Episode 1 of 3

Death of the Raja

Name: Death of the Raja
Start: 1853-11-21
Location: Jhansi

When: 21 November 1853
Where: Jhansi
Part of: British annexation of Jhansi under the doctrine of lapse, 1854

The Raja of Jhansi died in November 1853, having adopted a young relative named Damodar Rao on his deathbed.

As was customary, the Raja adopted a five-year-old relative named Anand Rao, who was renamed Damodar Rao, before dying on 21 November 1853. This adoption was intended to secure the succession, but the Company would later reject this claim.

Sources

Lakshmibai, Rani of Jhansi Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-30

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.