* One Briton, who met her in 1854, wrote: ‘Her face must have been very handsome when she was younger, and even now it had many charms… The eyes were particularly fine, and the nose very delicately shaped… Her dress was a plain white muslin, so fine in texture, and drawn about her in such a way, and so tightly, that the outline of her figure was plainly discernible – and a remarkably fine figure she had. What spoilt her was her voice, which was something between a whine and a croak.’ (Lang, Wanderings in India, 93–4.)

† The Rani’s father was Moropant Tambe, a Maratha Brahman, who served for many years as chief adviser to Baji Rao II’s younger brother, Chimnaji. On Chimnaji’s death in 1832, Moropant joined the Peshwa’s court at Bithur. His only daughter was named Manakarnika, or ‘Manu’. She assumed the name of Lakshmi Bai – in honour of the Hindu goddess of wealth and victory – at the time of her marriage to the Maharaja of Jhansi.