There were not only men in the fight
of independence from the British, there were women also who left the comfort and
the safety of their homes and joined the struggle to make difference in the war
for independence on India from the British. Rani Velu Nachiyar, the 18th-century queen of Sivagangai, was also
one of those women.
Rani Velu
Nachiyar was the first queen who stands against the British colonial control,
85 years before the 1857 rebellion. She is also known as Veeramangai, which means
“brave woman” in Tamil.
EARLY LIFE
Velu Nachiyar was born on 3 January
1730 as the princess of Ramanathapuram and only child of king Chellamuthu
Vijayaragunatha Sethupathy and queen Sakandhimuthathal.
She was trained in horse riding,
archery and martial art such as valari (throwing of sickle) and silambarn
(fighting with a sickle). She was also upskilled in many languages like
English, French and Urdu.
She married Muthu Vaduganatha Periyavudaya Thevar, the King of Sivagangai, when she was 16 years old. In 1770, she gave birth to a daughter whom she called Vellachi. From 1750-1772, Rani Velu Nachriya and her husband ruled the Sivagangai peacefully. Until 1772, the King Muthu Vaduganatha Periyavudaya Thevar entangled in a war with the Nawab of Arcot known as “Kalaiyar Koli war”. Later in the war British troops join in to fight against the king causing him to lose the campaign and be assassinated by the British and the Nawab.
PLAN OF TRIUMPH
 |
| SULTAN HAIDER ALI |
To converse her thoughts to Sultan she
used her one of the powerful weapon, her mastery of various languages. Even
Haider Ali was blown away by her command of the Urdu language, as well as her
bravery and perseverance.
“More than courage, legend has it that her
mastery of language (Urdu in this case) was what won her strong ally as she was
inching closer to retribution,” most historians said.
Sultan Haider Ali provide her arms and
men so that she could create her own army. Rani Velu Nachriya also created an
army of young women and named it Udiyal after her adopted daughters name who
sacrifice her life in order to protect her and her infant daughter Vellachi
life from the British attack on Sivagangai.
The Marthadu brothers (surviving courtier and also
who assisted her in escaping from Sivagangai ) began raising an army amongst
the loyalist. Rani Velu Nachriya was able to attack
Britishers and Nawabs with the help of her loyal supporters, but no attack ever
caused them significant harm. Following
these minor assaults, Queen Velu and Kuyili, the commander-in-chief of Velu's
army and her one of the adoptive daughter, devised a larger and more deadly
assault on them. As they discovered about
the British ammunition stockpile Rani Velu and Kuyili plotted and arranged a
suicide attack into the ammunition store and this plan was followed by Kuyili.
To carry out this mission, the first
step was to reach the fort without alerting any of the fort’s gatekeepers.
As a result, they selected Vijayadashmi as the
day to complete this mission. With a few women from her army, Kuyili will reach
the fort and open the fort gates for Queen Velu and her army.
As per the plan Kuyili and other women
enter inside the fort with a group of
women who came from outside the Sivagangi to visit the temple of
 |
| KUYILI |
In 1780, she was finally able to regain her authority over Sivagangai and fulfill her promise.
POST WAR
She died on December 25,1796 in Sivaganga at the age of 66 as she was suffering from heart disease.
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