"“…The Dehly army, arriving before Gualiar, invested the place… After the siege had been carried on for some months, the army of Ibrahim Lody at length got possession of an outwork at the foot of the hill, on which stood the fort of Badilgur. They found in that place a brazen bull, which had been for a long time an object of worship, and sent it to Agra, from whence it was afterwards conveyed to Dehly, and thrown down before the Bagdad gate (AH 924, AD 1518).”"

"'Don’t you see that Hindus, who are the worst enemies of God and of Islam, pass daily below my royal palace to the Jamuna beating drums and playing flutes, and practise before our eyes the worship of the idols with all the rituals? Fie on us unworthy leaders who declare ourselves Muslim kings!... Had I been a Muslim ruler, a real king, or a prince and felt myself strong and powerful enough to protect Islam, any enemy of God and the faith of the Prophet of Islam would not have been allowed to chew betels in a care-free manner and put on a clean garment or live in peace."

"“What is our defence of the faith,” cried Sultan Jalaluddin Khalji, “that we suffer these Hindus, who are the greatest enemies of God and of the religion of Mustafa, to live in comfort and do not flow streams of their blood.”"

"Although Jalaluddin Khalji was an old and vacillating king, even he did not just remain content with expressing rage at the fact of not being able to deal with the Hindus according to the law. During six years of his reign (June 1290 -July 1296), he mounted expeditions and captured prisoners. While suppressing the revolt of Malik Chhajju, a scion of the dynasty he had ousted, he marched towards Bhojpur in Farrukhabad district and ruthlessly attacked Hindus in the region of Katehar (later Rohilkhand). During his campaign in Ranthambhor he broke temples, sacked the neighbouring Jhain and took booty and captives, making “a hell of paradise”. Later on Malwa was attacked and large quantity of loot, naturally including slaves, was brought to Delhi.31 His last expedition was directed against Gwalior."

"“He marched from it to Ranthanbhor. He first encamped at Jhayan and conquered it. He demolished temples and broke idols. He killed, captured and pillaged…”196"

"“…and in the same year the Sultan for the second time marched against Ranthambhor, and destroyed the country round it, and overthrew the idols and idol-temples, but returned without attempting to reduce the fort…”"

"“The Sultan reached Jhain in the afternoon of the third day and stayed in the palace of the Raya… He greatly enjoyed his stay for some time. Coming out, he took a round of the gardens and temples. The idols he saw amazed him… Next day he got those idols of gold smashed with stones. The pillars of wood were burnt down by his order… A cry rose from the temples as if a second Mahmud had taken birth. Two idols were made of brass, one of which weighed nearly a thousand mans. He got both of them broken, and the pieces were distributed among his people so that they may throw them at the door of the Masjid on their return [to Delhi]…”"

"Jalaluddin Khalji led an expedition to Ranthambhor in 1291 AD. On the way he destroyed Hindu temples at Jhain. The broken idols were sent to Delhi to be spread before the gates of the Jama Masjid."

"“Three days after this, the king entered Jhain at midday and occupied the private apartment of the rai… He then visited the temples, which were ornamented with elaborate work in gold and silver. Next day he went again to the temples, and ordered their destruction, as well as of the fort, and set fire to the palace, and ‘thus made hell of paradise’… While the soldiers sought every opportunity of plundering, the Shah was engaged in burning the temples, and destroying the idols. There were two bronze idols of Brahma each of which weighed more than a thousand mans. These were broken into pieces and the fragments distributed amongst the officers, with orders to throw them down at the gates of the Masjid on their return.”65"

"At the centre, Sultan Sikandar Lodi is credited with constructing mosques in almost all important cities including Lahore, Karnal, Hansi, Makanpur (District Kanpur) besides many in Delhi and Agra.13 In addition to the tombs in Lodi Gardens in Delhi, there are also so many other nameless tombs belonging to the Lodi period. Sikandar Lodi, like Firoz Tughlaq before him, is credited with constructing a canal in 1492-9314 and a Baoli in Rajasthan. In “Mathura and other place” like Allahabad and Banaras he turned temples into mosques, and established Muslim Sarais, colleges and bazars in Hindu places of worship. Like Firoz Tughlaq, Sikandar was also a great repairer and conserver of old Muslim monuments. An inscribed frieze at the entrance doorway of the Qutb Minar credits him with repairing this edifice in 1503 (909 H)."

"“It so happened that Raja Man, the ruler of Gwalior who had been warring with the Sultans for years, went to hell. His son, Bikarmajit, became his successor. The Sultan captured the fort after a hard fight. There was a quadruped, made of copper, at the door of the fort. It used to speak. It was brought from there and placed in the fort at Agra. It remained there till the reign of Akbar Badshah. It was melted and a cannon was made out of it at the order of the Badshah.”"

"In the long roll of the Sultans of Delhi, Ibrahim Lodi was the only one who died fighting on the field of battle. Therefore, about his bravery there can be no two opinions. In private life too his character was blemishless. He was kindly disposed towards his subjects. Their welfare was ever in his mind. He took a keen interest in the promotion of agriculture. During his reign, crops were abundant, food grains were cheap and the people in general lived happily in the midst of plenty."

"One may very well ask the purveyors of this puerile propaganda that if the record of Islam in medieval India was so bright and blameless, where is the need for this daily ritual of whitewashing it. Hindu heroes like Chandragupta Maurya, Samudragupta, Harihar, Bukka, Maharana Pratap, and Shivaji, to name only a few of the notables, have never needed any face-lift. Why does the monstrous men of an Alauddin Khalji, a Firuz Shah Tughlaq, a Sikandar Lodi, and an Aurangzeb, to name only the most notorious, pop out so soon from the thickest coat of cosmetics? The answer is provided by the Muslim historians of medieval India. They painted their heroes in the indelible dyes of Islamic ideology. They did not anticipate the day when Islamic imperialism in India will become only a painful memory of the past. They did not visualise that the record of Islam in India will one day be weighed on the scales of human values. Now it is too late for trying to salvage Islam in medieval India from its blood-soaked history. The orthodox Muslim historians are honest when they state that the medieval Muslim monarchs were only carrying out the commandments of Islam when they massacred, captured, enslaved, and violated Hindu men, women and children; desecrated, demolished, and destroyed Hindu places of worship; and dispossessed the Hindus of all their wealth. The Aligarh “historians” and their secularist patrons are only trying to prop up imposters in place of real and living characters who played life-size roles in history."

"Sikandar Shah had ruled for twenty-nine years, full of glory and distinction. He was the greatest ruler of the Lodi dynasty, and far outshone both his father Bahlil and his son Ibrahim. During his reign he had retrieved the prestige of the Sultanate and extended its territories... As a king as well as a man, Sikandar Lodi has earned high praise at the hands of Muslim historians. According to them he was verging almost on the ideal. He was averse to pomp and show and rebuked those who wasted money on ostentation. To his sagacity were added a liberal, polite and charitable disposition.... Although a just monarch, Sikandar Lodi could not rise above his religious prejudices. Indeed he revived some of those instruments of tyranny which had lain dormant for many years past. After Timir’s departure the Sultanate had got busy in recapturing and consolidating its lost ground. Here and there a Hindu might have been harshly treated or a temple broken, but by and large the fifteenth century Sultans of Delhi had not indulged in any senseless persecution. During this period the Sultanate was not so powerful as to be able to oppress the Hindus. It could not also antagonise the Hindu population in the interest of its own survival. Sikandar Lodi had succeeded in re-establishing the authority of the Sultanate on quite a firm basis. He was thus in a position to deal with the Hindus in a stern manner, and he did so. Even as a youth he had expressed a desire to put an end to the Hindu bathing festival at Kurukshetra (Thanesar).1*1 Such a prince could not have made a tolerant king, and many incidents are related pointing to his uncompromising attitude. But they are mere incidents and they do not point to a definite and persistent policy of persecution. An instance is the oft-quoted case of Bodhan or Naudhan Brahman. Bodhan lived at Kaner, near Lakhnor in Sambhal. He had declared that “Islam was true, but his own reli- gion was also true.’’182 Considering his views the Brahman seems to have been a disciple of Kabir or Ramanand.1¢3 When the asser- tion of Bodhan became public there were protests from the ’Ulama. The Sultan summoned Qazi Piyéraé and Shaikh Badr from Lakhnor and many other doctors from ‘“‘all directions’ to deliberate on Bodhan’s claim. The discussions must have been exceedingly inter- esting, but the details are not known to us. All the learned men, however, gave the stereotyped verdict that the Brahman should either embrace Islam or dic. Bodhan chose death... But some other acts of his, which are boasifully mentioned by Persian chroniclers, do defy justification. These are not given chronologically and we heve no context of circumstances to find an explanation for them. It is said that in Mathura “and other places” he turned temples into mosques, and established Muslim Sarais, colleges and bazirs in the Hindu places of worship.'*5 The author of the Tartkh-i-Daidi adds that idols were given to butchers who used them as meat-weights.1®* Mathura, one of the most venerable cities of the Hindus, associated with the life of Lord Krishna, had the strange fate of being situated between the two capitals of the Sultanate—Agra and Delhi. Time and again it suffered from the ravages of the iconoclasts right up to the time of Aurangzeb. That Sikandar’s bigotry found expression there is not surprising. But what were the ‘“‘other places’? Details given hint at ANahabad and Varanasi. It is mentioned that barbers were forbidden from shaving the Hindus at Mathura.'*? Even bathing at these holy places was discouraged... Indeed the few facts mentioned by the chroniclers about Si- kandar’s fanaticism are of the common type witnessed here and there throughout the Muslim rule in India.... Thus there does not seem to be anything extraordinary in the acts and policies of Sikandar Lodi.... in the last chapter. In such an atmosphere the few acts of intolerance on the part of Sikandar Lodi appeared to be so much out of tune with the spirit of the age that they shocked even the Persian chroniclers. In the fourteenth century, Sikandar Lodi’s attitude would have caused no surprise. He would have been considered one among the common run of monarchs. But in the fifteenth century his bigotry was particularly noticcable. Hence the assertion of the chroniclers."

"Minhaj Siraj writes that Ulugh Khan Balban’s “taking of captives, and his capture of the dependents of the great Ranas cannot be recounted”. Talking of his war in Avadh against Trailokyavarman of the Chandela dynasty (Dalaki va Malaki of Minhaj), the chronicler says that “All the infidels’ wives, sons and dependents… and children… fell into the hands of the victors.” In 1253, in his campaign against Ranthambhor also, Balban enslaved many people. In 1259, in an attack on Haryana, many women and children were enslaved. Twice Balban led expeditions against Kampil, Patiali, and Bhojpur, and in the process enslaved a large number of women and children. In Katehar he ordered a general massacre of the male population of over eight years of age and carried away women and children. In 658 H. (1260 C.E.) Ulugh Khan Balban marched with a large force on a campaign in the region of Ranthambhor, Mewat and Siwalik. He made a proclamation that a soldier who brought a live captive would be rewarded with two silver tankahs and one who brought the head of a dead one would get one silver tankah. Soon three to four hundred living and dead were brought to his presence."

"These differences are generally sought to be explained away or minimised, and even eminent scholars demur to pointed references to the oppressive acts of bigoted Muslim rulers like Firuz Tughluq and Sikandar Lodi even though proved by the unimpeachable testimony of their own confessions. Such an attitude may be due to praiseworthy motives, but is entirely out of place in historical writings. (xxxi)"

"Balban, when he was Ulugh Khan Khan-i-Azam, once brought to Delhi (in about 1260) two hundred fifty 'Hindu leading men and men of position” from Mewar and Siwalik, bound and shackled and chained. During the expedition he had proclaimed that a royal soldier would be rewarded with two silver tankahs if he captured a person alive and one tankah if he brought the head of a dead one. They brought to his presence 300 to 400 living and dead everyday. The reigning Sultan Nasiruddin ordered the death of the leading men. The others accompanying them were shaken to the bones and completely tamed."

"As a minister Balban was not softhearted. When he became the Sultan, he followed the policy of blood and iron, which means that his killings became even more sanguinary. His sphere of operations was, however, confined to the Ganga-Jamuna doab and Avadh, Katehar and Mewat. In Katehar large sections of the male population were massacred and, according to Barani, in villages and jungles heaps of human corpses were left rotting. During his expedition to Bengal, ‘on either side of the principal bazar (of Lakhnauti) in a street two miles in length, a row of stakes was set up and the adherents of Tughril were impaled upon them.’"

"He got the temples of the infidels destroyed. No trace of infidelity was left at the place in Mathura where the infidels used to take bath. He got caravanserais constructed so that people could stay there, and also the shops of various professionals such as the butchers, bawarchis, nanbais and sweetmeatsellers. If a Hindu went there for bathing even by mistake, he was made to lose his limbs and punished severely. No Hindu could get shaved at that place. No barber would go near a Hindu, whatever be the payment offered."

"In the year 950 H. (1542 CE) Puran-mal, son of Salhdi, held occupation of the fort of Raisin, and brought several of the neighbouring parganas under subjection. He had 1000 women in his harem, from the east and from Sind, and amongst them several Musulmanis, whom he made to dance before him. Sher Khan, with Musulman indigna- tion, resolved to conquer the fort. After he had been some time engaged in investing it, an accommodation was proposed, and it was finally agreed that Puran-mal, with his family and children, and 4000 Rajputs of note, should be allowed to leave the fort ummolested. Several men learned in the law gave it as their opinion that they should all be slain, notwithstanding the solemn engage ment which had been entered into. Consequently, the whole army, with the elephants, surrounded Puran-mal’s encampment. The Rajputs fought with desperate bravery, and after killing their women and children and then burning them, they rushed to battle, and were annihilated to a man."

"At the same time the Sultan thought that though 'Sultan Sikandar had led several expeditions for conquering the fort of Gwalior and the country attached to it but met with no success.' Consequently he sent 'azam Humayun, the governor of Kara, with 300,000 horsemen and 300 elephants for the conquest of Gwalior' After some time the royal army laid a mine, filled it with gunpowder, and set fire to it. He entered the fort and took possession of it after the wall of the fort was breached. He saw there a bull made of brass, which the Hindus had worshipped for years. In keeping with a royal order, the bull was brought to Delhi and placed at the Baghdad Gate. It was still there till the reign of Akbar. The writer of this history saw it himself."

"As CM Yogi Adityanath declared, "History may have done injustice to him (Maharaja Suheldev), but this double-engine government will not allow it"."

"William Henry Sleeman, the British Resident in Awadh, wrote in his book Journey through the kingdom of Oude published in 1850 and later edited by P. D. Reeves in Sleeman in Oudh: An Abridgement of W. H. Sleeman’s A Journey Through the kingdom of Oude , “Strange to say, Hindoos as well as Mahommedans make offerings to this shrine, and implore the favours of this military rufﬁan, whose only recorded merit consists of having destroyed a great many Hindoos in a wanton and unprovoked invasion of their territory. They say, that he did what he did against Hindoos in the conscientious discharge of his duties, and could not have done it without God’s permission — that God must then have been angry with them for their transgressions, and used this man, and all the other Mahommedan invaders of their country, as instruments of his vengeance, and means to bring about his purposes: that is, the thinking portion of the Hindoos say this. The mass think that the old man must still have a good deal of interest in heaven, which he may be induced to exercise in their favour, by suitable offerings and personal applications to his shrine.”"

"Narasimhadeva was one of the greatest rulers of the imperial Ganga family, especially of the Eastern Ganga dynasty, also called Chodaganga dynasty."

"A detailed description of Suhaldev is found in Mirat-i-Masudi , a historical biography on Ghaznavid general Ghazi Saiyyad Salar Masud. The book was written in Persian by Abd-ur-Rahman Chishti in the 17th century. Chishti wrote the historical drama based on the book Tawarikh-i-Mahmudiwritten by Mulla Muhammad Ghaznavi, who belonged to the court of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni."

"According to a dailymail.co.uk report, “following an uproar engineered by MPs of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Bahujan Samaj Party in the Rajya Sabha during the monsoon session” in 2011, the HRD ministry had advised NCERT to consider the inclusion of Avantibai in text books. “The protest had led to two adjournments in Parliament.” This political pressure led NCERTmention the brave 19th century freedom ﬁghter’s name in “NCERT’s Social Science textbook for Class VIII — on pages 58 and 59 under chapter ﬁve called ‘When People Rebel’ — from the new academic session.”"

"Hindu kings have a track record of following the rules of Dharma in warfare. They took care of the injured at the end of the day. They never interfered into the religious affairs of the followers of other religion. So did Suhaldev. Salar Masud was allowed to be buried at Bahraich. More than 200 years later, Sultan Firuz Shah Tughlaq turned it into a dargah , which emerged as an important pilgrimage site for the Muslims."

"Persian historian Minhaj-i-Siraz wrote in his book Tabaqat-i- -Naisiri how ‘a section of the Ganga forces made a sortie from the direction of the fort and simultaneously another detachment of two hundred footmen and ﬁfty horse-men stole their way from behind the cane jungle and fell upon the Muslim forces’. This was followed by heavy casualties from Tughan Khan’s army."

"Nag Bhat I, king of the Gurjar Pratihar Empire, was chosen as the leader of the Indian alliance comprising of Rashtrakuta, Guhil, Chalukya, and Gurjar armies to face the enemy. This alliance was between North Indian and South Indian rulers. Vikramaditya II was then the king of the Chalukya dynasty and Bappa Rawal of the Guhils."

"The Rani who is our mother, strikes repeatedly at the British. She is the chief of the jungles. She sent letters and bangles to other (rulers, chieftains) and aligned them to the cause. She vanquished and pushed the Britishers out, in every street she made them panic, so that they ran away wherever they could find their way. Whenever she entered the battleground on horseback,she fought bravely and swords and spears ruled the day. O, she was our Rani mother."

"Nag Bhat I led an army of 30,000-40,000 men mostly consisting of cavalry and infantry. He was a great military commander and organised his army by dividing his cavalry in parts on the ﬂanks. The battle hardened infantry was positioned in the center with reserve cavalry and possibly war elephants in the back as a rearguard."

"Maldeva's greatest enemy was Hammir, Rānã of Sesoda, whose grandfather Lakshman Singh had died with his seven sons including Arsi Singh, father of Hamrair, fighting in the battle of Chittor. Hammīr who had survived the memorable battle, Hammir became the Rana of Sesoda estate and constantly waged war to obtain Chittor Maldeva tried to conciliate him. He married his daughter to Hammīr and ceded certain parts of Chittor to him, but the brave Ränā was determined to regain the whole of Chittor. At last his efforts were crowned with success and after the death of Maldeva in about 1321 A.D. Hammir became master of the whole of Mewar, and assumed the title of Mahãrānā. In an inscription of Mahārānā Kumbhā's time,dated 1438 A.D.;Hammīr is said to have killed a large number of Musalmans. Hammir's descendants have ruled Mewar to the present day."

"Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi, freedom ﬁghter, politician, founder of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, and author wrote about Tirot Sing, “Tirot Sing, and his 10,000-man army, evaded the British and occasionally swooped down upon the plains, causing alarm all over Assam. Once the panic was so great that even in Guwahati, the headquarters of the British, large numbers of people including high ofﬁcials kept boats ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice.”"

"In less than 25 years, Rana Hammir Singh regained Mewar. He was a direct descendant of Bappa Rawal, who along with Nagbhat Gurjar and a confederacy of other North and South Indian rulers, had driven the Arabs out of India in around 738 CE. Hammir Singh also helped the Marwar Rajputs regain their supremacy. He defeated Muhammed Bin Tughlaq in the battle of Singoli, captured him, and released him against a huge ransom. He regained the entire Rajputana from the Tughlaqs."

"There is an interesting incident which shows the greatness of Sanga. After this battle, Rana Sanga returned to Mewar. On the day he was to assume his duties by sitting on the throne, he surprised everyone by sitting instead on the ground among lesser nobles. The whole court was bewildered. They asked Rana the reason for such behavior to which he replied that ‘when a moorti of deity is broken in any form, it is not worshiped but instead kept outside the house and a new moorti is put in its place’. He said similar was his case as he had lost an arm and a leg so he should not continue as the Maharana. The whole court was stunned. Medini Rai, a Rajput chief took Rana Sanga by his hand and made him sit on the throne."

"Since then Rani Karnavati came to be known as Naak Katne Wali Rani and later Naak Kati Rani . The Mughals including contemporary rulers of neighboring kingdoms and people started knowing her by her nickname and not her original name."

"Tarabai Bhosale was 25 years old when she became the Queen Regent of the Marathas. Mughal chronicler Khaﬁ Khan wrote about Tarabai, “The chiefs then made Tarabai, the chief wife and the mother of one son (of Rajaram) Regent. She was a clever intelligent woman, and had obtained a reputation during her husband’s lifetime for her knowledge of civil and military matters.”"

"Cynthia Talbot wrote in Precolonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra , ‘The seizure of the Kakatiya capital and king in 1323 had a devastating effect, for nothing of the Kakatiya politica system survived, at least in recognizable form. There were no subsequent claimants to the Kakatiya throne nor do any attested Kakatiya subordinates ﬁgure in later epigraphic records’."

"The queen who was the central protagonist of Awadh’s uprising against British rule hailed from extremely humble origins. Scattered details are all that are extant about her early life. She was born as Muhammadi Khanum to an African slave in Faizabad who was the bonded labourer of one Ghulam Ali Khan."

"While bravehearts like Velu Nachiyar or the Marudhu brothers may have been eclipsed in our historiography, their heroism lives on in ballads, folk songs and folk memory, even as they are immortalized and worshipped as gods in temples built for them by villagers. Where popular historiography failed them, folk memory redeemed this lapse and kept them alive till date."

"What happened to the prisoners of war in Kamrupa? Hundreds of Khilji’s soldiers were captured by Prithu in battle. The imprisoned soldiers sought pardon and shelter. The kind king Prithu pardoned them, set them free, and made arrangements for their settlement. This was part of the rule of Dharma that Hindu kings followed in warfare and while dealing with prisoners of war. He gave them all essential commodities for a living. As they came from Gauda (Bengal), the king christened them as Gaudia. This marked the beginning of Islamic settlements in Assam."

"Ruthless in his ambitions and vendetta, courageous in his military conquests, Martanda Varma left behind a rich legacy of administrative and economic reforms, war triumphs and military might, and cultural renaissance, etching his name in the annals of Kerala’s history as the proud builder of a new, expansive and modern Travancore kingdom. Like the Victory Column that stands anonymously, uncared for and uncelebrated in modern India, his place in scripting a unique victory of an Indian sovereign against a powerful European force, ensuring its total collapse thereafter from the country, though forgotten, remains cherished and worthy for all times to come."

"Bhagyachandra becomes a great saint ‘Rajarshi’ after the completion of his political journey. The journey of his life begins with ‘sword’ and ends with ‘lotus’. The celebration of Mera Haochongba, composition of Raslila, and Dhumen and initiation of Gaudiya Vaisnavism are symbolically the spiritual experiments with firm political underpinnings. These are the necessary means for him to end war and bring peace and tranquility in his land by washing our bloodstained hands. To him, there is no contradiction between the sword and lotus; and war and peace. There is no contradiction in his life. He uses religion and other creative works based on a religious theme not in the ordinary sense but with a far-sighted political vision."

"Rani Karnavati or Naak Kati Rani of Garhwal as she is called! She was more popular as the Naak Katne Wali Rani and invaders dreaded waging war against her."

"Reflecting on challenges he faced in India in his memoris Babur described Rana Sanga as one of the two greatest infidel king of India along with Deva Raya of South. who had grown so great by his audacity and sword and whose territory was so large that it covered significant portion of North-Western India"

"Kapaya Nayaka! His name is familiar only amongst a few in South India. He was the leader of a confederation of Telugu nobles who united to liberate the South Indian kingdom of Warangal from the Delhi Sultanate. Delhi was then under the Tughlaqs. He drove the Tughlaqs out of the Warangal (then Telangana) territory in 1336. He ruled the region for the next 30 years."

"Our historiography might have been unfair to the Abbakkas of Ullal by not resurrecting their stories enough or placing them suitably within the rubric of Indian history."

"In these bhoota aradhane performances, an oft-invoked spirit is that of a valorous queen of the little town of Ullal, Abbakka Mahadevi, as she is hailed by the locals. Sources, such as archival records, travelogues of several Portuguese travellers and historical analysis point towards the presence of two or three Abbakkas, all of whom fought against the Portuguese army between the 1550s and 1640s CE. Folklore and performances such as the bhoota aradhane or yakshagana treat all three Abbakkas as one great queen and a brilliant personality Abbakka Mahadevi or Rani Abbakka. In the complete absence of proper archival documentation around the queens, the life stories of the women are interchangeably used and are prone to much error. But more than the details of each individual, what is important is this constant and successful feminine resistance that this small region in coastal Karnataka offered to a mighty European power, the Portuguese, for several decades."

"And of course, most importantly the heroic tales of Abbakka Mahadevi continue to entertain and inspire the people of Tulunadu through their local performances of yakshagana and bhoota aradhane till this date."

"But in a time and age when it was uncommon for women to ascend the throne and vanquish foes by leading forces in battle, Rudrama Devi charted for herself an indelible place in the annals of the country."