Shows / The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
Bengal's history is far more than a footnote in the British Raj. This podcast explores the region's ancient kingdoms—from the Gauda and Pala empires to the Bengal Sultanate—and its pivotal role as a crossroads of trade, culture, and rebellion. Lucas and Luna guide listeners through the rise and fall of dynasties like the Senas and the Mughal subahdars, the flourishing of Bengali literature under the Sultanate, and the catastrophic Bengal Famine of 1770. They delve into the Battle of Plassey…
Episodes
The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo HistoryThe Siege of Ghoraghat: Bengal's Forgotten Sufi Fortress
In this episode, we uncover the story of Shah Jalal’s conquest of Sylhet and the enduring legacy of the Ghoraghat fortress. While earlier episodes covered the…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Siege of Krishnanagar: Bengal's Forgotten Tragedy
In 1763, just two years after the Battle of Plassey, the British East India Company faced a crisis that nearly destroyed its rule in Bengal. While historians…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Battle of Plassey and the Fall of Bengal
In this episode, we peel back the layers of June 23, 1757, to examine the Battle of Plassey, a confrontation that reshaped the modern world. While often…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Sanyasi Uprising: Bengal's Holy War Against Empire
In this episode of The Hidden History of Bengal, we explore the Sannyasi Rebellion of the late 18th century, a violent and spiritual resistance against the…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Kuka Uprising: Sikh Resistance in Colonial Bengal
While the British Empire tightened its grip across India, a quiet but fierce resistance brewed in the rural heartlands of Bengal and Punjab, led by figures…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Sannyasi Rebellion: Bengal's Holy War Against Empire
In the late 18th century, while the British East India Company consolidated its power in Bengal, a different kind of war was brewing in the dense forests and…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Paika Rebellion: India's First War of Independence
In 1817, while the British were consolidating power across India, a unique peasant militia in Odisha rose up against colonial rule. This episode explores the…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Paika Rebellion: India's First War of Independence
While we often look to 1857 for the first major uprising against British rule, a fierce rebellion erupted decades earlier in the remote hills of Khurda…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Baro-Bhuyans: Bengal's Twelve Lords Who Defied Empire
In the late 1500s, as the Mughal Empire tightened its grip on Bengal, a loose alliance of twelve local chieftains — the Baro-Bhuyans — rose up to resist. Led…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Temple of 64 Yoginis: Bengal's Forgotten Sacred Circle
In a quiet village in Birbhum district stands a stone circle older than the temples of Khajuraho—a roofless sanctuary to sixty-four goddesses, each a fierce…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The August Uprising: Bengal's Forgotten 1942 Rebellion
In August 1942, while World War II raged and Gandhi was jailed, the sleepy towns and railway stations of Bengal exploded in a grassroots rebellion. Students…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Sundarbans Frontier: Pirates, Tigers, and Bengal's Wild Edge
In this episode, Lucas and Luna venture into the Sundarbans, the vast mangrove forest at the mouth of the Ganges, a region that has long been a frontier…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Maratha Ditch: How a Mud Rampart Shaped Calcutta
In this episode of Fexingo History, Lucas and Luna dig into the Maratha Ditch — the defensive earthwork built around Kolkata in the 1740s after the Bargi raids…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Indigo Revolt: Bengal's Blue Gold Uprising of 1859
In this episode of The Hidden History of Bengal, Lucas and Luna explore the Indigo Revolt of 1859–60, a grassroots uprising that shook the British East India…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Rice That Fed Rome: Bengal's Ancient Grain Roads
Long before the muslin trade or the Permanent Settlement, Bengal was feeding the world. In this episode, Lucas and Luna follow the journey of Bengal's…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Lost Capital of Bikrampur: Bengal's Forgotten Power
Lucas and Luna dig into the rise and fall of Bikrampur, the medieval capital of the Sena dynasty that ruled Bengal for over a century before the Khalji…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Last Hindu King of Bengal: Hemu Sen's Lost Capital
In 1325, a Sena prince named Hemu Sen fled the Turkic conquest of his homeland and established a new kingdom in the forests of Sylhet. This episode of Fexingo…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Revolt of Titumir: Bengal's Grassroots Uprising
In 1831, a Muslim peasant leader named Titumir built a bamboo fortress in the Sundarbans and declared war on the British East India Company. His rebellion…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Zamindars of Bengal: Land, Power, and the Permanent Settlement
In this episode of Fexingo History, Lucas and Luna explore the Zamindari system of Bengal, from the Mughal era's revenue farming to the British East India…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Opium Trade That Built Bengal's Empire
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the hidden history of Bengal's opium trade, a commerce that transformed the region and shaped empires. They trace…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Nawab's Pir: Shah Madar and Bengal's Sufi Frontier
Step into the ferryman's boat with Lucas and Luna as they trace the counter-intuitive alliance between Bengal's Nawab Murshid Quli Khan and the…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Great Hedge: Bengal's Salt Tax and the Customs Hedge
In 1803, the British East India Company began building a wall across India. It wasn't a fortress or a border — it was a customs hedge, a living barrier of…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Weavers of Dhaka: Muslin and the Mughal Economy
Before the Industrial Revolution, Bengal's weavers produced the world's finest cotton cloth, coveted by emperors and kings. In this episode, Lucas…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Bengal Famine of 1943: When Churchill's Policies Starved India
In this episode, Lucas and Luna delve into the devastating Bengal Famine of 1943, a man-made catastrophe during World War II that killed an estimated three…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
Mir Jafar's Double Betrayal: The Nawab Who Shaped Bengal's Fate
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the tangled legacy of Mir Jafar, the Nawab of Bengal whose deals with the British East India Company at Plassey and…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Rise and Legacy of Murshid Quli Khan: Bengal's Forgotten Founder
In this episode, Lucas and Luna step away from the well-trodden battles and rebellions to trace the unlikely rise of a poor Brahmin boy sold into slavery who…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Portuguese in Bengal: Pirates, Merchants, and the Fall of Gaur
In the early 1500s, Portuguese traders and pirates arrived in the Bay of Bengal, transforming Bengal's maritime world. This episode follows their rise…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Charnock Controversy: Calcutta's Founder or Colonial Myth
In 1690, an English merchant named Job Charnock stepped onto a muddy riverbank in Bengal and, according to legend, founded Calcutta. But the story is messier…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Bengali Renaissance: Vidyasagar's Reform Crusade
In episode 200, Lucas and Luna explore the life and legacy of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, the scholar-reformer who reshaped Bengali society in the nineteenth…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Sena Twilight: Vikrampur's Last Hindu Kings
In this episode, Lucas and Luna return to the close of Bengal's Sena dynasty, focusing on the final decades at Vikrampur after the fall of Nabadwip. They…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Bargi Raids: Maratha Lightning in Bengal's Heart
In 1742, the Maratha horsemen of Raghuji Bhonsle descended on Bengal like a storm, sacking villages and extracting a brutal tax known as chauth. This episode…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Salt of Bengal: A Forgotten Protest at Dandi's Eastern Edge
When Mahatma Gandhi marched to Dandi in 1930, the salt satyagraha rippled across British India. But Bengal had its own theater of defiance, led by a man whose…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Battle of Buxar: Bengal's Fate Sealed on the Ganges
In 1764, on the plains of Buxar, the East India Company faced a triple alliance: the Nawab of Bengal, the Nawab of Awadh, and the Mughal Emperor himself. This…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Lost River Ports of Bengal: Where the Ganges Met the Sea
Before Calcutta, before the Mughals, the rivers of Bengal were highways of empire. In this episode, Lucas and Luna trace the rise and fall of the great river…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
Khalji Invasions: Nadia's Fall and the Sena Twilight
When Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji rode into Nabadwip in 1202, he shattered the last great Hindu kingdom of Bengal. This episode follows the twilight of the Sena…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Salt March of Bengal: Mahatma Gandhi's Dandi in the East
In this episode, we trace the little-known but pivotal Salt Satyagraha in Bengal, a chapter of India's freedom struggle that often gets overshadowed by…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Sundarbans Frontier: Pirates, Tigers, and the Mughal Navy
In this episode, Lucas and Luna venture into the mangroves of the Sundarbans, the tidal labyrinth where Bengal's history meets one of the world's…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Rise and Fall of the Bengal Sultanate's First Independent King
In this episode of Hidden History of Bengal, we peel back the layers of the Bengal Sultanate's founding, centering on Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah, the man who…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Sena Dynasty: Bengal's Last Hindu Kings
In episode 190 of Fexingo's Hidden History of Bengal, Lucas and Luna turn to the Sena dynasty — the last great Hindu rulers of Bengal before the Turkish…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Great Bengal Famine of 1770 The Company's Deadliest Harvest
In 1770, the richest province in India was reduced to a charnel house. By the time the rains returned, an estimated ten million people—about a third of…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Fakir-Sannyasi Rebellion: Bengal's Ascetic War Against the British
In the aftermath of the Battle of Plassey, as the East India Company tightened its grip on Bengal, a different kind of rebellion erupted—led not by nawabs or…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
Lalon Fakir and the Bauls: Bengal's Mystic Singers
Episode 187 of The Hidden History of Bengal steps away from battlefields and court politics to enter the world of the Bauls — Bengal's wandering mystic…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Battle of Rajmahal: How Akbar Conquered Bengal
In 1576, the Mughal Empire under Akbar faced its toughest challenge yet: the Afghan Sultan Daud Karrani, who ruled the rich and independent Sultanate of…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Battle of Chinsurah: When the Dutch Challenged the British in Bengal
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the Battle of Chinsurah (1759), a forgotten clash that sealed British dominance in Bengal. After the Battle of Plassey…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Indigo Rebellion: Bengal's Peasant War Against Blue Gold
In 1859, Bengal's peasants rose up against the brutal indigo plantation system. This episode explores the Indigo Rebellion—a peasant war that shook…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
Rammohan Roy: The Reformer Who Woke Bengal
In this episode of The Hidden History of Bengal, Lucas and Luna explore the life and legacy of Raja Rammohan Roy, the father of the Bengal Renaissance. Born in…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
Alauddin Husain Shah: Bengal's Greatest Sultan
In this episode, we explore the reign of Alauddin Husain Shah, the sultan who transformed Bengal into a major regional power between 1494 and 1519. From his…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Pala Empire Bengal's Buddhist Superpower
Long before the Mughals or the British, Bengal was the heart of a Buddhist empire that stretched across North India and influenced Southeast Asia. This episode…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Maratha Bargi Raids: Bengal's Countryside Engulfed
In the 1740s, Bengal was shattered by a series of devastating raids by Maratha horsemen known as the Bargi. Under the command of Raghuji Bhonsle of Nagpur…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu: Bengal's Saint of Ecstatic Devotion
In 15th-century Bengal, a brilliant scholar from Navadvip transformed into an ecstatic mystic who sparked a religious revolution. This episode traces the life…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Forgotten Capital of the Bengal Sultanate Gaur's Rise and Ruin
Long before the Mughals built Dhaka, another city ruled the Ganges delta: Gaur, the capital of the Bengal Sultanate. For nearly two centuries, Gaur was one of…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
Bengal's Last Pirate Admiral: The Portuguese Rebel Who Fought the Mughals
In the early 1600s, a Portuguese mercenary named Sebastião Gonçalves Tibau built a pirate kingdom in the Sundarbans, defying both the Mughal Empire and his own…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Copper Plate of Bhaskaravarman: Assam's Secret Treaty with Bengal
Long before the Mughals or the British, a forgotten alliance between Bengal and Assam shaped the fate of eastern India. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
Ishwar Gupta: The Poet Who Woke Bengal
In the stifling aftermath of the 1857 Rebellion, Bengal's cultural landscape was dominated by sycophantic verse praising British rulers. Enter Ishwar…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Nawab Who Lost Bengal: Mir Jafar's Treachery at Plassey
In this episode of The Hidden History of Bengal, Lucas and Luna explore the life and legacy of Mir Jafar, the man whose betrayal at the Battle of Plassey in…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Rani of Berar: Bengal's Rebel Queen Who Defied the British
In 1814, a woman led a small army of Bhil tribals against the British East India Company in the forests of central India. Her name was Rani Gajkumari of Berar…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
Bengal's River Pirates: The Boatmen Who Defied the Mughals
The rivers of Bengal were not just highways of trade—they were the stage for a forgotten war between the Mughal Empire and the fierce boatmen known as the Bara…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Salt Trade That Powered Bengal's Economy
Before petroleum or textiles, salt drove Bengal's economy and politics. This episode traces the salt trade from ancient extraction in the Sundarbans to…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
Ishan Khan: Bengal's Rebel Prince Who Fought the Mughals
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the life of Ishan Khan, a rebel prince of the Bara Bhuiyan confederacy who resisted Mughal expansion into Bengal in the…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Rebellion of Titumir: Bengal's Peasant Revolt Against Indigo and Empire
In the 1820s and 30s, as the British East India Company tightened its grip on Bengal, a new kind of resistance emerged from the countryside. This episode…