Begum Samru
Joanna Nobilis Sombre ( – 27 January 1836), popularly known as Begum Samru (née Farzana Zeb un-Nissa),. a convert Catholic Christian, started her career as a nautch (dancing) girl in 18th-century India, and eventually became the ruler of Sardhana, a small principality (''jagir'') near Meerut. She was the head of a professionally trained mercenary army, inherited from her European mercenary husband, Walter Reinhardt Sombre. This mercenary army consisted of Europeans and Indians. She is also regarded as the only Catholic ruler in Northern India, as she ruled the principality of Sardhana in 18th- and 19th-century India. Begum Sumru died immensely rich but without an heir. Her inheritance was assessed at approximately 55.5 million gold marks in 1923 and 18 billion deutsch marks in 1953. Her inheritance continues to be disputed to this day. An organisation named "Reinhards Erbengemeinschaft" still strives to resolve the inheritance issue. Life Begum Samru was of slight stat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sardhana
Sardhana is a city and a municipal board in Meerut district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is northeast of New Delhi and 13 mi from Meerut. It is 5 km from Meerut Karnal National Highway and 12 km from National Highway 58. It is famous for its cloth and timber industries, and its church. History Being close to Hastinapur, which is also in Meerut district, the capital of Kauravas of Mahabharata, Sardhana is also known for the ancient Mahadev Temple that is believed to be dating from the Mahabharata period. It was here that the Pandavas prayed before leaving for the Lakshagrah, the notorious palace made of Lac (resin), lac by Duryodhana, at the confluence of the Hindon River, Hindon and Krishna rivers (Kali River, ''Kali Nadi''). This palace was located at ''Varnavrat'', the present Barnava, where the prince resided with their mother Kunti. In the 19th century, Sardhana was the capital of the Begum Samru, born as Farzana Zebunisa in 1751, and considered ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Concubine
Concubinage is an interpersonal relationship, interpersonal and Intimate relationship, sexual relationship between two people in which the couple does not want to, or cannot, enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar, but mutually exclusive. During the early stages of European colonialism, administrators often encouraged European men to practice concubinage to discourage them from paying prostitutes for sex (which could spread venereal disease) and from homosexuality. Colonial administrators also believed that having an intimate relationship with a native woman would enhance white men's understanding of native culture and would provide them with essential domestic labor. The latter was critical, as it meant white men did not require wives from the metropole, hence did not require a family wage. Colonial administrators eventually discouraged the practice when these liaisons resulted in offspring who threatened colonial rule by producing a m ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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John Orrok
John Orrok ( 1779 – 1838) was a junior British army officer in the late 18th century and early 19th century. The letters he wrote home to Scotland between 1801 and 1816 from England, India and what is now Belgium have been published and provide a detailed picture of his life and preoccupations and the society in which he moved. Biography Born into Scottish gentry, John Orrok obtained a commission into the British army while in his early or mid-teens and served in India and Ceylon in the 1790s. On returning to Britain he married his cousin, Betsy Reid, in 1800 and in 1803 they left their baby daughter with Betsy's parents and both sailed to India. John joined first the 65th and then the 33rd Regiment which was led at the time by Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington. Although John Orrok reached the rank of captain, he saw very little military action. The couple had three children while in India and after Betsy's death in 1810, Orrok brought them back to England, where h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Battle Of Assaye
The Battle of Assaye was a battle of the Second Anglo-Maratha War fought between the Maratha Confederacy and the British East India Company. It occurred on 23 September 1803 near Assaye in western India. An outnumbered Indian and British force, under the command of Major General Arthur Wellesley (who later became the Duke of Wellington), defeated the combined Maratha army of Daulatrao Scindia and the Bhonsle Raja of Berar. The battle was Wellesley's first big victory and the one he later described as his finest accomplishment on the battlefield, even more so than his more famous victories in the Peninsular War and his defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo. From August 1803, Wellesley's army and a separate force under the command of his subordinate, Colonel James Stevenson, pursued the Maratha cavalry-based army, which had threatened to raid south into Hyderabad. After several weeks of pursuit and counter-marching, Scindia reinforced the combined Maratha arm ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Maratha Empire
The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern India, early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. It comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent List of Maratha dynasties and states, Maratha states under the nominal leadership of the former. The Marathas were a Marathi language, Marathi-speaking peasantry group from the western Deccan Plateau (present-day Maharashtra) that rose to prominence under leadership of Shivaji (17th century), who revolted against the Bijapur Sultanate and the Mughal Empire for establishing "Hindavi Swarajya" (). The religious attitude of Aurangzeb, Emperor Aurangzeb estranged Kafir, non-Muslims, and the Deccan wars, Maratha insurgency came at a great cost for his men and treasury. The Maratha government also included warriors, administrators, and other nobles from other Marathi people, Marathi groups. Shivaji's monarchy, referred to as the Maratha Kingdom, expanded into a large realm in the 18th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gerard Lake, 1st Viscount Lake
Gerard Lake, 1st Viscount Lake (27 July 1744 – 20 February 1808) was a Kingdom of Great Britain, British general. He commanded British forces during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and later served as Commander-in-Chief, India, Commander-in-Chief of the military in British India. Background He was the son of Lancelot Charles Lake (d. 1751) of Harrow-on-the-Hill and his wife Letitia Gumley, daughter of John Gumley. He was educated at Eton College. Lake entered the foot guards in 1758, becoming lieutenant (captain in the army) in 1762, captain (lieutenant-colonel) in 1776, major in 1784, and lieutenant colonel in 1792, by which time he was a general officer in the army. He served with his regiment in Germany between 1760 and 1762, and with a composite battalion in the Battle of Yorktown (1781), Battle of Yorktown of 1781. After this he was equerry to the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV of the United Kingdom, George IV. His younger brother Warwick Lake, Warwick served as a groom ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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George Thomas (soldier)
George Thomas (; 22 August 1802), known in India as Jaharai Jung and Jahazi Sahib, was an Irish mercenary and ultimately a Raja who was active in 18th-century India. From 1798 to 1801, he ruled a small kingdom in India, which he carved out of the Hisar and Rohtak districts of Haryana. He is often known in popular memory as the 'Raja from Tipperary'. Early life Thomas was born in Roscrea, County Tipperary, the son of a poor Irish Catholic tenant farmer who died when George was a child. Originally forced to press-gang at Youghal, County Cork, where he worked as a labourer on the docks, Thomas deserted from the British Navy at the age of 25 in Madras in 1782. Still illiterate at the age of 32, he led a group of Pindaris north to Delhi by 1787, where he took service under Begum Samru of Sardhana. Though he was the favourite general of Begum Samru, due to jealous intrigues of his French rival ''Le Vassoult'' (committed suicide in 1795) he was supplanted in 1792 in her favo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in India as well as the List of first-level administrative divisions by population, most populous country subdivision in the world – more populous than List of countries and dependencies by population, all but four other countries outside of India (China, United States, Indonesia, and Pakistan) – and accounting for 16.5 percent of the population of India or around 3 percent of the total world population. The state is bordered by Rajasthan to the west, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi to the northwest, Uttarakhand and Nepal to the north, Bihar to the east, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand to the south. It is the List of states of India by area, fourth-largest Indian state by area covering , accounting for 7.3 percent of the total ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Section Of An Illustration Of Begum Samru And Her Army, Made 1805–26
Section, Sectioning, or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sign (§), typographical characters * Section (bookbinding), a group of sheets, folded in the middle, bound into the binding together * The Section (band), a 1970s American instrumental rock band * ''The Outpost'' (1995 film), also known as ''The Section'' * Section, an instrumental group within an orchestra * "Section", a song by 2 Chainz from the 2016 album ''ColleGrove'' * "Sectioning" (''Peep Show''), a 2005 television episode * David "Section" Mason, a fictional character in '' Call of Duty: Black Ops II'' Organisations * Section (Alpine club) * Section (military unit) * Section (Scouting) Science, technology and mathematics Science * Section (archaeology), a view in part of the archaeological sequence showing it in the vertical p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tawaif
A ''tawaif'' () was a highly successful courtesan singer‚ dancer‚ and poet who catered to the nobility of the Indian subcontinent, particularly during the Mughal era. Many tawaifs (" nautch girls" to the British) were forced to go into prostitution due to a lack of opportunities by the time of the British Raj. Known variously as ''tawaifs'' in North India, ''Baijis'' in Bengal and ''naikins'' in Goa, these professional singers and dancers were dubbed as “ nautch girl” during the British rule. Tawaifs were largely a North Indian institution central to Mughal court culture from the 16th century onwards and became even more prominent with the weakening of Mughal rule in the mid-18th century. They contributed significantly to the continuation of traditional dance and music forms. The tawaifs excelled in and contributed to music, dance ( mujra), theatre, and the Urdu literary tradition, and were considered an authority on etiquette. Indian writer and scholar Pran Nevi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |