One of my favourite things about history is the way that everyday people can rise up and make a difference in the world. A great example of this is the story of ‘Onake’ Obavva, a South Indian woman with no prior experience of warfare, who single-handedly fought off invaders attempting to conquer her city. Obavva was a completely ordinary woman who did something extraordinary, and who has gone down in history as one of the most celebrated female warriors of Karnataka, alongside the likes of Abbakka Rani and Kittur Chennamma. 

Obavva lived in a fort town called Chitradurga in Karnataka, India. It had been ruled by the Nayaka dynasty since the 1550s, and it was sandwiched between two great kingdoms—Maratha in the north, and Mysore in the south. The leader of Mysore was a man named Hyder Ali; he was a powerful warlord who had been besieging and conquering town after town.

Chitradurga had been left alone as Madakari Nayaka IV and Ali were on good terms, but it wasn’t to last. Nayaka eventually switched sides, an action that Ali could not let go unpunished. He launched several attacks on the fort, but it was exceptionally well-built and Ali found it impossible to enter.

He tried bribes, meetings with informants, and multiple outright attacks, but Chitradurga was impregnable. 

That is to say, almost.

Purely by chance, a soldier in Ali’s army spotted a person entering the fort through a small crevice (kindi) in the wall, just big enough to fit one person at a time. Thus came Ali’s new plan—to sneak into the fort through the kindi and attack from the inside. He was able to find out that the guard for the area, Kahale Mudda Hanuma, would leave his post at a certain time to go home and get lunch, providing the perfect opportunity for the army to enter unnoticed. It was, by all appearances, a flawless plan.

Except the guard had a wife, a perfectly ordinary woman who would soon save the city.

Enter Onake Obavva.

Obavva’s life up to the invasion by Ali and his army is, more or less, a blank. She was probably born around 1750, but that is all I have been able to find about her up to the invasion in 1777.

When her husband went home for lunch on that fateful day, he requested some water. There was none in the house, so Obavva left to fetch some from the stream nearby the kindi; on the way back, she spotted a soldier entering the city.

Obavva did the only thing she could—she grabbed a nearby pestle (also called an Onake, her namesake), a long, wooden object used for pounding grains, and caved the soldier’s head in.

The soldier was killed instantly. Obavva knew there would likely be more coming, so she dragged his body out the way and lay in wait, weapon in hand, a lone woman with no experience in war facing down her enemy with immense courage.

True to her suspicions, the army kept coming, one by one. And, one by one, Obavva killed them, hid their body, and waited for the next. As the army were being stealthy, they had no idea anything was wrong, so there was nothing to stop them from moving forward to their deaths.

Some time later, Obavva’s husband returned from lunch, startled at the sight of his wife covered in blood, wielding a similarly bloody pestle, surrounded by hundreds of enemy bodies. He raised the alarm and, finally, Obavva was granted a reprieve from the slaughter in the form of Chitradurga’s soldiers. The attack was foiled, mostly thanks to Obavva and her quick actions.

Tragically, Obavva died that same day. As most versions of the story go, she was wounded by an invader and eventually succumbed, though other versions state that she simply dropped dead from exhaustion. The true reason is unknown.

Two years later, Ali would conquer Chitradurga, but this does not diminish Obavva’s incredible heroism on that day. In a moment, she became a warrior, stepping up to do what she had to in order to protect her city and, indeed, the lives of all within it.

Her story is one of exceptional resolve, courage, determination, and bravery. She is remembered in Karnataka, especially by the women, as a legendary warrior, and she is commemorated by the kindi she defended being renamed Onake Obavanna Kindi.

Sources:

• Onake Obavva: South Indian Whack-a-Mole Champion, 1777-present (rejectedprincesses.com)
• Onake Obavva: The Woman Who Single-handedly Fought Hyder Ali’s Soldiers | #IndianWomenInHistory | Feminism In India
• Onake Obavva — An Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary Indian Woman | by Sohani Sirdeshmukh | Lessons from History | Medium