A week-long national festival on the Ullal’s valiant queen Rani Abbakka organised by Delhi Karnataka Sangha along with Kannada and Culture department of Karnataka Government and Abbakka Festival Committee of Dakshina Kannada District Administration will commence at New Delhi on March 18, 2018.
A tiger dance troupe by women artists from Udupi will be performing at the Sangha premises in R.K. Puram, Sector 12, New Delhi on Sunday morning. The troupe also will pay the tribute to Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate on the occasion. In the concluding ceremony, along with a cultural fiesta, eminent leaders will address the gathering. Mr. B. Ramanath Rai, Minister for Forest, Ecology & Environment Department; Mr. U.T. Khader, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs; Dr. M. Veerappa Moily, former Union Minister, Mr. Nalin Kumar Kateel, Member of Parliament, Mr. Abhaya Chandra Jain, MLA and Ms. Shakunatala Shetty, MLA will be participating in the valedictory ceremony. Mr. D. Surendra Kumar and Mrs. Anita Surendra Kumar from Shri Kshetra Dharmasthala would also be gracing the occasion.
During the week-long programme seminars and lectures in different languages like Marati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, English, Tulu and Kannada were held in different parts of New Delhi on highlighting the relevance of remembering Rani Abbakka for her fight against the foreign invaders of Portuguese in the sixteenth century. Mr. Vasanth Shetty Bellare, President, Delhi Karnataka Sangha said that “as an effort to make Rani Abbakka a national figure who fought the foreign invaders in the sixteenth century from her fort in Ullala in the coastal region of Karnataka, these programmes were organised in the national capital.” Since, Rani Abbakka was the first woman to revolt against the Portuguese who were the first among the Europeans to arrive in India should be considered as torch bearer of Indian freedom movement and she should be prominently placed in the Indian history of freedom movement, he said.
Rani Abbakka’s princely capital of Ullal attracted the Portuguese invaders after their takeover of Goa in 1525. They desired to capture Ullal, the then flourishing port town by attacking the Ullal fort. The Rani of Ullal, Abbakka defended the attack by Portuguese and forced them out for a while. But the Portuguese were enraged by and demanded her to pay tribute, which she denied.
In 1555, the Portuguese sent Admiral Dom Álvaro da Silveira and his platoon to take Ullal by storm, and Rani Abbakka led her army that laid waste to the invaders. Over the next two decades the Portuguese continually sent forces toward Ullal who had to return with their tails between their legs. A total of six attacks that the Portuguese planned between 1525 and 1570 were trampled on by Rani Abbakka. With each attack she held back, the Portuguese's fear of the warrior queen grew. In 1557, the Portuguese plundered Mangalore and then again in 1558, but both attacks were stopped right in their tracks. Although in the attack of 1568, João Peixoto, the Portuguese general and his fleet of soldiers managed to take over Ullal and enter the queen's royal grounds.
But she escaped being captured and took refuge in a mosque. That very night, the queen gathered 200 of her best soldiers and attacked the invaders, killing General Peixoto. In a series of retaliatory attacks that she led, Rani Abbakka managed to take back her city from the Portuguese's clutches. And, she moved on to take back the Mangalore fort, killing Admiral Mascarenhas. In the very last attack, the Portuguese managed to imprison Rani Abbakka, but she revolted inside the prison and died fighting.
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