Episodes
The Calcutta Black Hole: Myth, Misunderstanding, and Empire
For decades, visitors to colonial India were warned about the 'Calcutta Black Hole'—a terrifying dungeon where hundreds supposedly died in a single night. But was it real, or was it a fabrication designed to terrify locals and justify British rule? In this episode, we peel back the layers of one of Bengal’s most enduring urban legends. We trace the story from its origins in the late 1780s, through the satirical cartoons that spread the rumor across Europe, to the historical reality of the Old…
The Pauper King Who Ruled Bengal's Shadows
In this episode, we explore the extraordinary life of Mir Qasim, the Nawab of Bengal who dared to challenge the rising power of the British East India Company. After witnessing the devastation caused by his predecessor Siraj ud-Daulah and the puppetry imposed by Mir Jafar, Mir Qasim attempted a radical modernization of Bengal’s economy and military. He abolished internal trade tariffs, moved his capital from Murshidabad to Munshiganj to break the influence of local elites, and built a…
Bengal's Silk Revolution: The Rise of the Muslin Trade
While we have covered the political upheavals and agricultural foundations of Bengal, this episode turns to the fabric that built its global reputation. We explore the legendary Muslin trade of Dhaka in the 17th and 18th centuries, a luxury commodity so fine it was dubbed 'woven air’ by European traders. Lucas traces the journey of the Kalka cotton from the riverbanks to the royal courts of Mughal emperors and the palaces of Versailles. We meet the master weavers whose hands could spin threads…
The Bengal Jute Boom: How Fiber Built Calcutta
Long before the Indigo Revolt or the Partition, Bengal’s economy was built on a humble green plant that turned into global wealth. This episode explores the rise of the jute industry in the mid-19th century, focusing on the mills along the Hooghly River and the laborers who processed it. We examine how the American Civil War created a sudden vacuum in cotton supplies, sending global demand for jute bagging skyrocketing. Through the stories of mill owners like those in the Bagmari district and…
The Great Famine of Bengal: 1943 and the Politics of Survival
In 1943, Bengal was caught in the crossfire of World War II, resulting in a catastrophic famine that claimed nearly three million lives. While history often attributes this tragedy solely to crop failure or natural disaster, the reality involves complex colonial policies, military logistics, and political decisions made in London and New Delhi. This episode examines the role of Lord Linlithgow, the wartime government's response, and the human cost of prioritizing supply lines over civilian…
The Bengal Tiger's Roar: Subhas Chandra Bose
We left the narrative of Indian independence with the Quit India movement and the martyrdom of Matangini Hazra, but there is another path that diverged sharply from Gandhi’s non-violence. This episode explores the life and legacy of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the charismatic leader who believed that British rule could only be broken by force. We trace his journey from a brilliant Calcutta academic to a radical nationalist who formed the Indian National Army alongside Japan. But the story…
The Siege of Ghoraghat: Bengal's Forgotten Sufi Fortress
This episode explores the strategic and spiritual significance of Ghoraghat, a fortified town in Sylhet that served as a vital gateway between Bengal and the eastern frontier. We examine how Malik Shah Razia, daughter of Sultan Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah, established a powerful principality here in the late 14th century, turning it into a center of Islamic scholarship and military resistance against both Mughal expansion and local Bhuiyan lords. Through the lens of the Kazi Jukiuddin shrine and the…
The 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 Nawabs and the East India Company, we turn to the 14th century to explore how a Sufi saint from Turkistan helped establish Muslim rule in Northeast India. We examine the military campaign led by Malik Shah Razia, the strategic importance of the Ghoraghat citadel, and the complex interplay between religious devotion and imperial ambition.…
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 focus on Mir Qasim’s defeat at Buxar, fewer remember the brutal siege of Krishnanagar, where Nawab Mir Kasim sought refuge with his ally, Maharaja Krishna Chandra Roy. The city fell to Robert Clive’s forces in a massacre that left thousands dead and shattered the remaining political autonomy of Bengali nobility. This episode explores the…
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 remembered as a simple British victory, the reality was far more complex, driven by internal betrayal within the Nawab’s court. We explore how Siraj ud-Daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, navigated a treacherous political landscape where loyalty was fluid and power was personal. The narrative centers on Mir Jafar, the…
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 East India Company that has been largely erased from mainstream colonial narratives. We trace the rise of the Fakir of Satgaon, Majnu Shah, and Bhabani Charan, ascetic warriors who merged Hindu and Islamic mysticism to fight British tax collectors and military outposts across rural Bengal. Unlike the organized mutinies of later years, this…
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 like Hari Singh Nalwa and the spiritual force of Baba Ram Singh. This episode explores the Kukas, or Namdhari Sikhs, whose non-violent protest movement challenged colonial authority through strict social reform and refusal to recognize British rule. We delve into the massacre at Chhota Nagpur and the subsequent trials that exposed the…
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 riverine deltas. This episode explores the Sannyasi Rebellion, a complex uprising led by ascetic warriors who rejected colonial authority not just for land or trade, but for spiritual sovereignty. We follow figures like Bhabani Charan and the mysterious Fakir of Satgaon as they forged alliances between Hindu sannyasis and Muslim fakirs to…
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 Paika Bidroha, led by Bakshi Jagabandhu, a former military commander who organized his community based on the ancient Sikhya System. We examine how the abolition of this land-for-service arrangement triggered a coordinated uprising that challenged East India Company authority in Khurda and surrounding regions. Unlike later rebellions…
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, Odisha. This episode explores the Paika Bidroha, led by Bakshi Jagabandhu, who commanded the Paikas—a traditional militia of landed gentry stripped of their rights by the East India Company’s annexation of Odisha in 1803. We trace how these warrior-peasants, armed with traditional spears and bows, launched a coordinated attack on British…
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 by the legendary Isa Khan, these twelve lords of the Bhati region turned the Ganges delta into a maze of guerrilla warfare, thwarting Mughal generals like Man Singh and even Shah Jahan’s early campaigns. But who were the Baro-Bhuyans really? Were they nationalist heroes or opportunistic warlords? This episode of The Hidden History of…
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 form of the divine feminine. This episode takes us to Hirapur, to the 64 Yogini Temple, a tantric site that has puzzled archaeologists for over a century. We explore the Yogini cult's roots in early medieval Bengal, its links to the Kaula and Kapalika sects, and its sudden eclipse by the rise of Brahmanical orthodoxy. Along the way, we meet…
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, peasants, and railway workers tore up tracks, burned police stations, and raised the tricolour across Midnapore, Tamluk, and Contai. This episode explores the Quit India Movement's brutal crackdown, the parallel government of Tamluk, and the fate of forgotten heroes like Matangini Hazra, Satish Samanta, and the Medinipur resistance. We dig…
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 between land and sea, civilization and wilderness. They explore how this treacherous landscape shaped Bengal's history, from the ancient Mauriyan period through the Mughal era to the British colonial rule. Lucas recounts the exploits of the Portuguese pirates and Magh raiders who used the delta's labyrinthine waterways as a base, and the Mughal…
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 terrified the British and local inhabitants. They trace how the ditch, meant to keep out Maratha cavalry, ended up defining the city's boundary and later became the Circular Road. Along the way, they meet Alivardi Khan, the Nawab who bought off the raiders with tribute, and the British merchants who financed the wall. The episode looks…
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 Company's grip on Bengal. They trace the rise of indigo cultivation in the early 19th century, driven by European planters who forced tenant farmers, or ryots, into exploitative contracts. Central figures include the planter William Sherburne, whose misuse of the 'Blue Book' exposed the brutality, and the Bengali reformer Harish Chandra…
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 rice from the paddy fields of the Ganges delta to the granaries of the Roman Empire, where it became a staple for the legions. They explore the ancient ports of Tamralipta and Saptagram, the monsoon winds that carried ships across the Bay of Bengal, and the clever irrigation systems that made Bengal's surplus possible. Along the way, they meet…
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 invasion. They trace its origins under Vijay Sen, its golden age under Ballal Sen and Lakshman Sen, and the mysterious abandonment that left it as a backwater in the Sundarbans. They explore the archaeological evidence, the copper plate inscriptions that help reconstruct its borders, and the local legends that still surround the ruins. Along the…
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 History follows Hemu's journey from the Sena court at Vikrampur to the eastern frontier, where he built a fortified capital at a place called Baniachong. We explore how he held off the Sultanate armies for decades, his diplomacy with the Ahom kings of Assam, and the archaeological traces of his rule — from copper plates to a ruined mosque…
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, rooted in the oppression of indigo planters and the zamindari system, culminated in the Battle of Narkelberia, where his followers faced the Company's cannons with swords and spears. This episode untangles the man from the myth: the Wahabi influences, the Hindu-Muslim solidarity, the short-lived kingdom, and the brutal suppression that…
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 Company's Permanent Settlement of 1793. They trace the rise of powerful families like the Debs of Shobhabazar and the Tagores of Jorasanko, and the zamindars' role as cultural patrons — financing the construction of temples, Durga Puja festivals, and the revival of Bengali literature. The conversation sheds light on the social costs: the…
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 its origins from the Mughal era, when Bengal was a major producer, to the British East India Company's monopoly and the creation of the opium factory at Patna. The trade, which sent chests of opium to China, sparked wars and addiction on a massive scale, while enriching Calcutta and funding the Raj. Lucas details the cultivation system, the…
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 wandering Sufi saint Shah Madar. While Murshidabad's mint struck coins for the Mughal emperor, Shah Madar's shrine at Makhdumpur drew thousands of soldiers, weavers, and farmers into a different kind of loyalty. This episode digs beneath the battles and revenue ledgers to the spiritual economy that held Bengal together. Discover how a Bani Israil…
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 thorny plants stretching over 2,000 miles, from the Punjab to the Bay of Bengal. Its purpose: to stop the smuggling of salt, one of the most heavily taxed commodities in colonial India. In this episode, we trace the hedge's origins, its construction, and the lives of the men who guarded it. We meet the salt farmers of the Bengal coast, the…
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 and Luna trace the rise of Dhaka's muslin industry under Mughal rule, the lives of the jamdani weavers who worked in near-silence, and the devastating impact of British colonial policies that dismantled a three-hundred-year-old craft. Through the weavers' tools, the fine threads spun by women, the trade routes that carried muslin from the Ganges…
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 million people. They explore the confluence of colonial policies, war priorities, and natural factors that turned a food shortage into a famine. The conversation covers the role of Winston Churchill, who diverted food aid and military resources to the war effort, and the controversial 'denial policy' that stripped coastal regions of boats…
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…
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