Jankibai


Janki Bhosale was Empress consort of the Maratha Empire as the first wife of Rajaram Chhatrapati.
Jankibai was the daughter of Prataprao Gujar, an aristocratic general, who was the commander-in-chief of the Maratha Empire. Her father died in a battle against the Mughals at Nesari on 24 February 1674. Shivaji, the king of the Marathas upon hearing the solemn news, grieved his general's death. As a result, he married his second son, the ten-year-old Rajaram to the five-year-old Jankibai. They were married in a grand ceremony that took place in Raigad Fort on 7 March 1680. Her father-in-law Shivaji died on 3 April 1680, twenty five days after her marriage.

Death

On 2 March 1700, the thirty-year-old Rajaram died following a brief illness. At his funeral rites, Jankibai committed sati, that is, throwing herself onto her husband's funeral pyre.