Panel starts social media campaign to preserve Onake Obavva memorial

CHITRADURGA: Requesting people to pay tribute to Veera Vanithe Onake Obavva, who protected the Chitradurga fort, the Onake Obavva Memorial Committee has started a campaign on the social media, in a bid to mobilise the public to join hands for conservation of the structure.  

The campaign, initiated on Facebook and WhatsApp, states that the memorial, located adjacent to the legendary stone fort ‘Obavvana Kindi’, is being neglected by people and the government. The rock slabs on the memorial are damaged, and no steps have been taken to protect them.

Except a few family members who pay homage offer puja at the memorial, no other government programme is organised here, the organisers say. The state government, meanwhile, is busy preparing for Tipu Jayanti, they add.“There is an urgent need to recognise the services of the great woman and construct a memorial for Onake Obavva.

A festival should be organised in the historic fort premises,” the campaigners say. “After Kodagu, it is Chitradurga where Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan were taught a lesson.”  Obavvana is hailed as one of the foremost women warriors of Karnataka of the 18th century. She is remembered for fighting against the soldiers of Hyder Ali single-handedly using a pestle when they tried to enter the Chitradurga fort through a tunnel.