Chitradurga Fort
My great-great-grandmother stopped an entire army with a pestle. What’s your excuse?
Vijayalaxmi’s laugh is fierce and warm, just like the stories she carries. As a descendant of Onake Obavva, the legendary woman warrior who single-handedly defended Chitradurga Fort, she carries history in her blood and fire in her eyes.
“Growing up, everyone said, ‘Why do you need to learn fighting? Girls should be gentle.’ But my grandmother said, ‘Gentle doesn’t mean weak. Obavva was gentle with children, gentle with animals, gentle with plants. But when evil came to her door? She became lightning.'”
She works as a schoolteacher during the day and trains young girls in traditional martial arts in the evenings. “I see these little girls come to me scared, whispering, heads down. Six months later, they walk like queens. That’s Obavva’s real legacy – not the war she won, but the courage she proved women always had.”
“People ask me, ‘Why live in the past?’ But I’m not living in the past. I’m bringing the past into today. Every girl who learns to defend herself carries Obavva forward. Every woman who stands up for herself honors my ancestor.”
She handed me a practice pestle, surprisingly heavy. “Feel this weight? This is what courage feels like. Not light, not easy, but absolutely worth carrying.”
Some legacies are written in books. Others are written in the hearts of daughters who refuse to forget.
– Zara