WHO IS RANI ABBAKKA CHOWTA? I New Delhi Cables

WHO IS RANI ABBAKKA CHOWTA? I New Delhi Cables The year was 1555,Portuguese colonial power was at its peak in the 1500’s. They des...

WHO IS RANI ABBAKKA CHOWTA? I New Delhi Cables

The year was 1555,Portuguese colonial power was at its peak in the 1500’s. They destroyed Zamorins of Calicut,Defeated the Sultan of Bijapur,Took away Daman from the Sultan of Gujarat,Established a colony in Mylapore,Captured Bombay and made Goa as their headquarters. And they became pretty much unchallenged,they even demolished the ancient Kapaleeswarar Temple to build a Church over it.Their next target, the super profitable port of Mangalore.

Portuguese only bad luck was the small settlement of Ullal which was then ruled by a strong 30 year old woman Rani Abbakka Chowta.

Initially, Portuguese took her lightly and sent a few boats and soldiers to capture and bring her back to Goa  and Those boats never came back.

This shocked and enraged the Portuguese, and now they sent a huge fleet of ships this time, under the command of much celebrated Admiral Dom Álvaro da Silveira but the admiral soon returned badly injured and defeated.

Thereafter, another Portuguese fleet was sent to revenge the insult but only a few injured Portuguese soldiers from the crew managed to come back.

Then the Portuguese decided to capture the Mangalore port and from here they were planning to tackle Rani Abbakka Chowta.

After the successful capture of Mangalore Fort, a huge army under João Peixoto, an experienced Portuguese General was sent to capture Ullal.

The Portuguese plan was foolproof,there was no way a 30 year old lady with a few men could withstand the might of an army of thousands with advanced weapons.When the Portuguese reached Ullal and found it deserted and Rani Abbakka was also nowhere in sight.

They roamed and searched around and Portuguese relaxed and thanked their stars.Just when they were about to call it a victory. Suddenly Rani Abbaka Chowta attacked Portuguese with 200 Soldiers and this sudden attacks  caused chaos all around and many Portuguese lost their lives at once even without a fight.

General João Peixoto was killed and 70 Portuguese were captured and rest ran away from Ullal.

Rani Abbakka Chowta was not stopped here,she rode with her soldiers towards Mangalore fort that same night, and laid a siege of the Mangalore fort.She not just broke inside the fort successfully  and killled Admiral Mascarenhas the Chief of the Portuguese and forced the remaining Portuguese to vacate the fort forwith.

She didn’t just stop at Mangalore fort but went on to even capture the Portuguese settlement at Kundapura, a full 100 kms, north of Mangalore.

The Portuguese found themselves dserted and defeated.They finally managed Abbakka Chowta by convincing her estranged husband (a traitor) to betray for money.Due to her husband's betrayal,Rani was captured and put in the prison where she was killed while trying to escape.

Rani Abbakka Chowta was a Jain who fought against the Portuguese for four decades, with an army comprising of both Hindus and 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 and 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 and erected two statues ,Yes just two statues in the whole of India for someone who should be our national hero.

The Indian Coast Guard ship ICGS Rani Abbakka the first of a series of five inshore patrol vessels built at Hindustan Shipyard Ltd is named after Abbakka Mahadevi.