Cite
MLA
“Rani Avantibai Lodhi.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/people/rani-avantibai/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Rani Avantibai Lodhi. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/people/rani-avantibai/
Life in moments
- 01
Queen of Ramgarh, in today’s Dindori district, Madhya Pradesh
- 02
Expelled the Company’s Court of Wards administrator
- 031857
Raised an army against the British in 1857
- 041858
Took her own life when cornered near Devhargarh on 20 March 1858
- 051988
Honoured on Indian postage stamps in 1988 and 2001
01Ramgarh taken over
Avantibai was married to Vikramaditya Singh, the Lodhi raja of Ramgarh, a forest state in what is now Dindori district of Madhya Pradesh. When the raja fell ill and then died, leaving two young sons, the Company placed the state under its Court of Wards and sent an administrator. The Rani turned him out. When the risings of 1857 spread through the Saugor and Narmada territories, she wrote to the neighbouring chiefs and zamindars and gathered a force of several thousand.
02The last stand
Her men drove the British out of Ramgarh and the country around Mandla for a time. When the Company returned in strength with troops from Rewa, Ramgarh fort fell and she withdrew into the Devhargarh hills. On 20 March 1858, surrounded near Devhargarh, she took her own life with her sword rather than be taken. The place most often named is Sukhi Talaiya, between Balapur and Ramgarh. Statues of her stand across the Mahakoshal country, and India Post has twice honoured her, in 1988 and 2001.