Rani Avantibai Lodhi

The Ramgarh rani Avantibai Lodhi (16 August 1831 - 20 March 1858), the queen of Ramgarh (modern Mandla district, Madhya Pradesh) who led her Gond-Lodhi warriors against the British East India Company during the 1857-1858 Indian Rebellion. After the EIC's Court of Wards took over the Ramgarh estate in 1850 (her husband Vikramjit Singh being declared incapable), Avantibai organised an armed uprising in 1857. She defeated British forces at the Battle of Kheri (November 1857) but was pushed back to Ramgarh in March 1858 by Captain Waddington's reinforcements. Rather than be captured, she killed herself with her own sword at the Devharigarh forest on 20 March 1858. The 2001 Rani Avantibai postage stamp and the Mandla memorial honour her.