Person · rebel queen
Kittur Chennamma
Also known as Chennamma
The Kittur rani Chennamma (23 October 1778 - 2 February 1829), one of the first Indian royal women to lead an armed revolt against the British East India Company. The queen regent of Kittur in Belgaum district (northern Karnataka) after her husband Mallasarja's death and her adopted son's succession under the Company's refusal to recognise the adoption (an early application of the Doctrine of Lapse), Chennamma led the 1824 Kittur revolt against Thackeray's EIC forces. She killed Thackeray at the first Battle of Kittur (October 1824) but was captured in December 1824. She died in Bailhongal Fort imprisonment on 2 February 1829. The 2007 Rani Chennamma statue at the Indian Parliament House honours her.
- Date
- 1778–1829
- Function
- Social reform & movement
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Connections (1)
- Court associationSangolli Rayanna
Rani Chennamma of Kittur and her chief military commander Sangolli Rayanna led the 1824 Kittur Revolt against the British East India Company together. After Chennamma's 1829 death at Bailhongal Fort imprisonment, Rayanna continued the Kittur resistance for two more years as a guerilla campaign across the Belgaum-Bagalkot hills before his 1830 capture and 1831 Nandagad execution. The Chennamma-Rayanna pair is central to Karnataka's anti-colonial narrative.
Sources
Standard biography; regional historiography.
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