Rani Abbakka Chowta
As India prepares to commemorate the 500th birth anniversary (1525 to 2025) of a legendary warrior queen, it’s time we shine a light on a name too often missing from the pages of popular history: Rani Abbakka Chowta. She wasn’t just a ruler of Ullal, a small coastal town in South India. She was India’s first female freedom fighter, a fearless Jain queen who repeatedly repelled Portuguese invaders in the 16th century and upheld the sovereignty of her kingdom. Rani Abbakka hailed from the Chowta dynasty of Karnataka, a royal family that followed Jainism and embraced a matrilineal system where succession passed through the female line. When the time came, Abbakka was entrusted with power not as a token, but as a true sovereign. What set her reign apart wasn’t just her lineage, but the Jain principles that guided her governance: ahimsa (nonviolence), aparigraha (nonpossessiveness), satya (truthfulness), and sahishnuta (tolerance). But when these values were challenged by foreign aggression...