Madakari Nayaka

Madakari Nayaka or Madakari Nayaka V was the last ruler of Chitradurga, India. Nayaka lost Chitradurga in a siege of Mysore by Hyder Ali, and was slain by Ali's son Tipu Sultan.

During the reign of Madakari Nayaka, the city of Chitradurga was besieged by the troops of Hyder Ali. Hyder Ali spotted a woman entering Chitradurga through a gap (kindi) in the rocks and sent his soldiers through it. The guard on duty of the port near the gap had gone home for lunch. When there was no water at home, wife Obavva left home to bring some water for her husband. En route, she noticed Hyder Ali's soldiers entering the fort from the gap. She didn't want to wake her husband from the lunch, so she took an onake (flail for rice), started hitting the soldiers one by one as they were trying to enter the fort. Upon his return from lunch, Obavva's husband was shocked to see Obavva with a blood-stained onake and hundreds of soldiers lying dead about her. The passage remains as marker of the story, beside the Tanniru Doni — a small water source which holds cold water year round. Hyder Ali attacked again in 1779 and took the fort. The place is renowned for its Kallina Kote ("the place of the stone fort"), and is home to the Fort of Seven Rounds, which is built with large stones.