The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History

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 craftsmen collaborated to create a unique Indo-Islamic style. They focus on the Adina Mosque in Pandua, built by Sultan Sikandar Shah in 1369, which incorporates Hindu temple elements like a corbelled roof and intricate terracotta panels. The co...

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 16th and 17th centuries, Portuguese privateers—often called 'firangis'—established fortified bases in the labyrinthine channels of the Sundarbans, raiding Mughal shipping, extorting local zamindars, and even selling captives to the Arakanese...

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 episode explores how Pratapaditya, once a vassal of the Mughals, built a powerful naval force on the rivers of the Sundarbans, minted his own coins, and forged alliances with the Portuguese and Arakanese. We trace his rebellion against Suba...

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 episode traces how Robert Clive and the East India Company systematically bled the city dry through extortion, puppet nawabs, and the milking of its treasury. We look at the fall of the Jagat Seth banking family, the looting of the Muradbagh Pala...

In the 1740s, Bengal was ravaged by annual Maratha cavalry raids that looted villages, disrupted trade, and depopulated vast areas. This episode explores the Bargi invasions under Bhaskar Pandit and Raghuji Bhonsle, the desperate defense by Nawab Alivardi Khan, and the long-term impact on Bengal's economy and society. We discuss the political vacuum after Mughal decline, the Maratha goal of extrac...

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 Luna explore how the Senas revived Hinduism after centuries of Buddhist Pala rule, built the iconic Dhakeshwari Temple, and lost everything to the invading Turkic general Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1205. We trace the rise of Vijaya Sena, the patrona...

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 Hooghly River — from their first factory in 1627 to the Battle of Chinsurah in 1759 — and how their obsession with pepper and opium was outmaneuvered by the English, the Nawabs, and one very stubborn Mughal governor. We meet directors, spies...

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 episode, Lucas and Luna uncover the story of the Saraswati River—its role as a conduit for commerce between the ancient port of Tamralipti and the rest of the subcontinent, its gradual silting, and the political shifts that followed. They discuss r...

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 of the salt satyagraha: the role of the Pathans and the man they called the Frontier Gandhi, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Born in the North-West Frontier Province, Ghaffar Khan forged an unlikely alliance with Bengali leaders and brought thousan...

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 existential threat: an invasion by the Lodi Afghan ruler Bahlul Lodi. We explore the little-known 1453 AD Battle of Mandaran, where Bengal's army, reinforced by Abyssinian slave soldiers and a novel camel-mounted artillery, repelled the Afghan invas...

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 imperial family: Prince Hasan, Akbar's own nephew, who defected to the Afghans and led a rebellion from his stronghold in Bhati. This episode of 'The Hidden History of Bengal' explores the little-known Prince Hasan rebellion (1581-1583), the...

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 failures that turned a drought into a catastrophe. We follow the path from the East India Company's land revenue demands under Warren Hastings to the collapse of the monsoon and the ensuing famine. We also examine the little-known Sannyasi...

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 end. This episode tells the story of Raja Rajaram, the last Hindu king of Bengal, who defied Mughal authority and paid with his life. We explore his capital at Kharagpur, the Bara Machhua fort, and the 'Bilashini' temple that still stands as a...

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 that church — from its founding during the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar, through its destruction by Shah Jahan's forces in 1632, to its rebuilding as a lasting monument. Along the way, Lucas and Luna explore the larger tale of Portuguese pres...

In 1763, two years after the British victory at Plassey, a massive army of Mughal loyalists, Afghan chieftains, and dispossessed zamindars marched on Calcutta. This is the story of the Battle of Giria — the last serious attempt by the Mughal Empire to reclaim Bengal from the East India Company. We explore the unlikely alliance between Mir Qasim, the displaced Nawab of Bengal, and Shah Alam II, the...

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 Luna journey into the world of Lalon Shah, the nineteenth-century mystic poet whose songs of love and equality defied religious orthodoxy. They discuss Lalon's subversive philosophy—rejecting temples, mosques, and caste—and his influence on Ra...

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 district of undivided Bengal. This episode traces the story of the Chittagong Armoury Raid, its leaders, and its aftermath. We discuss the Indian Republican Army, the sixteen-month guerrilla campaign in the jungles of the Chittagong Hill Tr...

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 Bengal's sovereignty by centralizing revenue, creating his own army, and making a desperate alliance with the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II and the Nawab of Awadh. We walk through the Battle of Buxar — the tactics, the betrayal by a key general, and t...

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 sacrifice, and associated with bandits and the wild landscape of the Sundarbans. This episode traces her transformation across centuries: how medieval Tantric texts adopted her, how the Mughal court encountered her cult, and how the 18th-century poe...

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 northern district of Rangpur. The Paik Rebellion, led by the peasant leader Titumir, was a violent uprising against the Company's oppressive land revenue policies and the zamindari system. This episode explores the social and economic co...

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 guardroom claiming 123 of their number had died overnight in what became known as the 'Black Hole of Calcutta.' But how many actually died? Was it an atrocity or a fabrication? In this episode of The Hidden History of Bengal, Lucas and Luna dig in...

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 followers at a remote temple dedicated to the goddess Kali, deep in the Sundarbans. The British called it a rebellion. But the locals called it a prophecy. This episode follows the story of the temple at Kalighat, its transformation from a sma...

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 follows the astonishing story of the Kani tribe and their leader, Khwaja Usman, who built a fortress at Kanungo and defied Emperor Jahangir's might. We explore how Usman forged alliances with the Baro-Bhuiyans, the Portuguese, and even the Ara...

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 across northern India, the Inland Customs Line was a dense barrier of prickly pear, thorn bushes, and armed guards, designed to enforce the hated salt tax. This episode follows the hedge from its construction under Lord George Eden to its aba...

In the early 20th century, as Bengal bristled with nationalist fervor, a quiet revolution was unfolding in a Calcutta art studio. Abanindranath Tagore, nephew of Rabindranath, rejected the Western academic style that had dominated Indian painting under the British Raj. Inspired by Mughal miniatures, Japanese wash techniques, and Ajanta cave murals, he pioneered the Bengal School of Art. This episo...