Onake Obavva

Onake Obavva (18th Century) was a Karnataka warrior who fought the forces of Hyder Ali single-handedly with a pestle (Onake) in the kingdom of Chitradurga of Karnataka, India.

• Obavva, the wife of a bugler who had just returned home from duty for his supper, had come out to fetch drinking water from a freshwater pond that flowed near this passage. To her horror, she noticed mysterious movements near the passage and realized that in single file the enemy’s soldiers were entering the fort. Not wanting to disturb her husband who was in the middle of his meal, she picked up a domestic pestle (onake in Kannada) that was there nearby and hid in the darkness around the secret entrance. As each soldier of the Mysorean army tried to wriggle his way out of the passage and enter the fort, she smashed his skull with her pestle and dragged his corpse away, waiting for her next victim to emerge. In this manner, Obavva slew several soldiers and a heap of bodies accumulated near the passage by the time her husband stepped out looking for his wife who had promised to return with some water to drink. He was horrified by the scene that he saw there; his wife had become the very incarnation of the goddess atop the fort who the Bedars propitiated with human sacrifice. He sounded the bugle alarm and the troops sallied out to defend the fort against the besiegers. Some of the besiegers took their revenge by stabbing Obavva from behind and her story was thus immortalized in local folklore and popular culture as ‘Onake Obavva’ or the lady with the pestle.
  • Vikram Sampath - Tipu - The Saga of Mysore's Interregnum (2024)

• A documented account of this popular and heroic folktale is found in the writings of S. Srikantaiya:
  The story of Vanike kandi connected with the second attack of Haider on Chitaldurg [Chitradurga] is interesting and is a remarkable testimony to the prowess of a lady, Obavva. Haider’s forces were unable to affect an entry into the fort and to storm it was next to impossible. Crevices in the walls where a woman was carrying curds to the fortress was discovered and the invading army attempted to march through in single file there. Nearby this passage was a fresh water pond half way up the hill. One day, when a bugler went to dine, Obavva, his wife, who went to get water from the pond, noticed the enemy marching in single file near this entrance. It was dark and hiding herself behind the entrance, she killed soldier after soldier with her vanake (pestle) as he marched through the entrance, till her husband returned. Needless to add, in spite of this heroism, thanks to the treachery of Mussalman employees of the Nayakas and the army of Jaramale, Haider was ultimately successful in 1779.
  • S. Srikantaiya in Vikram Sampath - Tipu - The Saga of Mysore's Interregnum (2024)