The year was 1555! The Portuguese colonial power was at its peak in the 1500’s!
They destroyed Zamorins of Calicut!
They defeated the Sultan of Bijapur!
They took away Daman from the Sultan of Gujarat!
They established a colony in Mylapore!
They captured Bombay!
and
They made Goa as their headquarters!
And while they were at it, pretty much unchallenged, they even ruined the ancient Kapaleeswarar Temple to build a Church over it!
Their next target was the super profitable port of Mangalore!
Their only bad luck was that just 14 kilometers south of Mangalore was a small settlement of Ullal!
Ullal was ruled over then by a feisty 30 year old woman - Abbakka Chowta!
Initially, they took her lightly & sent a few boats & soldiers to capture & bring her back to Goa!
Those boats never came back!
Shocked & enraged, they sent a huge fleet of ships this time, under the command of the much celebrated Admiral Dom Álvaro da Silveira!
The Admiral soon returned - badly injured & empty handed!
Thereafter, 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 & the fort anyways, perhaps planning to tackle Mrs. 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 & 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, armed with advanced weapons!
The Portuguese reached Ullal & found it deserted!Abbakka was nowhere in sight! They roamed around, relaxed & thanked their stars! Just when they were about to call it a victory - Mrs Chowta attacked with 200 of her chosen men - there was chaos all around & many Portuguese lost their lives, even without a fight! General João Peixoto was assassinated! 70 Portuguese were captured & the rest just ran away!
So if you’re Abbakka Chowta, who’s just defeated a large army of aggressors, killed a general, captured fighters & defended her city, what will you do? Rest & enjoy the moment, right?
Right? No! Rani Abbakka Chowta, rode with her men towards Mangalore that same night & laid a siege on the Mangalore Fort!
She didn't just breake inside the Fort successfully, but assassinated Admiral Mascarenhas the Chief of the Portuguese Power there & forced the remaining Portuguese to vacate the fort immediately!
She didn’t just stop at this, but went on to even capture the Portuguese settlement at Kundapura, a full 100 kms away & north of Mangalore! Just to make a point!
The Portuguese finally managed to get back at ! Chowta by convincing her estranged Husband, to betray her for money!
She was arrested & put in the prison where she revolted again & was killed while trying to escape!
Abbakka Chowta was a Jain who fought against the Portuguese with an army comprising of both Hindus & Muslims, a full 300 years before the First War of Indian Independence in 1857!
What did we Indians do to her as a mark of our respect & gratitude?
We just forgot her!
We didn’t name our girls after her! We didn’t even teach her stories to our kids! Yes we did release a Postal Stamp in her name, named a boat after her & erected 2 statues, Yes just 2 statues in the whole of India 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 an American!
We Indians are still busy, arguing, if it was actually one of her daughters who fought the battles instead of her!
Many talk about her being the last Indian to have the power of the agni-baan (Fire Arrow)!
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? Wonder on!!