A berry it's not, but spicy it gets; in a jar of brine, it's one of the bets. What am I?
Hint: You will find the answer to the riddle in the next 3 sentences.
There was once a queen who was born a commoner, married a young king and came to power due to his untimely death. She was the only Indian queen who dared to defy Aurangzeb. The Portugese called her ‘Raina de Pimenta’ or ‘The Pepper Queen’. Her dad fondly called her Chennamma. She ruled a kingdom called Keladi (which was earlier part of the Vijayanagar empire - the birthplace of Tenali Ram and his jokes).
We begin a new series on ‘The Queens who ruled India’.
History textbooks carry stories of male rulers who fought battles, expanded empires and meted out justice. But they ignore the stories of powerful women rulers who have accomplished these and more. We bring stories of these queens to you, through this series.
The first story is that of Keladi’s Rani Chennamma. If you love listening to stories with sound effects, click here.
Let’s get down to the dragons. But first a story of black pepper.
Black Pepper used to be grown in only one tiny part of the world. This was along the Malabar coast of India - along what is modern day Kerala and a part of Karnataka. Black pepper was called the ‘king of spices’.
4000 years ago, India traded with many empires globally and pepper was a big item on their shopping lists. Since it was scarce and found only in the supermarkets of S.India, not everyone could afford it. The Pharaohs of Egypt belonged to an elite group that could buy pepper. An archaeologist who was excavating an Egyptian mummy, found a few peppercorns placed near each nostril of King Ramses. Interestingly, there were piles of gold coins by his side, but just a handful of crushed peppercorns near each nostril (I looked at the photos and did not find any pepper grinder by his side. Wonder how he manages to add a pinch of pepper, everyday in his after-life).
An Egyptian Mummy covered with gold found recently. Source: Egypt, Department of Archaeology
When the Egyptians traded with Indians, the Arabs controlled the movement of ships and pepper from India. They did not want the Egyptians to directly buy from the Indian kingdoms. So they concocted fantastic stories. One such story was that there were dragons guarding the Malabar coast and its pepper fields (!)
3500 years later, Spain and Portugal built powerful ships and went in search of trade routes to buy black pepper. The Arabs were soon displaced (and the Europeans also discovered that it was cows grazing the fields of the Malabar coast and not dragons guarding them). One such explorer who tried to find a trade route to India, was a man called Vasco Da Gama. Following his success, the Portugese king raised huge armies and took over the pepper trade.
This brings us to the story of our valiant queen. The kingdom of Keladi, where was born, was a big producer of black pepper.
Source: Wikipedia
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A little girl was born to a trader
Chennamma was born to a merchant called Siddappa Shetty. She ran around freely and grew up without the restrictions of a royal upbringing. The young king of Keladi was Somasekhara Nayaka. He met her at a fair and was impressed by her intelligence and beauty. The king of Keladi married her soon after.
After her marriage, Chennamma trained herself in the arts of warfare, administration and also learnt music and arts. She read a ton of books from the royal library, in many languages. At that time, she had little power although she was the queen. She sat by the king on a throne, but he was the real ruler.
Yet, she used the money at her disposal to set up schools, hospitals and places of worship. Chennamma also busied herself in keeping up-to-date about what was going on in her kingdom and world politics. Life was mostly normal for her (plus fine dresses and yummy food).
Keladi Chennamma (after marriage). Source: Dharmayudh.com
She comes to power suddenly! The king suddenly fell ill. Some sources say that an internal enemy of the king tried to poison him slowly and weaken him. Some legends say that the enemy used dark magic. Whatever was the real cause, the queen quietly took control of the administration and began to run the kingdom when the king remained ill and bed-ridden. She was quite an able ruler, managed the finances of the kingdom well, entered into trade treaties with the Portugese and ensured that her spice farmers and merchants earned well. She kept the army in good fighting condition throughout this period.
And then, the king died.
Chaos followed.Brothers and nephews of the king fought for the throne. Chennamma also entered the fray and claimed the right to rule. To garner support for her right to the throne, she got the Keladi army to back her. The kingdom’s rich merchants also favoured her. All of them had seen how well she had ruled during the king’s illness and felt that she would be their best bet both for peace and prosperity.
Her rule was kind, just and peaceful.
In the course of her rule, many other kings attacked Keladi. The Sultan of Bijapur attacked her once. The Raja of Mysuru attacked her thrice. She won against all of them. She was also quite smart to enter into a peace treaty with Chatrapathi Shivaji, who offered to support her, whenever she needed help.
One of her biggest successes was against Aurangzeb.
Aurangazeb was then the most powerful ruler in India. He was the richest man on earth, in his time. He was keen on conquering the Deccan. The Marathas, under Shivaji, made life very difficult for Aurangazeb. Shivaji died a few years later. His son Sambhaji came to power. The Mughals captured Sambhaji and tortured him to death. Sambhaji’s younger brother Rajaram was declared king of the Marathas after the brutal murder of his brother.
Rajaram and his followers decided to escape from the Maratha fort as Aurangazeb was beginning to lay siege to it. One day, in Keladi, when Chennamma was giving away alms to the poor outside a temple, a monk approached her. He revealed to her that he was Rajaram and that he and his followers wanted to head to the Jingi fort (which is in Tamil Nadu). It was a very powerful fort and would be hard for the Mughals to invade. But to get to Jinji, he needed to pass through other kingdoms in S.India. None of the other kingdoms were willing to give him and his followers passage. They were afraid to incur the wrath of the Mughals. Rajaram came to ask Chennamma if she would be willing to help the Marathas.
Chennamma knew only too well that Keladi stood no chance of winning against the Mughals in open war-fare. But she also knew that as per Rajadharma - a ruler’s code of conduct, she ought to help him. Shivaji had supported her earlier in many wars and now it was her turn to do the Marathas a good deed. She agreed to give him passage. Rajaram and his group passed through Keladi.
Aurangazeb came to know of this and sent her a stern letter asking her to hand over Rajaram. She waited a few days and then replied politely that she was not in a position to hand over Rajaram as he had already left the kingdom of Keladi. Aurangazeb’s anger knew no end. He growled in rage. The Mughals invaded Keladi.
Mughal army invasion. Source: Prompt Hunt
A masterstroke: Aurangzeb did not factor the season into account, when he sent his army. The invasion came in the thick of the monsoons. The rains pouring over the Ghats of S.India were quite alien to the Mughal rulers. They had fought on the plains of North India. Not on hilly ridges covered with dense forests in the midst of pouring rains. The Keladi soldiers had the advantage of home ground. They retreated into a fort deep inside the forests of Bhuvanagiri.
Nagara fort - erstwhile Bidunur (capital of Keladi). Source: Karnataka Tourism
The Keladi soldiers used guerilla tactics to fight against the Mughals. They would shoot arrows from atop hilly ridges and destroy all the food supplies of the Mughals. The Mughal soldiers would be left staring at spilt sacks of food getting wet in the rain and rolling down the hills. The Keladi soldiers would suddenly surround the Mughals in the thick of forests, make strange animal noises and shoot arrows. The Mughal soldiers were both annoyed and overwhelmed by these Guerilla attacks. Add to this, the pouring rain, slush, mud, mosquitoes and a ton of diseases. Aurangzeb’s soldiers suffered brutal losses in Keladi. In the meanwhile, he got wind of the fact that Rajaram had reached Jingi fort. He decided that continuing the battle in Keladi was a worthless effort. He sent Rani Chennamma a peace treaty and ended the hostilities. She ruled her kingdom in peace after that.
In Indian history, the Keladi kingdom under Chennamma is the only kingdom to have defied Aurangzeb and succeeded.
A few days after the war, Chennamma received a letter through a spy - it read
“When kings and rulers of bigger kingdoms refused to help me, you bravely gave me shelter and helped to protect Hinduism. I can never forget this bravery and generosity of yours. May Goddess Bhavani give you all happiness! I pray to God that your land may be a home of happiness.
