Begum Samru - Life

Life

Begum Samru was of slight stature, fair complexion and distinguished by exceptional leadership abilities of an uncommon order. More than once, she headed her own troops in action. She was of Kashmiri descent. When she was in her early teens, she married (or started living with) a mercenary soldier Walter Reinhardt Sombre of Luxembourg, who was operating in India.

Walter Reinhardt Sombre, a European mercenary, then 45-year-old, came to the red light area and fell for the charms of Farzana, then a girl of 14, says Johan Lall in his well-researched work: "Begum Samru - Faded Portrait in a Gilded Frame".

A soldier of fortune, Sombre moved from Lucknow to Rohilkhand (near Bareilly), then to Agra, Deeg and Bharatpur and back to the Doab. Farzana helped him in those times of intrigue and counter-intrigue. Farzana was courted by some of the European officers who were associated with her husband. Among them were Le Vassoult, a Frenchman, and George Thomas, an Irishman. The Begum favoured the Frenchman and when, in 1793, the rumour spread that she had married him, her troops mutinied. The couple sought to escape secretly by night - Le Vassoult on horseback and the Begum in a palanquin. Misinformed that Le Vassoult had been shot, she stabbed herself but survived. Her lover, however, died of a self-inflicted wound to the head. One version has it that she suggested a suicide pact but only nicked herself when the unsuspecting Le Vassoult shot himself dead.

When Lord Gerard Lake met the Begum in 1802, in a fit of enthusiasm he gave her a hearty kiss, which appalled her troops. But with her customary tact, Begum Samru pacified them by saying that it was only "the kiss of the Padre to a repentant child". The Begum, though only 4½ feet tall, wore a turban and rode on horseback as she led her troops to battle. So invincible did she seem that the superstitious spread the word that she was a witch who could destroy her enemies just by throwing her cloak towards them.

Throughout her life, she had only one friend since Nautch Girls were not considered to be a good company. Begum Umdaa who belonged to the other Jagirdar Family of Sardhana became her closest friend with time and fulfilled her relation till her death with Begum Samru. Even after Begum Umdaa was married, Begum Samru took out time to visit her to Meerut in good and bad.

On the death of her husband Walter Reinhardt, she succeeded to his Principality yielding about £90,000 per annum, and on the introduction of British Rule in 1803 in North India, she managed to retain her possessions as an Independent Ruler. Her conduct in the internal management of her estate was highly commendable.

Over a period of time, she became a powerful lady of North India, ruling a large area from Sardhana, Uttar Pradesh. Her support was even acknowledged by the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II. The British East India Company considered her a threat to its territorial ambitions in undivided India.

On the 7 May 1781, at the age of about forty, Begum Samru was baptized Joanna Nobilis, by a Roman Catholic priest.

She died at Sardhana in January 1837 at the age of 85, bequeathing the greater part of her property to David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, who descended from Walter Reinhardt Sombre, from his first wife.

Several stories and novels have been written based on her political and diplomatic astuteness and on crucial battles fought by troops directly commanded by her.