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 Nawab Who Built Bengal: Murshid Quli Khan's Forgotten Legacy
In 1704, a Deccani Brahmin sold into slavery became the most powerful man in Bengal. Murshid Quli Khan wasn't a conqueror—he was an accountant, a tax…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Rise of the Palas: Bengal's Buddhist Empire
Before the Senas and the Mughals, Bengal was ruled by the Pala dynasty — a Buddhist empire that stretched from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal. In this…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Last Pirate King: Sitaram Ray's Jungle Fortress
After the Mughals crushed the Baro-Bhuiyans, one lord refused to submit. Sitaram Ray, the zamindar of Bhusna, turned the dense forests and marshes of…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Black Hole of Calcutta: Myth, Reality, and Empire
In this episode, Lucas and Luna unpack the story of the Black Hole of Calcutta — the 1756 incident where British prisoners were allegedly locked overnight in a…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
Mughal Empress Who Ruled Bengal: Roshanara Begum's Lost Legacy
In this episode, Lucas and Luna uncover the story of Roshanara Begum, the Mughal princess who governed Bengal from 1649 to 1651 during the reign of her…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Battle of Plassey: How Bengal Really Fell to the British
We all know the Battle of Plassey in 1757 as the moment the British East India Company took Bengal. But the popular story is full of myths. In this episode…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Bengal Famine of 1943: Churchill's Deadly Silence
In 1943, Bengal experienced a famine that killed an estimated 3 million people. But unlike the famines of the 18th century, this one unfolded under British…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
Bengal's Cotton Revolt: The Weavers Who Defied the Empire
In the aftermath of the Battle of Plassey, Bengal's legendary muslin weavers found themselves caught between the crumbling Mughal order and the rising…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
Bengal's Buddhist Queen: The Lost Kingdom of Khargadatta
In this episode of The Hidden History of Bengal, Lucas and Luna explore the forgotten reign of Queen Khargadatta, a Buddhist ruler who defied the Brahminical…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Rise of the Senas: Bengal's Last Hindu Dynasty
In this episode of The Hidden History of Bengal, Lucas and Luna explore the Sena dynasty, the last great Hindu kingdom to rule Bengal before the Delhi…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Last Hindu King of Bengal: Raja Ganesha's Forgotten Coup
In the early 15th century, as the Ilyas Shahi sultanate crumbled, a Hindu zamindar named Raja Ganesha seized power in Bengal and crowned his son as Sultan…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Famine That Made Bengal British: The 1770 Company Catastrophe
In 1770, Bengal suffered a famine that killed an estimated ten million people — roughly a third of its population. This episode digs into how the British East…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Fakir-Sannyasi Resistance: Bengal's First Anti-Colonial Uprising
Long before the 1857 rebellion, Bengal saw an extraordinary armed resistance led not by kings or nawabs, but by ascetics—wandering Hindu sannyasis and Muslim…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Forgotten French East India Company in Bengal
Before the British East India Company came to dominate Bengal, the French Compagnie des Indes Orientales established a major foothold at Chandannagar on the…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Battle of Giria: Bengal's Civil War of 1740
In April 1740, on the banks of the Bhagirathi River near the village of Giria, a decisive battle reshaped Bengal's destiny. This episode explores the…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Dutch in Bengal: A Forgotten Trading Empire
Long before the British Raj, another European power dominated Bengal's waterways: the Dutch East India Company. This episode traces the rise and fall of…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
Bengal's Cotton Revolt: The Weavers Who Defied the Empire
In 1769, while the Great Famine was consuming Bengal, another crisis was brewing in the weaving villages of Dhaka and Murshidabad. The East India Company…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Portuguese Pirate City of Bengal: Sandwip's Forgotten Republic
In the 17th century, the island of Sandwip off the coast of Bengal became a pirate republic ruled by Portuguese renegades. This episode tells the story of…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Mughal Prince Who Ruled Bengal: Shah Shuja's Forgotten Kingdom
In 1639, the Mughal prince Shah Shuja arrived in Bengal as its new governor. But as the Mughal war of succession erupted in 1657, Shuja declared himself…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Forgotten Famine of 1769: Bengal Before the British
What caused the Great Bengal Famine of 1769-70? This episode peels back the layers of a catastrophe that killed millions, focusing on the drought, the East…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Great Bengal Famine of 1770: East India Company's Man-Made Catastrophe
In 1770, Bengal experienced one of the deadliest famines in history, with an estimated ten million deaths — roughly one-third of the population. But this was…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Lost Portuguese Colony of Bengal: Porto Grande de Hugli
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the forgotten Portuguese settlement of Porto Grande de Hugli, established in the 16th century on the banks of the…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Baro-Bhuiyans: Bengal's Twelve Lords Who Defied the Mughals
Before Bengal became the Mughal Empire's richest province, a league of twelve zamindars known as the Baro-Bhuiyans fought to keep it independent. This…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Pirate Republic of Sundarbans: Bengal's Rebel Outlaw State
In the early 1600s, a Portuguese renegade named Sebastião Tibau carved out a pirate kingdom in Bengal's Sundarbans delta. He raided Mughal shipping…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Indigo Revolt of 1859: Bengal's Blue Gold Uprising
In 1859, months after the suppression of the Sepoy Rebellion, a new uprising shook British Bengal — not of sepoys or princes, but of peasants and planters over…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Black Hole of Calcutta: Myth, Massacre, and Memory
In this episode of The Hidden History of Bengal, Lucas and Luna unravel the story of the Black Hole of Calcutta, one of the most controversial events in…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Sannyasi Rebellion: Bengal's Holy Warriors Against the East India Company
In the aftermath of the Great Bengal Famine of 1770, a unique rebellion emerged — bands of ascetic warriors, known as sannyasis and fakirs, who took up arms…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Buddhist University That Burned: Nalanda and Bengal's Lost Knowledge
Long before Oxford or Bologna, Nalanda was the ancient world's greatest university — a sprawling monastery-city where thousands of monks from China…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Temple That Defied Mughal Destruction: Bengal's Bishnupur Terracotta
In the heart of Bengal's Rarh region, the town of Bishnupur holds an extraordinary collection of terracotta temples built by the Malla kings, a Hindu…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Battle of Plassey: How Bengal Fell to the East India Company
This episode revisits the pivotal Battle of Plassey in 1757, which marked the beginning of British colonial rule in Bengal. Lucas and Luna explore the key…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Hindu Priest Who Built a Mosque: Bengal's Syncretic Architecture
In this episode of The Hidden History of Bengal, Lucas and Luna explore the remarkable architectural fusion of 15th-century Bengal, where Hindu and Muslim…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
Firangi Pirates of the Sundarbans: Bengal's Portuguese Mercenaries
Long before the British East India Company carved out its empire, another European power left a violent and complicated mark on Bengal: the Portuguese. In the…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
Bengal's Last Independent Bastion: Pratapaditya and the Fall of Jessore
In 1612, the Mughal Empire turned its full force against the last independent Hindu kingdom in Bengal—Jessore, ruled by the charismatic Raja Pratapaditya. This…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Ruin of Murshidabad: Bengal's Capital After Plassey
In the wake of the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the wealthy city of Murshidabad — capital of the Nawabs of Bengal — began a slow, devastating decline. This…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Maratha Raids on Bengal: Alivardi Khan and the Bargi Terror
In the 1740s, Bengal was ravaged by annual Maratha cavalry raids that looted villages, disrupted trade, and depopulated vast areas. This episode explores the…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Forgotten Sena Dynasty: Bengal's Hindu Revival and the Fall to Islam
Before the Mughals and the British, before the Sultans of Bengal, the Sena dynasty ruled a golden age from their capital at Nadia. In this episode, Lucas and…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Dutch in Bengal: Spice, Silver, and the Hooghly Rivalry
Before the British, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) ran Bengal's most profitable trade. This episode follows the rise and fall of the Dutch presence on…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Lost River of Bengal: Saraswati, Trade, and Empire
Long before the Ganges dominated Bengal's geography, a now-vanished river called the Saraswati once carried trade and power through the region. In this…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Salt March That Started in Bengal: Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and the Frontier Gandhi
When we think of the Salt March, we think of Gandhi and Dandi. But in this episode of The Hidden History of Bengal, Lucas and Luna trace a lesser-known strand…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Forgotten Bengal Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud and the Afghan Camel Cavalry
Episode 69 of The Hidden History of Bengal shifts focus to the mid-15th century, when the Bengal Sultanate under Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah faced a unique…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Mughal Prince Who Chose Bengal Over the Peacock Throne
In 1576, the Mughal emperor Akbar conquered Bengal from the last Afghan sultan, but Subahdar Shahbaz Khan Kamboh faced a surprising challenge from within the…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Famine That Changed Everything: Bengal 1770
In 1770, the Great Bengal Famine killed an estimated ten million people, roughly a third of the population. This episode explores the human cost and the policy…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Last Hindu King of Bengal: Raja Rajaram and the Fall of Kharagpur Raj
When the Mughal Empire crushed the Kharagpur Raj in 1714, a kingdom that had ruled parts of present-day Jharkhand and West Bengal for 1,300 years came to an…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Bandel Church: Bengal's Portuguese Legacy
In 1599, Portuguese Augustinian friars built a church in the Hooghly river town of Bandel, near modern-day Hugli-Chinsurah. This episode traces the story of…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Forgotten Battle of Giria: Bengal's Last Mughal War
In 1763, two years after the British victory at Plassey, a massive army of Mughal loyalists, Afghan chieftains, and dispossessed zamindars marched on Calcutta…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Wandering Fakir: Lalon Shah and the Baul Mystics of Bengal
Episode 63 of The Hidden History of Bengal turns away from battles and empires to explore the inner life of the region through the Baul tradition. Lucas and…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
Chittagong Armoury Raid: Bengal's First Armed Uprising
In 1930, a group of young revolutionaries led by Masterda Surya Sen orchestrated a daring raid on the police and auxiliary forces armoury in Chittagong, then a…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Nawab's Last Stand: Mir Qasim and the Battle of Buxar
In 1764, three years after Plassey, another battle on the Ganges rewrote Bengal's fate. This episode follows Mir Qasim, the nawab who tried to rebuild…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Wandering Goddess of Bengal: Kali's Journey from 'Demonic' to Divine
Long before she became the iconic black goddess of Kolkata, Kali was a tribal deity on the fringes of Bengali society — feared, worshipped with animal…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Paik Rebellion: Bengal's Peasant War of 1799
In 1799, while the British East India Company was consolidating its hold on Bengal after the battles of Plassey and Buxar, a little-known rebellion erupted in…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Black Hole Tragedy: Myth, Memory, and the British Empire
In June 1756, the Nawab of Bengal Siraj-ud-Daulah captured Calcutta from the East India Company. The next morning, British prisoners emerged from a tiny…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Temple of the Black Goddess and the British Gunpowder Plot
In 1787, the East India Company got wind of a conspiracy unfolding in southern Bengal. A charismatic Brahmin named Bhabani Pathak was gathering thousands of…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Battle of Kanungo: Bengal's Last Afghan Stand
After the Mughals conquered Bengal in the 16th century, a small Afghan resistance held out for decades in the remote jungles of the Sundarbans. This episode…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Great Hedge of Bengal: The Salt Tax That Built a Wall
In the 1870s, the British Raj built one of the longest structures in human history—not a railroad or a canal, but a living hedge. Stretching over 2,500 miles…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Bengal School of Art: Abanindranath Tagore and the Swadeshi Movement
In the early 20th century, as Bengal bristled with nationalist fervor, a quiet revolution was unfolding in a Calcutta art studio. Abanindranath Tagore, nephew…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Portuguese in Bengal: Pirates, Traders, and the Hooghly Settlement
In the early 16th century, Portuguese adventurers and traders carved a violent but transformative presence along the coast of Bengal. This episode explores how…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Famine That Changed Everything: Bengal 1770
In 1770, Bengal was devastated by a famine that killed an estimated ten million people — roughly a third of the population. This episode explores the causes…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Silk Road's Bengal Connection: Temples, Pirates, and a Venetian Merchant
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the fascinating intersection of Bengal and the Silk Roads, focusing on the 14th-century travels of Venetian merchant…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
Ibn Battuta in Bengal: A Moroccan Traveler's Journey
In 1346, the Moroccan scholar Ibn Battuta arrived in Bengal during the reign of Sultan Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah, the first ruler to style himself…
- The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
Mughal Emperor Jahangir vs Rebel Prince Shah Jahan in Bengal
This episode of The Hidden History of Bengal uncovers the dramatic rebellion of Prince Khurram, the future Emperor Shah Jahan, against his father Jahangir in…