A museum in Bantwal on India’s first woman braveheart

There are museums that have been erected by the government and then there are museums that are built by royal families. In Bantwal, about 30km from Bangalore, it is a history teacher who has erected a museum. His subject is Rani Abbakka of Ullal.

Prof Thukaram Poojary, the founder of Rani Abbakka Tulu Adhyayana Kendra, is the man behind the museum. Rani Abbakka was a 16th-century ruler of Ullal. Poojary asserts that it was Rani Abbakka who was the first woman freedom fighter of India. He said we remember all our freedom fighters but not Rani Abbakka. He said she had conveniently been forgotten, with only fragments of information about her life available to the general public.

Determined to keep the queen’s legacy alive in the memories of people, Poojary has set up a museum dedicated to her at Bantwal. It has one floor full of relics, numbering about 3,000, related to the queen.

History has it that there were three Abbakkas between 1530 and 1599 but the one who defeated Portuguese at Ullal was the one who lived around 1556. Though there are sketchy historical facts about her life, the oral historians have most realistic account of her valour. The queen followed Jainism but had an integrated army and administrative set up, comprising people from all religions.

Poojary said that in 1555, the Portuguese sent Admiral Don Alvaro da Silvereira against the queen of Ullal, Abbakka Devi Chowta, for she had refused to pay them the tribute. She had defied the invaders’ first command, which was that the Indian rulers submit to their directives. She, with her army, set fire to the Portuguese flotilla of galleons with burning arrows, Poojary informed.

Glimpses of her life are found in many relics that are preserved in the Tulu Baduku Museum (museum of Tulu life), laid out by Poojary.

He said he started collecting the artefacts 20 years ago, by rummaging in the attics of several families.

“As a person who has made a career out of teaching history, I cannot allow an important freedom fighter to be forgotten just like that. Let the generations of future historians derive inspiration from it and dwell deep into Rani Abbakka’s life,” Poojary said.