Bantwala : Minister for women and child welfare Jayamala Ramachandra  visited the Rani Abbakka Tulu Study Centre and Tulu Museum at Bantwal on Monday.

Thukaram Poojary, director of the Centre, former minister B Ramanath Rai accompanied the minister, who evinced keen interest in the artefacts preserved at the centre.

Jayamala in fact took a liking to the portrait of Rani Abbakka, the warrior queen who took on the might of the Portuguese, much before the Indian independence movement that drove out the British from India even started.

Rani Abbakka teach Tulu lifestyle to Tuluvas and she developed Tulu tradition museum in Tulunadu, she said.