During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Rani of Tulsipur Ishwar Kumari Devi was a rebel leader from Balrampur. She was seen as a heroine. While Rajah Drig Narayan Singh was imprisoned in Lucknow fort, Rani of Tulsipur remained actively supporting Bahraich freedom fighters in their fight to liberate her husband and homeland from the British.
Tulsipur's Rani, Ishwar Kumari Devi, Gonda's Raja Devi Baksh, and Bala Rao never surrendered. After Lucknow, the last Nawab of Awadh, Birjis Qadar, and his mother Begum Hazrat Mahal, who were forced to travel door-to-door from the Bondi royal state of Bahraich district, sought sanctuary in Ishwari Kumari's princely state. As a result, the British were already interested in the princely kingdom of Tulsipur. This was because she did not keep in touch with Balrampur Naresh Digvijay Singh and refused to recognize his rule.
Even then, the British aim of seizing Tulsipur was dashed. Because Drig Narayan's legacy passed to his twenty-five-year-old queen Ishwari Kumari, Awadh gained another energetic and brilliant heroine in Begum Hazrat Mahal. This woman showed exceptional talents not just in commanding the troops but also in preserving cooperation with the neighbouring rulers, the head of which was Devi Baksh Singh of Gonda. According to Asharani Vohra's book 'Swarajya and Women', the British repeatedly assaulted Ishwari Kumari but were unable to overcome her. She fought him till the last end.
The bloodstained, infuriated Rani of Tulsipur avoided arrest mostly by Imperials only to die of starvation or sickness in the wilderness of southern Nepal in 1865 AD, a death she may have chosen over servitude.
Source: Indian Culture Portal