Kekala a warrior chiefess and biography

She married Attummanammel Kunhiraman, and a day later, Unniyarcha set out from home to see the Kuthu in Allimalarkavuthe Vilakku in Ayyappankavu and the Velapuram in Anjanakavu the version in the ballads. As the Mappilas Jonakas in the bazaar on her journey were a much dreaded lot, her husband and relatives did not approve of that. In spite of this, she was determined to go for these festivals.

As expected, she was waylaid at Nadapuram by the mappilas. Though Kunhiraman was in jitters, Unniyarcha showed her mettle by facing her adversaries almost single-handed. The headman of the chanakas Yavanaswho happened to see her on the way, was enamoured of her beauty and sent his men to carry her away by force. Unniyarcha drew her sword and then proceeded to kill some of them.

The rest fled and brought the headman himself to the scene, who soon discovered that she was the sister of his fencing master. He appealed to both the brother and sister to pardon him, but Unniyarcha was inexorable and challenged him and his men to a fight. The mappilas soon realised that their opponent was none other than the brave sister of Aromal Chekavar, whom their leader had held in great awe and respect.

Having realised his mistake, the leader tried to do his best to pacify her, but she would not pardon him without a categorical assurance that women would be allowed to walk along that way without any fear of molestation. At last, Aromal Chekavar himself appeared on the scene. Only after the leader made a tendered wholesome apology and offered all kinds of gifts did she calm down and make peace with her adversaries.

A television serial titled Unniyarcha was broadcast on Asianet in Also, Unniyarcha herself appears in the film Veeram What is the matter with Western culture? Kame'eleihiwa, a Kamehameha School graduate, said that before the overthrow, members of her family served as lawyers, but they openly opposed the Republic and were economically marginalized afterward.

She was one of the first in her immediate family to get a high school education. Many wore red shirts emblazoned with the words "Ku I Ka Pono" "Justice for Hawaiians" to protest attacks on their rights, lands and entitlements. The march that September day was largely organized by fellow Hawaiian rights activist Vicky Holt Takamine and the organization she helped kekala a warrior chiefess and biography in 'Ilio'ulaokalani Coalition.

The environmental watchdog group was formed to lobby the Legislature over many issues, including native gathering rights. Recently, the group has evolved into the organizing force behind many rallies and marches for a range of native Hawaiian issues. For example, when a march was called this summer after a federal appeals court struck down the "Hawaiians-only" admissions policy of Kamehameha Schools, Takamine and her coalition joined with the school and alumni to organize marches in Honolulu and San Francisco.

They see the struggle to take away our land and our rights and see the cultural genocide. Takamine and Kame'eleihiwa each said that part of the reason women lead goes back to ancient Hawaiian religious practices, in which every male god had an equally important and powerful female counterpart to create balance. They noted that Christianity has no strong or equal female leaders.

Hawaiian scholars have also written about how the Christian missionaries diluted many of the stories of strong Hawaiian goddesses and female leaders. Unniyarcha is believed to have lived in the 16th century. This was the time when out of the total 42 Kalaris, 18 were controlled by the house of Puthooram, 7 by Aringodar and the rest divided among the other Chekava families.

Born as the daughter of Puthooram veetil Kannappa Chekavar, the distinguished Kalari Master from Kadathanadu, Unniyarcha grew up practising the Kalaripayattu techniques with her brothers Aromal and Unnikannan and cousin Chanthu. Mappila meaning Bridegroom was a respectful title given to foreign merchants and immigrants to Malabar Coast by the native Hindus of the region.

This term reflects the culture of the region, where natives were not only tolerant of outsiders but also courteously treated them as family. The Jonakas of Nadapuram, though, were notorious in the region for their disrespectful conduct towards women, an aberration in native society. They were known to abduct and molest women from the nearby areas.

Such gangs were also part of the Arabian slave trade according to various historical records. Her family tried to dissuade her, owing to the danger in the surrounding areas. This, however, only strengthened Archa's resolve and replied to her mother-in-law:. She tied her Urumi long whip-like sword kept close to the torso like a belt to her waist and set out for the temple.

Husband Kunhiraman, married to the very embodiment of Shakti, had no kekala a warrior chiefess and biography option, but to follow his wife. While passing through the Nadapuram Bazar, the Jonaka Mappila rowdies saw her and attempted to abduct her. Upon seeing this, Kunhiraman started getting nervous, to which Unniyarcha, beaming with valour, taunted her jittery husband:.

This is one of the most popular verses in the ballads. In the ensuing fight, Kunhiraman was defeated and tied up but Unniyarcha wielding her Urumi injured many, through a grand performance of Kalari techniques. The local Coptic population did not support their Byzantine overlords due to the persecution they had suffered at their hands for refusing to adopt the Chalcedonian creed.

In fact, Egypt had been occupied from by the Sassanians during the long war they had fought against their Byzantine rivals and during the Persian occupation the Copts were treated very benevolently by the Persians. When the Sassanians left, the Byzantines resumed persecuting the Copts. When the Arabs arrived on the scene they also treated the Coptic peasantry with relative leniency.

In fact, many Copts viewed them favorably as the Arabs allowed the Copts to select their own Coptic patriarch, rather than having a patriarch appointed by Constantinople who professed the Dyophysite Creed of the Greeks. The Copts were allowed to continue practicing their religion and had to pay a poll tax the jizya to their new Muslim rulers. However, this poll tax was carried over from previous taxation systems that had been practiced prior to the Muslim conquest in both Roman and Persian territories.

For example, after Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire, all non-Christians were required to pay a poll tax. After conquering Egypt Amr moved west to secure the frontier and clear the regions of Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan of Byzantine presence. These operations brought the Muslims into contact with North Africa and the Berber population inhabiting this region.

Amr reached Barqa and dispatched Uqba with a contingent to Zawila, the capital of Fezzan at the time, to the south in modern day south western Libya. These early operations were primarily raids for booty and slaves, but Barqa and the easternmost parts of North Africa fell into the hands of the Arabs. This area was called Ifriqiya and roughly corresponded to the Roman province of Africa and comprised parts of Tunisia and north western Libya.

Uqba also took part in the campaign of another Muslim general, Abd Allah ibn Abi Sarh, against the Byzantine exarch, Gregorius, which is dated around Prior to his death inAmr gave Uqba command of the territories west of Egypt. InUqba founded a new garrison town, Qayrawan, in the central plain of Tunisia. Like other garrison towns that were established in conquered territories such as Fustat in Egypt, and Basra and Kufa in Iraq, Qayrawan served as a settlement where the Muslims could concentrate their strength and preserve their identity, as they were a small minority for the first few centuries of Islam in much of the caliphate.

In North Africa, unlike in the eastern caliphate, several Berber tribes quickly converted to Islam and joined the Arabs in the conquest and subjugation of the other tribes. The primary resistance to the Arab advance in North Africa came from the coastal cities that were still under Byzantine imperial rule and the Afariqa or Romanized Berbers, who inhabited the coastal regions and the areas near these imperial centers.

Inthe first Umayyad caliph, Muawiya, dismissed Uqba from his position as the governor of Ifriqiya. The new governor, Abu al-Muhajir, imprisoned Uqba and launched new raids into what is now Algeria. He defeated the powerful Berber chief of the Awraba tribe, Kusayla, and instead of humiliating him and his followers sought an alliance with him against the Afariqa and the Byzantines.

In an act of vengeance, Uqba arrested Abu al-Muhajir and Kusayla and put them in chains and dragged them along with him wherever he went. In Uqba planned and led the largest campaign into the west to date. His expedition, according to some sources, took him all the way to the Atlantic coast. Uqba demonstrated his military genius in this campaign.

His army swept westward defeating Berber and Byzantine forces at the Zab and Tahart and reaching and capturing Tangier. He then marched south into Morocco capturing several regions before crossing the Atlas Mountains and arriving at the Atlantic coast.

Kekala a warrior chiefess and biography

He forced his defeated foes to pay tribute and gathered huge quantities of spoils and slaves. Uqba turned his army around and headed back to Qayrawan. He stopped at Tubna in the Central Maghrib and for unknown reasons he divided his forces and sent them back to Qayrawan in separate groups. In the meantime, Kusayla had escaped captivity and joined forces with the remaining Byzantines.

When Uqba left Tubna with a small contingent, he was ambushed by Kusayla and a joint Berber-Byzantine army. The Arabs, heavily outnumbered, were overwhelmed and Uqba and his companions all died in the battle. In a strong army under the command of Zuhayr ibn Qays al-Balawi once again marched into North Africa in Kusayla chose to abandon his capital and to face the invading Arabs at Mams, a mountainous region 50 km to the west of Qayrawan.

Kusayla hope to use the mountains to his advantage and as an avenue of retreat if the battle turned against him. Kusayla died fighting and his dreams of founding a Berber empire in North Africa died with him.