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Rani Abbakkadevi, the only woman in history to confront, fight and repeatedly defeat the Portuguese. The Mangalorean Queen whom Portuguese feared.Her unflagging courage and indomitable spirit are at par with legendary Rani Laxmi Bai and Rani Chennamma of Kittur. They even ruined the ancient Kapaleeswarar Temple to build a Church over it. Their next target, the super profitable port of Mangalore. Their only bad luck, just 14 km south of Mangalore was the small settlement of Ullal - ruled by a feisty 30 yr old woman-Abbakka Chowta.
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Initially, they took her lightly and sent few boats/soldiers to capture and bring her back to Goa.Those boats never came back.Shocked and enraged, they sent huge fleet of ships under the command of Admiral Dom Álvaro da Silveira - The admiral returned, badly injured,empty handedThereafter, another Portuguese fleet was sent - only a few injured from the crew managed to make it back.
Then the Portuguese went on to capture the Mangalore port and the fort anyways, perhaps planning to tackle Abbakka Chowta from the convenient distance of the Mangalore fort.After the successful capture of Mangalore, a huge army under João Peixoto, an experienced Portuguese General was sent to Ullal. The brief was simple: Subjugate Ullal and capture Abbakka Chowta. The plan was foolproof- there was no way a 30 year old with a few men could withstand the might of an army of thousands with advanced weapons.The Portuguese reached Ullal and found it deserted. Abbakka was nowhere in sight. They roamed around, relaxed and thanked their starsJust when they were about to call it a victory, Chowta attacked with 200 of her chosen men. There was chaos all around and many portuguese lost their lives even without a fight. General João Peixoto was assassinated, 70 portuguese were captured and the rest just ran awaySo if you’re Abbakka Chowta,who’s just defeated a large army of aggressors, killed a general, captured fighters and defended her city, what will you do? Rest, enjoy the moment.Right? No!She rode with her men towards Mangalore that same night and laid a siege of the Mangalore fortShe not just broke inside the fort successfully, but assassinated Admiral Mascarenhas, Chief of Portuguese,forced remaining Portuguese to vacate fort.She didn’t just stop at this but went on to capture Portuguese settlement at Kundapura,100 kms north of Mangalore,to make a point.The Portuguese managed to get back at her by convincing her estranged husband to betray for money. She was arrested, put in prison where she revolted again and was killed while trying to escape. She was a brave queen who fought against Portuguese 300 yrs before 1st War in 1857.What did we do to her as a mark of respect? We forgot her. Didn’t name our girls after her. Didn’t teach her stories to our kids. We did release a Postal Stamp in her name, named a boat after her, erected 2 statues, but only this much for someone who should be our national hero.We might have got to read a chapter about her in our text books had she been a European or American. But we are still busy arguing if it was actually one of her daughters who fought the battles instead of her. Many talk abt her being the last Indian to have power of the agni-ban.In all this cacophony, our generation has lost a great hero - a great source of inspiration. Still wondering why you’ve not heard about her yet? |