Onake Obavva

The Story

During the siege of Chitradurga fort by the forces of Hyder Ali in the eighteenth century, the fort's defenders were hard pressed. In the confusion, a small band of the enemy found the secret opening in the rocks — the crevice through which water and grain were carried — and began to enter the fort through the gap.

Obavva, the wife of a guard of the fort, had come to the crevice to fetch water. She saw the soldiers climbing through the opening — and, without raising an alarm that might spread panic, she seized the onake, the long heavy pestle used to pound grain, and took her stand at the crevice. One by one, as each soldier entered the narrow gap, she struck him down — and the pile of the slain grew at the opening.

She killed more than a dozen of the enemy before a soldier struck her from behind in the darkness. Her husband and the fort's garrison, finding the bodies, understood what she had done and sealed the gap. Chitradurga held — and Obavva's stand became the most famous act of bravery in the fort's history.