Many years ago, there lived a brave woman named Obavva in the kingdom of Chitradurga in Karnataka, India. This story is the story of Obavva’s bravery, wit and presence of mind.
At that time, the Chitradurga fort was ruled by King Madakari Nayaka. It was a rough time in the history of Chitradurga. Hyder Ali of Mysore had tried to attack and besiege the fort multiple times. But the fort was so well and tactically built that Hyder Ali, even with his mighty army failed to conquer it.
One day, while keeping a watch on Chitradurga fort, Hyder Ali’s soldier accidentally discovered a small crevice which could enable them to enter inside the fort and conquer it. Delighted with this news, Hyder Ali, with his small bit of information, planned to attack the fort one more time. And this time, he dreamed of successfully conquering it by sending his army through the crevice. The crevice was so difficult to reach that one had to undertake a lot of climbing. Also, it was very narrow, only one person could pass through it at a time.
At that time, Kahale Hanuma, a guard in King Madakari Nayaka’s army was secretly guarding this crevice. Obavva was his wife. They stayed inside the fort and guarded this crevice all day and night.
One afternoon, when Kahale Hanuma went out for lunch, and Obavva had just begun going uphill to fetch water, Obavva saw Hyder Ali’s soldiers secretly trying to approach the crevice. She immediately sought a pestle (Onakke) and by using the secret internal path, positioned herself inside the crevice loosing no time.
As soon as a soldier crawled in through the crevice, she muffled the soldier’s mouth and struck him hard with the pestle. She had no prior experience in warfare or physical combat. But common sense told her to anticipate more soldiers and be ready for the next one while silently killing and hiding the previous enemy soldier.
As anticipated, more soldiers were crawling in one by one. One after another, she pounded them to death with the pestle and dragged their dead bodies aside. When her husband, Kahale Hanuma, returned from lunch, he was shocked to see blood soaked Obavva standing guard with a pestle and a lot of dead bodies strewn around her. He immediately sounded alert, warning his army about the breach of security and treacherous attempt of Hyder Ali’s army.
Obavva’s heroic act and presence of mind delayed Hyder Ali’s plan to besiege Chitradurga. Obavva perished the same day, however the cause of her death is unknown.
Obavva displayed exemplary courage in the face of threat. She single handedly fought with the enemy soldiers with whatever little resources she had. Thus, history remembers Onakke Obavva as an epitome of bravery for fighting off the enemy soldiers single handedly.
You can still visit the crevice where Obavva showed her bravery. Today it is known as “Obavvana Kindi”.
Moral: With presence of mind, courage and determination, one can overcome any challenge faced in life.
SweetNSourTamrind 