The Rani

There was a pin drop silence in the royal court and everybody in the royal court was looking at the ambassador sent by Adham Khan. Everybody was eager to know what message was sent by him. Rani ordered the ambassador to read out the message.

Ambassador stood up and read out the message. Hearing the message, everybody in the court became angry. Some of the courtesans drew out their swords to kill the ambassador. Seeing this, Rani came forward to save the Ambassador. The message was wrong and hateful. In the message Adham Khan demanded the surrender of state Keeratgarh without war and the marriage of Rani  Sumitra to him. Rani herself was stunned and furious at this message. She at once refused to accept the demands and ordered her soldiers to throw the ambassador out of the court.

Refusal to his demands meant the war. Adham khan was a cruel ruler who was ruling over the large part of the ancient India. Keeratgarh was comparatively a small state being ruled by Rani Sumitra. Keeratgarh was flourishing well under the rein of Rani. She was the daughter of the former king Jaisingh. Like her father she too was a benevolent ruler. She was beautiful and brave lady. Being greedy by wealth of Keeratgarh and being charmed by the beauty of Rani he decided to possess keeratgarh. The only way to own the Keeratgarh was war.

In the Royal palace, Rani was alone in her room and was worried over the current situation and the consequences. She came out of her thoughts when someone knocked at the door of her room.

She turned to the door and asked, “Who is?”

“I, Ramsingh” Ramsingh was the Senapati (chief of the army).

“Come in. What brought you here to meet me?” she questioned.

“Something about Adham Khan”, he replied briefly.

“Tell”, she asked with great curiosity.

 “Our spies reported that Adham Khan was preparing for the war”, he said in low voice.

She said, “I know he will do so.”

He looked at her and told with worry, “It is alright but he had multitudes of trained soldiers and state of the art weapons to fight. We had comparatively a small army having old weapons. How will we fight the war against him?”

“Even if we will not fight, he will destroy and kill us. In that case we will get disrespectful death. I prefer respectful death to disgraceful life.” she said determinedly looking at him.

Being impressed with her fearlessness and determination, he said, “We are proud of getting ruler like you. We have faith on your leadership and we are ready to fight against Adham Khan.”

“We will pray to God for victor”, she said looking at the sky.

Soon the preparation for the war began. Thousands of youth came forward to fight against Adham Khan.

Soon the army of Adham Khan came at the border and invaded the Keeratgarh. In a fierce battle, Rani succeeded to repel the army of Adham Khan. Both the sides had to suffer heavy casualties. Victory in that battle increased the confidence of the Keeratgarh.  

Adham Khan, being furious at the defeat decided to use the cannons. Within a few days, he along with thousands of soldiers and dozens of cannons moved forward to attack Keeratgarh.  

Seeing a large army with dozens of big cannons, Rani had to change her tactic. She adopted the tactic of surprise attack specially night time. That tactics proved successful to some extent. A1dham Khan had suffered great loss in these surprise attacks. Surprise attacks spread panic in his army.  This stuff lasted for several weeks. Patience of Adham Khans was diminishing day by day. Seeing increasing discontent among soldiers, his advisors advised him for final attack. Following the advice of his advisors, he decided a day for final attack.

Fortunately one of Rani’s spies, pick up the date for the attack and informed her. That was a bad news for Keeratgarh.  Several rumours were spreading among the people of Keeratgarh. Rani decided to lead her army.

“Although we had a small army, we had a great courage and morals. We had a cause. We shall sacrifice our lives for the cause of nation” she said to the people of Keeratgarh gathered in front of royal palace to listen to the speech of Rani.

All the people of Keeratgarh came forward to back up Rani.

And the day came when Adham Khan along with his soldiers fall on the Keeratgarh. His cannons began to shower the shells.  Rani along with her comparatively small army moved forward to defend Keeratgarh. Her soldiers without caring a bit of shells, bullets and fire rushed to enemy.

It was tooth and nail fight. Rani’s army fought with a great valour. Seeing that the defeat was inevitable, Senapati advised her to go away to safer place. But Rani refused to do so saying that it would be cowardice for her.

 That day, the battlefield became red with the blood of the soldiers from both the sides. There were dead bodies, wounded soldiers, screams, fire and smoke all around and among all these, the fierce battle was going on. Blood was flowing like water. It appeared that Rani would win the battle. All of the sudden a deliberately fired shell exploded near the Rani and a bit of the shell pierced her head. Geting injured she fell down on the ground. Her soldiers took her away to a safer place.

Hearing that news Senapati reached to see Rani. Rani was badly injured. Seeing him, Rani said, “There is no hope of my survival. Whether I live or not, the war should continue.” After some time she succumbed to the injuries.

Senapati filled with the anger and the emotion of avenge. He along with his all lieutenants took the oath to avenge the death of Rani. He said to his lieutenants that Rani’s sacrifice would not go waste.

Here, Adham Khan was sad for breaking of his dream of marrying Rani. But his greed for wealth made him to continue war. His anticipation that the Keeratgarh would surrender soon, proved wrong. Being inspired by the sacrifice of Rani keeratgarh pose strong resistance before him. Soon discontent and revolt began to spread in Adham Khan’s army and he decided to retreat. The name of Rani Sumitra is written on the pages of the history in golden ink for her valour and sacrifice.