Vijaya Mohana Muktamba Bai

Vijaya Mohana Muktamba Bai (1845-1886) or Vijaya Mohana Mutumbar Bai as per British records, was a member of the Marathi Bhonsle royal family and the first pretender to the throne of Tanjore

Ancestry and early life

Vijaya Bai was the second daughter of Shivaji II, the last Maratha ruler of Tanjore and Kamakshi Bai, the queen of Tanjore and was born in 1845. She beacme the heir-apparent on the death of her elder sister Rajasa Boje Ammanee Rajur Bai.

Shivaji's death and British annexation of Tanjore

Shivaji II died in 1855. In the absence of a legitimate male heir to the throne, Tanjore was annexed by the British East India Company as per the newly constituted Doctrine of Lapse.

Ten year old Vijaya Bai assumed the title of Queen of Tanjore, but she had little authority in the kingdom apart from certain customary privileges. The dispossessed queen was extremely and waged an unsuccessful legal battle to get her authority restored.

Marriage

With the permission of the Madras government, Vijaya Bai married Sakharam Saheb, the prince of Kolhapur and the widower of Princess Rajur Bai in about 1859.

References

• Hickey, William (1874). The Tanjore Mahratta Principality in Southern India: The Land of the Chola, the Eden of the South. C. Foster.