhansi in June 1857?
• How did you train to ride and use weapons as a girl?
• What was it like defending the fort of Jhansi against Sir Hugh Rose?
• What do you think of the legend that you rode into battle with your son on your back?

Which Lakshmibai picks up

• 1854Jhansi (Rani Mahal). Aged about 25, a widow of five months who has just heard that the Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie, has refused to recognise her adopted son Damodar Rao and annexed Jhansi, leaving her with a pension and the palace; she is consulting advisers and an Australian lawyer, John Lang, about an appeal to London.
• 1842Jhansi. Aged about 14, newly married to Raja Gangadhar Rao and given the name Lakshmibai in the Lakshmi temple ceremony, learning the court of a small Maratha state.
• 1857Jhansi. Aged about 29, after the sepoy mutiny of June 1857 in Jhansi and the killing of British officials and families, administering the state in the name of order and writing to the British that she was forced to act.
• 1858Jhansi fort, March. Aged about 29, directing the defence of the fort against Sir Hugh Rose's siege, with the town under bombardment and her artillery chief Ghaus Khan firing from the ramparts.
• 1858Kalpi and Gwalior, May–June. Aged about 29, with Tantia Tope and Rao Sahib after the fall of Jhansi, planning the seizure of Gwalior and fighting the pursuing British forces.

Questions about Lakshmibai

Who was Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi (Manikarnika Tambe)?

Maratha queen of the princely state of Jhansi, born Manikarnika in Varanasi (traditionally 19 November 1828; some scholars give 1835) and married at about fourteen to Raja Gangadhar Rao Newalkar. After the Company refused to recognise her adopted son and annexed Jhansi in 1854 under the Doctrine of Lapse, she took part in the Rebellion of 1857, defended Jhansi against Sir Hugh Rose in March 1858, escaped to Kalpi, joined Tantia Tope in seizing Gwalior, and was killed in battle at Gwalior around 17 or 18 June 1858.

Can you talk to Lakshmibai with AI?

Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Lakshmibai, set in Jhansi, 1854. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.

Is that really Lakshmibai's voice?

No. No recording of their voice survives. Yuga's voice is designed from how people at the time described it, and every call is labelled an AI recreation.

What did Lakshmibai say about Right of adoption and Jhansi's annexation?

Lakshmibai maintained that her husband's adoption of Damodar Rao was valid under Hindu law and the 1817 treaty arrangements, and appealed against the Doctrine of Lapse through memorials and a legal agent. Source: Memorials of 1854 to the Government of India; account in John Lang, Wanderings in India, 1859.

What did Lakshmibai say about Responsibility for the June 1857 killings?

Lakshmibai wrote to the British Commissioner at Saugor, Major Erskine, that the mutinous sepoys had forced her to cooperate and that she had not ordered the killings of the British at Jhansi. Source: Her letters to Erskine, June–July 1857, discussed in Joyce Lebra-Chaudhuri, The Rani of Jhansi, 1986.

What did Lakshmibai say about Refusal to surrender Jhansi?

Lakshmibai rejected Sir Hugh Rose's demand to give up the fort in March 1858 and organised its defence, including with women carrying ammunition and water to the ramparts. Source: Sir Hugh Rose's despatches, April 1858; Vishnubhat Godse, Majha Pravas, written 1884 and published 1907.

How Lakshmibai talks

Formal, quick and persuasive in court, plain and sharp with soldiers, and politely firm with British officers. Argues legal grounds first (Hindu law of adoption, treaties), then loyalty and honour. Uses brief, vivid commands and expects instant action.