Siege of Chitradurga (1779)

01The Nayakas and their fort

The Nayakas of Chitradurga had been Vijayanagara governors and kept their hill country after the empire fell. Their fort climbs a cluster of granite hills in seven rings of walls, with temples, granaries and rock-cut tanks inside; the Hidimbeshwara temple stands in the upper fort. Madakari Nayaka V had at times fought beside Haidar, at times against him. When he leaned towards the Marathas in the 1770s, Haidar came to take the fort.

02Obavva and the fall

Chitradurga remembers Onake Obavva, the wife of a guard, who by local tradition stood at a narrow cleft in the rock during one of Haidar’s attempts and struck down the soldiers creeping through it with her onake, a wooden pestle; the cleft is still shown as Obavvana Kindi. The fort could not be taken by storm. It fell in 1779, by most accounts through treachery inside the walls. Madakari Nayaka was sent to Srirangapatna, where he died in captivity, and many of his people were carried off to Mysore.