A birthday present from my oldest son, the gilded iron cuirass, or breastplate, may have been worn by the Indian princess, The Rani of Jhansi (1828-1858), a heroine of the War for Independence from Britain.
Before the first engagement, in May, 1857, the Rhani held a Haldi Kumkum ceremony for all her women, advising them not to be afraid—the British were all cowards.
She fought in many subsequent battles, called by a British doctor, “Jezebel of India…the young Rani upon whose head rested the blood of the slain.” Her refusal to surrender allowed the doctor to blame her for the murder of her subjects by the British.
The next year, during a British assault on Jhansi, the Rani issued a proclamation. “We fight for independence, in the words of Lord Krishna, we will if we are victorious, enjoy the fruits of victory, if defeated and killed on the field of battle, we will surely earn eternal joy and salvation.”
The British soldiers breached the walls of Jhansi, and in spite of determined resistance on the part of the city’s inhabitants. The British general decreed as the city fell and the Rani left her palace, “No maudlin clemency was to mark the fall of the city.” In the fighting, the Rani was unhorsed, wounded with a saber and left bleeding by the side of a road. She recognized a British soldier and fired at him with her pistol, whereupon he “dispatched the young lady with his carbine.” She was cremated and buried with great ceremony under a tamarind tree.
The British commander wrote that she was “the most dangerous of all the Indian leaders.” Twenty years later, she was recognized as contributing to the long struggle for Indian Independence and its eventual success in 1947.
My dinner guest sits quietly as the sun sinks in the west behind her, but her quietness is temporary. She is always ready to ride again in the worldwide struggle for freedom.
Rebecca Jean Henderson says
Tamarind tree
roots and chutney
delicious digestion.
https://ew.com/movies/2020/02/12/wonder-woman-golden-armor-explained/
Good digestion at dinner…like always being able to drop the head to the belly and go home to mama’s table Hippolyta Paradise Island ( somewhat for me like visiting Wig MacKinnon on Harbor Island and gazing at the white silver Sting Ray that swam beneath the dock at sunset) on her Home Island.
Good digesting with Tamarind chutney for this Indian Heroine!
Sallie today I became a mother of a child Alexander …an Owl called in St. Matthews under a full February moon the night before he zoomed out a month early covered still in womb weather atmosphere.
The next day at Jewish Hospital as Alex and I were learning to navigate these waters of life and milk flooding in to Breast feed, you appeared on the television set in the room
being interviewed in your deep electric blue suit….like a breast plate worn in public to stand steady in your confidence and life.
Now sweet digestion with your dinner guest at rest and home with mother breath, eyes, taste,touch, reflection, saliva, aroma, and listening to all of the sounds around…near, far, and remembered in the soft walled chambers of the heart.
Rebecca Jean Henderson says
February 17th Presidents day 1986.