Hyder Ali Khan, the de facto ruler of Mysore disguised himself in an ordinary attire and rode on his horse as if conversing with the winds. He loved to ride alone without the military force to spend some time alone. His soldiers tried to catch up with him. His popularity as an able military commander-in-chief was gaining momentum as he was on a conquering spree to expand the boundaries of his empire. He stopped at the sight of the Chitradurga fort; a pink, rocky fort located over the hills. He was always mesmerized by its towering thick walls. They challenged him. As if telling him, “See if you can win over me?” Madakari Nayaka IV ruled Chitradurga then. Hyder Ali’s numerous proposals of collaborations were politely rejected by him. Hyder Ali was awestruck by the fort’s beauty and strength. While he was romanticizing on invading Chitradurga, he was distracted by a female figure. A young woman, who seemed to be in a hurry. His gaze followed her. Before he could get a glimpse of her face, the woman bent and disappeared. Unable to spot her from the distance, he summoned one of his soldiers and ordered him to go check how a woman had vanished into thin air. The soldier returned in a few minutes and huffed,
“Maharaja! There is a kindi, a hole in the wall. It leads inside the fort. She must have gone there.”
This information sprung a plan in Hyder Ali’s mind. He ordered the soldier to spy and collect all the information of the kindi. The soldier returned to the court in a few days.
“Maharaja, it seems the kindi is unknown to everyone. It’s rarely used. No one is ever spotted using it. Just one guard named Khale Mudda watches over it. During noon, he is away for lunch and the kindi is left unguarded.”
The information supported Hyder Ali’s plan. He ordered his military head to invade Chitradurga with 100 soldiers. He ordered them to sneak in through the kindi and attack Madakari Nayaka. This will make it an easy win without much bloodshed. Confident of the plan the army chief set out for its execution. The kindi was a very small opening. Only one man could barely crawl through it in dark. Adopting the stealth mode, they hid in the nearby bushes and waited for the guard to leave for lunch.
Standing below the watchtower near the kindi’s opening inside the fort, yelled Obavva, Khale Mudda’s wife,
“Don’t you see the sun is high up? The food is getting cold. Come and eat! Rest is also important.”
Aware of his wife’s short temperedness, Khale Mudda ran a vigilant eye, and walked home that was located nearby. He washed himself and sat before the plate to eat.
How Obavva fought Hyder-Ali’s army single-handedly ?
“Did you run your finger in the curry today? This is so pungent!”
He teased Obavva, gulping the entire glass of water. Rolling her eye on the comment, Obavva sprung up to refill his glass. To her surprise, the pot was empty with just a little water left. She poured the remaining and rushed to fetch more from the nearby pond uphill. She had just walked a few feet from home, when she noticed fingers clutching on the ground at the kindi. Someone was climbing out from it. Presuming it to be some spy, she rushed and picked up the wooden pestle lying outside her hut and hid by sticking to the wall. To her horror, she saw a black turban that was worn by Mughals. Without a thought, she tightened her grip around the onake (pestle) circled it around her head to gain momentum, kicked away his turban and with one powerful shot smashed the soldier’s head. Blood splashed all over her face. Shocked at her own action, she reached for her pallu to wipe the blood. Just then she heard more noises. There were more, she swiftly dragged the dead body behind her to clear the kindi’s passage. Presuming the entrance was safe another soldier emerged clutching the ground to climb up. Obavva repeated the whack and smashed his head like a cockroach. The soldiers kept coming, she kept smashing them with the pestle and dragging them away from the entrance view. Some kind of supernatural power seemed to have entered this ordinary woman. She continued to do so, as a heap of dead bodies piled behind her. Having waited for half an hour, Khale Mudda came looking for her. When he saw Obavva holding a blood dripping pestle and a pool of dead bodies behind her, he froze with fear.
“Blow the trumpet! We are under attack!” commanded Obavva dragging the dead body. Khale Mudda kept blowing the emergency trumpet loud. The siren alerted their army and made the enemies retreat. Just then a soldier entered unannounced with a dagger and stabbed Obavva, who was by now losing consciousness out of fatigue, dripping in perspiration and blood. She collapsed and died on the spot, fighting single-handed with the army of Hyder Ali.
That day the Fort of Chitradurga was saved from falling in the hands of the invaders. Although Madakari Nayaka was defeated in 1779, the city of Chitradurga pays its tribute to this braveheart ordinary woman of the Beda community and revers her for her outstanding bravery and patriotism.
