Episodes
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 Buxar redrew the map of South Asia. They trace his rise from a soldier in the Mughal army to the man who betrayed Siraj ud-Daulah, his brief restoration under the Company, and his final, bewildering switch to the Mughal side at the Battle of Buxar. How did a man so often branded a traitor become a pivot on which empire turned? The…
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 became Bengal's most effective ruler. Murshid Quli Khan — born Surya Narayan Mishra, raised as a Persian noble, appointed diwan by Aurangzeb — transformed a war-torn province into a wealthy, stable state. We walk through his reorganisation of the revenue system, his shifting of the capital from Dacca to Murshidabad, and his fraught…
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 from shadowy smugglers to the court of the Sultan of Gaur, their violent clashes with the Mughals, and the brutal sack of the city by Sher Shah Suri. We meet figures like João Coelho, the Portuguese mercenary who helped Sher Shah's army cross the Ganges, and hear how the Portuguese made themselves indispensable — and then dangerously powerful…
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 than a single founding moment. This episode unpacks the colonial myth-making behind Charnock's 'founding' of the city, revealing how the East India Company spun a convenient origin story for its future capital. We trace the actual settlements—Sutanati, Gobindapur, and Kalikata—that predated the British, and meet the Portuguese pirates and…
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 century. From his early years in Birsingha to his landmark campaign for widow remarriage, Vidyasagar challenged orthodox Hinduism and colonial law alike. The episode covers his Sanskrit scholarship, his pioneering work as an educator and printer, his efforts to open education to women and lower castes, and his unexpected friendship with…
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 trace the dynasty's Kannada origins, the reign of Lakshman Sen, and the shadowy figure of the last king, Keshav Sen, whose rule dissolved into petty principalities. The conversation revisits the Deopara inscription, the court poet Jayadeva and the Gita Govinda, and the gradual Turkish advance under Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji. They also examine…
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 traces the Bargi raids from their first thunderous arrival at the Hooghly to the desperate countermeasures of Nawab Alivardi Khan, who built a massive trench—the Maratha Ditch—that later became a defining line of colonial Calcutta. We meet the renegade Mir Habib, whose shifting loyalties opened the door to invasion, and the Afghan general…
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 name barely survives in the national memory: Satish Chandra Dasgupta. This episode traces the salt movement's lesser-known eastern front—from the factories of Khulna where tax collectors smashed illegal salt pans, to the long marches through the Sundarbans, to the young woman Bina Das who fired shots in the Assembly and turned a protest…
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 was no skirmish—it was a decisive clash that would redefine power in South Asia. Lucas and Luna revisit the buildup, the battle, and its staggering aftermath: the Treaty of Allahabad, which gave the Company the diwani of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. They explore the diplomatic maneuvering of Robert Clive, the uneasy alliances that crumbled…
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 ports that once linked the Bay of Bengal to the silk routes of Asia. From the ancient emporium of Tamralipta, where Chinese pilgrims boarded ships for Sri Lanka, to the medieval hub of Saptagram, where Venetian merchants traded for muslin and silk, and the Portuguese settlement at Hooghly that became a flashpoint for Mughal power — these…
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 dynasty through the eyes of its final ruler, Lakshman Sen, and the Turkic warlord who unseated him. We trace Bakhtiyar's improbable cavalry charge from Bihari outposts to the Ganges, the legends of a midday raid that caught the king at dinner, and the archaeological whispers—coins, inscriptions, and a shifting capital—that piece together…
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 better-known Dandi March. We focus on the remarkable figure of Satish Chandra Dasgupta, a lawyer turned revolutionary who led the salt campaign from his ashram in Khulna, now in Bangladesh. We explore how Gandhi's call for nonviolent defiance against the British salt tax resonated in the deltaic landscape of Bengal, where salt was a daily…
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 most dangerous coastlines. They trace the region's role as a refuge for pirates, rebels, and fugitives—from the ancient Maurya-era boatmen to the Mughal-era Bara Bhuiyan and the Portuguese renegade Sebastião Gonçalves Tibau. But the Sundarbans is also a place of myth and terror: the tiger-god Dakshin Ray, the legendary island of Ganga Sagar where the…
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 crowned himself the first independent Sultan of Bengal in 1342. Across a dramatic reign that saw him sack Delhi itself, Ilyas Shah set the template for a powerful, independent Bengal that would last for centuries. We explore his strategic capital at Pandua, his military campaigns against the Tughlaq empire, and the administrative innovations…
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 conquest. They trace the Senas' rise from a Kannada warrior family to the throne of Gauda, their patronage of Sanskrit literature, and their sudden collapse before Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji's cavalry in 1204. Along the way, they unpack the legend of Ballal Sen's caste reforms, the poetry of Jayadeva's Gita Govinda, and the mystery of how a…
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 Bengal's population—had died. This episode of The Hidden History of Bengal reconstructs the catastrophe: how two years of drought turned into a famine of biblical proportions, and how the East India Company's policies turned scarcity into mass death. We walk through the fields of Birbhum and Nadia, where the Company's revenue collectors refused…
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 zamindars, but by wandering ascetics. The Fakir and Sannyasi uprisings (1763–1800) combined religious devotion with agrarian revolt, pitting armed monks and peasants against Company rule. This episode explores the causes: punitive revenue demands, the Great Bengal Famine of 1770, and the Company's attempt to disarm holy men. We focus on…
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 minstrels. We trace the roots of this syncretic tradition to the 16th-century Sahajiya Vaishnava movement and Sufi orders, then focus on the most famous Baul of all: Lalon Fakir (c. 1772–1890). Born into a Hindu family, raised by a Muslim, Lalon composed thousands of songs that dismantle caste, religion, and dogma. His philosophy of 'dehatattva'…
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 Bengal. This episode follows the dramatic campaign that culminated in the Battle of Rajmahal, where Mughal forces under Munim Khan and Man Singh used riverine warfare to finally subdue Bengal. We explore Daud's defiance — striking coins in his own name — the Mughal siege of Rajmahal fort, and how the geography of Bengal's rivers shaped the…
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 British East India Company faced a new threat: the Dutch, who refused to accept their loss of influence. At Chinsurah, a small Dutch factory town, a British force under Colonel Francis Forde defeated a combined Dutch and sepoy army in a daring preemptive strike. We discuss the diplomatic maneuvering between Mir Jafar, the British…
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 British rule. Lucas and Luna uncover how the East India Company's insatiable demand for blue dye led to forced cultivation, violent planters, and a revolt led by Digambar Biswas and Bishnu Biswas in Nadia. They discuss the role of the play 'Nil Darpan' by Dinabandhu Mitra, the trial of Reverend James Long, and the eventual Indigo Commission that…
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 1772 in British Bengal, Rammohan Roy was a brilliant scholar who mastered Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit, and English. He challenged orthodox Hinduism, fought against the practice of sati, and founded the Brahmo Samaj, a reformist movement promoting monotheism and social justice. His diplomatic mission to England as the Mughal emperor's envoy…
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 humble origins as a chamberlain to his conquests of Kamrupa and Orissa, Husain Shah expanded Bengal's borders further than any ruler before. We discuss his administrative reforms, including a stable coinage and a land revenue system that fostered trade. Culturally, he patronized the poet Maladhar Basu, who composed the first Bengali version…
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 explores the Pala Dynasty, which ruled from the 8th to 12th centuries, beginning with the remarkable election of their first king, Gopala. We trace the empire's expansion under Dharmapala and Devapala, who conquered Kannauj and Patna, and their patronage of the great university of Nalanda, which drew monks from Tibet, China, and beyond.…
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, these light cavalry swept across the rice fields and villages of Bengal, looting, burning, and demanding exorbitant tribute. Nawab Alivardi Khan—the same ruler who had seized power in 1740—found himself fighting a desperate guerrilla war on his own soil. This episode unpacks the forgotten conflict that drained Bengal's treasury, depopulated…
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 of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu — his pilgrimage to Gaya, his adoption of sankirtan (group chanting of Krishna's name), and his radical challenge to caste hierarchy. We explore his controversies with orthodox Brahmins, his years in Puri, and his travels across South India, where he debated scholars and inspired communities. Learn about his key…
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 richest and most populous cities in South Asia, home to grand mosques, bustling markets, and a syncretic court culture that blended Persian, Turkic, and local Bengali traditions. This episode takes you into its story: how Sultan Ilyas Shah forged an independent kingdom, how his successors like Sikandar Shah and Alauddin Husain Shah…
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 Portuguese superiors. Operating from the island of Sandwip, Tibau commanded a fleet of warships, raided Bengali ports, and even captured the Mughal governor of Bengal's son. This episode explores Tibau's rise, his alliance with the rebel prince Ishan Khan, and his eventual fall to a combined Mughal-Portuguese fleet. We also look at the…
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 copper plate inscriptions of Bhaskaravarman, the Varman king of Kamarupa who allied with Harshavardhana against the Gauda king Shashanka. We follow the Nidhanpur copper plate grant, which records land donations in Sylhet (modern Bangladesh), and examine how this treaty influenced the spread of Buddhism, trade routes along the…
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 Chandra Gupta, a poet and editor who defied the trend. Through his weekly newspaper, Sambad Prabhakar, he published biting satires that lampooned colonial officials and revived the earthy, irreverent tradition of Bengali folk poetry. This episode traces Gupta's life from a small village in Bengal to the center of Calcutta's literary scene, where…
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 1757 handed Bengal to the British East India Company. They discuss his early career under Alivardi Khan, his grievances against Siraj-ud-Daulah, the secret conspiracy with Robert Clive and the Jagat Seths, the infamous battlefield pact, and his brief, contested reigns as Nawab. The conversation also examines whether Mir Jafar was simply an…
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, and her rebellion is one of the forgotten stories of early colonial resistance in the subcontinent. This episode explores her unlikely alliance with the Maratha Peshwa, her guerrilla tactics, and the brutal British counterinsurgency that ultimately crushed her uprising. We look at the broader context of the Third Anglo-Maratha War, the…
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 Bhuiyan. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the story of Musa Khan, the son of the legendary rebel Ishan Khan, who led a flotilla of war boats against the Mughal navy. Discover how the Brahmaputra's shifting channels shaped guerrilla warfare, why the Portuguese mercenaries switched sides, and how the Mughal admiral Islam Khan Chisti…
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 Mughal monopolies, European competition, and the British East India Company's brutal tax regime. We explore how salt shaped the lives of laborers, financed empires, and sparked rebellions. Key figures include the Mughal emperor Akbar, who imposed the first salt tax in Bengal; the Portuguese and Dutch traders who smuggled salt along the coast…
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 early 17th century. They discuss his stronghold in Chandradwip, his alliance with Raja Man Singh, and his eventual defeat by Mughal forces under Jahangir. The episode delves into the political landscape of Bengal under the Afghans, the role of the Brahmaputra River in strategic defense, and Ishan Khan's legacy as a folk hero. Listeners…
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 follows the remarkable story of Titumir, a peasant leader from the village of Baduria who raised a bamboo fort, inspired by the Wahhabi movement, and led a brief but fierce rebellion against indigo planters and British authority. We explore the economic exploitation of the indigo industry, the role of zamindars and colonial laws, the brutal…
The Jagannath Temple Raid: Bengal's 17th Century Pirate Attack
In 1608, a fleet of Portuguese pirates and Magh raiders sailed up the Hooghly River and attacked the Jagannath Temple near present-day Kolkata. This episode follows the raid itself—how the temple's wealth, known as the 'Ratna Bhandar', was looted, and how the local zamindars and the Mughal governor responded. We also explore the temple's unique history: built by the Man Singh of Amber, it housed a massive treasure that funded not just religious life but rebellions. The attack shocked Bengal and…
Siraj-ud-Daulah's Reforms: Bengal's Last Nawab Before Plassey
In this episode of The Hidden History of Bengal, we explore the brief but transformative reign of Siraj-ud-Daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal. Often remembered only for the Black Hole incident and his defeat at Plassey, Siraj was in fact a reformer who challenged entrenched powers. We examine his crackdown on the corruption of the Jagat Seth banking dynasty, his efforts to curb the East India Company's military fortifications and tax evasion, and his attempts to modernize the Bengal…
Mughal Bengal's Merchant Prince: Hiranand Sahu of Cossimbazar
While the Jagat Seths dominate the history of Bengal's banking dynasties, this episode turns to Hiranand Sahu, the merchant who financed Shah Shuja's ill-fated bid for the Mughal throne in the 1650s. Lucas and Luna trace Hiranand's rise in the textile and saltpetre trade along the Hooghly, his relationship with Prince Shah Shuja, and the fallout after Aurangzeb's victory. They examine how the Sahu family navigated the transition from Mughal patronage to early English East India Company…
The Sena Dynasty's Forgotten Capital: Bikrampur's Golden Age
Lucas and Luna take a deep dive into Bikrampur, the ancient capital of the Sena dynasty in Bengal, which flourished from the 11th to 13th centuries. They explore how this city on the banks of the Padma river became a center of Hindu revival, Sanskrit learning, and the composition of the Gita Govinda by Jayadeva. The conversation covers the Sena kings—Vijayasena, Ballalasena, and Lakshmanasena—their military campaigns, administrative innovations like the kulinism system, and the eventual decline…
The Last Nawab of Bengal: Siraj-ud-Daulah's Forgotten Reforms
Before the Battle of Plassey, Siraj-ud-Daulah was more than just the doomed nawab who lost Bengal to the British. This episode explores his early reforms: his crackdown on corruption within his own court, his efforts to modernize the army, and his controversial tax policies that alienated powerful bankers like the Jagat Seth. We also look at his construction projects, including a little-known fortification system along the Hooghly, and how his brief reign (1756-1757) attempted to stem the tide…
Cossimbazar's Fabulous Wealth: Bengal's Lost Banking Dynasty
In this episode of The Hidden History of Bengal, Lucas and Luna explore the rise and fall of the Jagat Seth family, the fabulously wealthy bankers of Cossimbazar in eighteenth-century Bengal. Through their control of the Murshidabad mint and an extensive hundi network, the Jagat Seths became the de facto financiers of the Nawabs of Bengal, and their support was crucial in the battles of Plassey and Buxar. Learn how this banking dynasty accumulated a fortune larger than the Bank of England's…
Bengal's Famine of 1943: Churchill, War, and Colonial Neglect
In 1943, as World War II raged, Bengal was hit by a famine that killed an estimated 2 to 3 million people. This episode explores the complex causes: not just a cyclone and crop failure, but British wartime policies like the 'denial policy' that destroyed boats and rice stores to deny them to the Japanese, the prioritization of military over civilian needs, and Churchill's refusal to divert food shipments. We discuss the Bengal Famine Code, the role of the Governor John Herbert, Amartya Sen's…
Mughal Prince Shah Shuja: Bengal's Rebel Governor
In this episode of The Hidden History of Bengal, Lucas and Luna explore the forgotten story of Shah Shuja, the Mughal prince who ruled Bengal from 1639 to 1660. The second son of Emperor Shah Jahan, Shuja governed the province with surprising autonomy, striking his own coins and even entertaining ambitions of succession. When the War of Succession broke out after Shah Jahan's illness, Shuja marched west to claim the throne, only to be defeated by Aurangzeb at the Battle of Khajwa in 1659.…
Bengal's Buddhist Pala Empire: Patronage, Art, and Decline
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the Pala Empire of Bengal, a Buddhist dynasty that flourished from the 8th to 12th centuries. They discuss the founding by Gopala, the expansion under Dharmapala and Devapala, and the empire's role as a patron of Buddhism, art, and education. The conversation covers the famous Nalanda and Vikramashila universities, where Pala kings funded monasteries and attracted scholars from across Asia. They also examine the empire's decline due to internal strife and…
The Great Bengal Famine of 1770: A Colonial Catastrophe
In this episode of The Hidden History of Bengal, Lucas and Luna examine the Great Bengal Famine of 1770, a catastrophe that killed an estimated ten million people. They explore how the East India Company's policies—including excessive taxation, the monopolization of grain, and the failure to remit revenue during drought—turned a natural scarcity into a man-made disaster. The conversation covers key figures like Warren Hastings, the company's governor, and the zamindars who were forced to…
The Spice That Built Bengal: Betel Nut and Global Trade
Before tea and opium, betel nut (Areca catechu) was Bengal's most valuable agricultural export, traded from the Sundarbans to the markets of Persia and East Africa. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how the humble supari shaped Bengal's economy, fueled the rise of the Sena and Mughal revenue systems, and became a cultural obsession that persists today. They trace the betel trade from ancient Sanskrit texts through Portuguese and Dutch records, revealing how Bengal's supari gardens (known…
The Battle of Buxar: Bengal's Last Stand Before British Rule
In 1764, a pivotal battle on the banks of the Ganges in Bihar sealed the fate of Bengal and India. This episode explores the Battle of Buxar, where the combined forces of the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II, the Nawab of Awadh Shuja-ud-Daula, and the deposed Nawab of Bengal Mir Qasim faced the British East India Company under Hector Munro. Lucas and Luna dissect the military tactics, the political intrigue, and the devastating consequences: the Treaty of Allahabad, which granted the Company diwani…
Bengal's Forgotten Caves: Buddhist Murals in the Jungle
In this episode of Hidden History of Bengal, Lucas and Luna venture into the dense forests of the Chittagong Hill Tracts to explore the newly-rediscovered Buddhist cave murals of the 8th-9th centuries. They discuss the Pala-era hermitages carved into sandstone cliffs, the influence of Gupta and Ajanta styles, the role of the Chandra kings of Harikela in patronizing these remote sanctuaries, and the controversial restoration efforts by the Bangladeshi archaeology department. They also touch on…
The Sannyasi Rebellion: Ascetics vs the East India Company in Bengal
In the late 18th century, the forests of northern Bengal echoed with the conch shells and tridents of Hindu ascetics who rose up against the British East India Company. Known as the Sannyasi Rebellion or the Fakir-Sannyasi Uprising, this was no mere peasant revolt. Wandering monks—Naga sadhus, armed with swords, guns, and a tradition of martial combat—turned guerrilla fighters against Company rule, aided by dispossessed zamindars and Mughal-era soldiers. This episode explores the roots of the…
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