Sangolli Rayanna

The Story

Born in a poor Kuruba (shepherd) family in the village of Sangolli, Rayanna rose by courage and honesty to command the forces of Kittur, the small but proud principality of the North Karnataka country. When its young ruler died and the British refused to recognise his adopted son, Rayanna stood beside Rani Chennamma in the desperate war of 1824.

The Kittur war was lost, the Rani imprisoned, and Rayanna himself captured — but he escaped and, refusing to accept defeat, raised a fresh army from the peasants and hill folk of the region. For two years he and his men raided British treasuries, ambushed their columns, and kept the flame of Kittur burning with a fury the British could not crush.

Betrayed by a spy and captured in 1831, Rayanna was tried and hanged from a banyan tree near Nandagad. His death did not end the legend: the peasants who had followed him kept his name alive, and today Sangolli Rayanna is honoured across Karnataka as the symbol of the common people's rebellion — the shepherd who became a general.