In this episode, we explore the history of Kanhoji Angre and his exploits in the Arabian Sea, particularly against the British East India Company. Angre and his sons are perhaps better known to history as the fierce and dangerous “Angria pirates” who plundered and murdered poor innocents on the Indian Seas. But was Kanhoji Angre a pirate as the Bri…

European pirates in the Indian Ocean were a menace for European East India trading companies as much as Indian rulers, the Mughals and the Marathas, of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In this episode, we discuss the life of pirates in the Indian Ocean and the companies that chased them, thinking of piracy as more than just thievery in the…

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'} She was a concubine, courtesan, wife, lover, warrior, leader, a Mughal noble, a British ally. She was Christian and Muslim. She threw grand parties that South Asians and Europeans alike were enamored with. In the nineteenth-century male-dominated world of South Asia, Begum Samru …

The act of men impersonating women has had a long history in the performance cultures of South Asia. Our understanding of these enactments in theater, dance, or in religious rituals has, however, remained marginal, often considering these in western modes as 'drag' while discounting complex issues of gendered gaze, sexuality, and social mores in wh…

Is she the great illusion or the gravest ignorance? Is she the destroyer of Mahisha or the avenger of the demonic twins Shumbha and Nishumbha? Is she Ambika, or Chandika, or Kali, or Parvati, or Mahamaya, or Durga? Who is Devi, the Great Goddess? Why did she drink alcohol and get inebriated? Did she eat people? In this episode, the different forms …

How did one cook fish in medieval South India? Was there an ideal woman for a king to marry? Were pedicures a thing? In this podcast, we discuss the 12th century treatise on all things pleasurable that was made available for royalty. Written by the erudite scholar king Someshwara III, Manasollasa, the encyclopedic work on kingship and pleasure, pro…

The history of Mehr-un-Nissa, the future Empress Nur Jahan, twentieth and last wife of Emperor Jahangir, is marked by intrigue, bravery, and everything in between. It is no wonder that the seventeenth-century life of Nur Jahan has been subject of both feminist interpretations and mythical readings. We have seen her in movies; she is a stock figure …

The history of the Government House, now the residence of the Governor of West Bengal, is a history of the British Empire in India condensed into 26 acres of land at the heart of the "white town" of Calcutta. Amongst its maidan, gardens, and cannons, the Government House stands tall in typical neoclassical fashion--conservative, traditional, and im…

Emperor Jahangir loved alcohol, opium, hunting (shikar), and, like all good South Asians, mangoes. His numerous experiences with all the above, his beloved wife Nur Jahan, his son, the future emperor Shah Jahan, and more were written down by him in his autobiography Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri. In this podcast, we discuss the colorful pleasure-seeking life o…

Pem Nem, a love story of longing, despair, and ultimate unification is discussed in this pod as an example of the multiculturalism of the Deccan Sultanate courts of the seventeenth …

Are there water fountains on the roof of the Rashtrapati Bhavan? Why is Mehrauli Park so green? Why is New Delhi called Lutyens' Delhi? Built at the beginning of the end of the British rule, from a symbol of imperial might to becoming India's beacon of hope to its present state as one of the most endangered heritage cities in the world, New Delhi's…

Did Tipu Sultan truly circumcise adult men to convert them into Muslims? Or, was he the generous benefactor of the Sringeri Matha, a Hindu monastery in the interiors of Karnataka? Why did he write down his dreams in such vivid and fanciful ways? Why did he hate the British so much? What is his connection to Bengaluru International Airport?! Tipu is…

In this initial episode of Masala History podcast, we review Santi Kavuri Bauer's book on post-Mughal identity of Mughal architecture in India, published by Duke University Press in 2011. We discuss the book's treatment of British, nationalist, and capitalist interests that have affected and continue to make an impact on some of India's most glorio…