Transcription
Bengal, which Ibn Battuta called the land of prosperity. The British translated it as Paradise. In the 16th century, the Dutch merchant Van Lindholn described it as the granary of the East. The land whose brilliance was such that it is said that whatever Bengal thinks today, the whole of India thinks 100 years later. Its history is filled with stories of kings, one of whom was accused of cutting down the tree under which Buddha attained enlightenment. The land where some British traders came and settled. They made two kings fight, had one murdered, and installed another on the throne. But the one who got the throne was called a donkey. The word 'Bang' in the national anthem was a feather of the golden bird, which the British began to pluck. Loot and plunder and the king's carriage raced across the country. It was from here that a bomb was also thrown at this carriage from the land of Bengal. An 18-year-old, passionate, courageous young man showed the country that even a simple gunpowder ball is a weapon. This vibrant, pulsating piece of land, embracing the most luminous forms of literature and art, shines like the moon. And then, spots appear on that same moon. This blemish occurred when the dream, envisioned by the 18-year-old boy who threw the bomb, was about to be realized. Why did this blemish appear? Because there were a handful of people, filled with street anger, who believed that India was not one country. It was a subcontinent. They felt that different colors could not exist in the same sheet. They wanted to create a separate country with their own color, so they called for direct action. The land of Calcutta turned red with blood. Their own people began to shed the blood of their own people, and while Delhi was immersed in the celebration of independence, this very place, Noakhali, was drowned in mourning. Therefore, the architect of the freedom struggle was not an old man in Delhi, wearing glasses and giving passionate speeches with a stick in his hand. He was applying balm to the wounds of Noakhali. But the land of Bengal does not only have stories of kings and queens. It has maestros of literature, saints of art, and rebels of thought. Rebels who wanted to create a revolution on the lines of China and Russia. At whose initiative China said, "This is the thunderclap of spring." So, Khabargaon is here with a new installment of storytelling, "Sonar Bangla," in which we will narrate the stories of Bengal's Alexanders, saints, and rebels, in the same style as our grandparents used to tell them. So, the first thread of these stories of Bengal opens on a day in the year 1204. Imagine, it's noon. In the palace of Nadia, the capital of Bengal, cooks are serving royal food. King Lakshman Sen has sat down at the dining table. He has just taken the first bite of dal and rice. As the taste registers on his tongue, a commotion arises outside the palace. The king asks his minister what is happening outside. The reply comes, "Nothing, Your Majesty. Just some horse traders have arrived." The king calmly continues to eat. But the next moment, the noise turns into screams. The clanging of swords is heard. The horse traders, cutting through the palace guards, enter. And King Lakshman Sen, who was a great ruler at that time, leaves his plate right there. He doesn't even have time to put on his slippers. He flees barefoot through the back door of the palace. He crosses the river in a boat. He flees towards East Bengal. And as he looks back from the middle of the river, he sees that his palace, his treasury, and his entire empire are gone. You will be surprised to know that it was not an army of lakhs that attacked that day. It was only 18 people. Yes. 18 horsemen, whose leader was a Turkish commander, Bakhtiyar Khilji. In history, this event is called the Nadia Raid, and this is where Islamic rule began in Bengal. But the story of Bengal is not just the story of a king's defeat or the victory of these 18 horsemen. It is a great puzzle. A puzzle as to why Alexander, who conquered the world, turned back from the borders of Bengal. When kings were made by the force of the sword all over the world, how did the common people of Bengal choose their king by voting? How did a fisherman revolt and overthrow a great emperor from his throne? And who were those pirates whose fear made people not even light lamps at night? Today, we will walk through those lanes of history. We will hear the story of the land that Aurangzeb called Jannat-ul-Bilad and which the British plundered as the golden bird. Namaste, I am Nikhil, and you are watching Khabargaon's brand new presentation, Sonar Bangla, in which today we will learn the complete truth of Bengal's glorious and tumultuous history that gave birth to these mysteries. Historian Nitish Sengupta, in his book "Land of Two Rivers," writes that the history of Bengal is actually the history of its rivers. When rivers change, capitals change. When rivers dry up, cities become desolate. So, let's turn the wheels of time back a bit. About 1500 years before 1204 AD, when Bengal was not Bengal, but was divided into different parts. What we know today as West Bengal and Bangladesh. If you consider undivided Bengal, its map in ancient times was not like that. It was divided into different Janapadas. In the north was Pundravardhana. In the west was Gauda. In the east was Vanga, or Vanga. And on the seashore, Samatata. These will sound like heavy names, but you have to remember them because much blood will be shed for these names later. Let's start the story. From 326 BC, Alexander the Great, crushing the world, arrived in India. After defeating Porus, his army stood on the banks of the river Beas. Alexander's dream was to reach the easternmost end of the East, i.e., present-day Bengal. But then a very strange incident happened. His world-conquering army went on strike. The soldiers refused to take a single step forward. Why? Greek historians Plutarch and Diodorus give a very interesting reason for this. They had learned that across the Ganges River, there was a very powerful empire, which they called Ganga-Riddai, and this Ganga-Riddai was none other than ancient Bengal. According to Greek writers, the king there had 4000 fierce war elephants, and Alexander's soldiers were already scared of Porus's few elephants. Imagine, they came from Europe. They had never seen such a large animal, and one that fought. So, when they learned that there were 4000 war elephants ahead, their courage failed. That is, you can now gauge the strength of that land from which even a warrior like Alexander retreated due to the fear of its army. Centuries passed. The Mauryas came, the Guptas came, and they also left. Bengal remained divided into small feudatories. And then, in the seventh century, from the ashes of the Gupta empire, a new sun rose, named Shashanka. Historians like R.C. Majumdar consider him the first sovereign king of Bengal. That is, the first person who said, "I will not pay taxes to anyone. I am my own king." Shashanka made Gauda his power base and Karnasuvarna, which is present-day Murshidabad, his capital. He was so ambitious that he expanded from Bengal to Odisha and then towards North India. But his ambition brought him face to face with the greatest king of that era, Harshavardhana. The enmity between Shashanka and Harshavardhana is recorded in the pages of history. We are talking about documented history. Banabhatta even called Shashanka "Gaudadhama," meaning wicked. The Chinese traveler Xuanzang accused Shashanka of cutting down the Bodhi tree under which Buddha attained enlightenment. He was Buddha. Although this statement does not seem entirely true, because during Shashanka's reign, the Raktamrittika Mahavihara near his capital flourished. Anyway, as long as Shashanka lived, he kept Bengal like an iron wall. But in 637 AD, he died, and Bengal's fate was sealed. What happened in Bengal after Shashanka's departure is called Matsya Nyaya in political science. Matsya means fish, and Nyaya means law in Sanskrit. What is the rule of a pond? The big fish eats the small fish. Bengal became like that. The Khalimpur copper plate tells us that in that era, every man who had a stick in his hand was a king, and this anarchy lasted not for one year, two years, or one or two decades, but for a full century. When the water went over their heads, the people of Bengal did what was an example for the whole world at that time. The chieftains and common people there called a meeting. They decided that they had to stop fighting amongst themselves, or they would all be destroyed. So, they decided to elect a capable person from among themselves as king. And when voting took place for this, they did not choose the son of a king, but an ordinary general's son, Gopala. This was perhaps the first democratic election in Indian history, and thus, in 750 AD, the Pal dynasty was founded in Bengal. We called it the first democracy because in Vaishali and the Mahajanapadas, where you find republics, there was no direct voting system or anything close to it. They were republics. Democracy is something else. Let's return to the Pal dynasty. Gopala ended the anarchy, and his son Dharmapala made Bengal so powerful that he was called the Lord of the North. Universities like Nalanda and Vikramshila were built during this period. But as happens with every empire, the Pal dynasty also gradually weakened. The kings became autocratic. Let's come to the 11th century. The king was Mahipala II. He was an arrogant ruler who liked to imprison his own brothers. He thought the subjects were slaves, what could they do? But the Kaivarta community of North Bengal, who were fishermen and farmers, proved the king wrong. Their leader, Divya, raised the flag of rebellion, and this was the first successful peasant revolt in India. A fisherman defeated the king's vast army, and Mahipala was killed. After Divya, his nephew Bhima became king. Bhima was loved by the people. Even today, people in Dinajpur, Bengal, call the old ruins Bhima's Dam. But this king of the people did not last long. Ramapala, Mahipala's brother, who had escaped from prison, sought help from the kings of the South and brought them with him. Then a terrible war ensued. Bhima fought bravely but could not win. Ramapala brutally murdered him and his family. Ramapala rebuilt the Pal dynasty. He also founded a new city, Ramavati, but the foundation of the empire had been shaken. It never reached its former glory. The Pal dynasty continued to decline, and new people from South India kept coming to occupy this falling house. Who were these people? These were the people who called themselves Brahmakshatriyas. We are talking about the Sena dynasty, and it was during their reign that Bengal's society would be divided into castes, then the Kulin system would come there, and then that day of 1204 would arrive, when the king would flee leaving his food due to the fear of 18 horsemen. But let's take a look here at how Buddhism flourished during the reign of the Pal dynasty. How almost every Pal king contributed to the advancement of Buddhism. During their reign, the Pal kings built many places that were very effective in spreading Buddhism. In the coming times, Mahasthan Garh Trikutaka Vasu Vihara was built in Bogra, which is in present-day Bangladesh. In Naogaon, which is now in Assam, but was then Bengal, Somapura Mahavihara was constructed. Pandit Vihara in Chittagong and Sitakot Vihara in Dinajpur were established. So, the Pal dynasty played a significant role in reviving Buddhist culture throughout Bengal. They provided many resources. The establishment of Vikramshila University was also done by the Pal king Dharmapala, which was a great center of learning for about 400 years. Dharmapala even desired to spread Buddhism outside India through Vikramshila University. And on the copper plates of this regime, found during excavations, you will find invocations to the name of Gautam Buddha. Historian R.C. Majumdar writes about the spread of Buddhism during the Pal dynasty that for about 400 years, their court remained the last stronghold of that declining religion in India. Because of this, the Pal kings had an important place in the international Buddhist world. They preserved the source of later Buddhism, from which currents flowed to Tibet in the north and the Indian islands in the southeast. Now let's move to the Sena dynasty. With the setting sun of the Pal dynasty, a new star began to shine in the Bengal sky. And this star came not from the East, but from the South. Some people from Karnataka in South India came to Bengal, perhaps in search of jobs or with the army of some king. These people called themselves Brahmakshatriyas, meaning those who were both Brahmins and warriors. One of these families captured the throne of Bengal and became famous in history as the Sena dynasty. The Sena kings did not just change Bengal by the force of the sword, but also greatly influenced the structure of society. The story begins with Vijaya Sena, who took advantage of the weakness of the Pal kings and established his roots firmly in Bengal. But the most talked-about figure of this dynasty was his son, Ballala Sena. Ballala Sena was not just a king, but also a scholar. He wrote books like Dana Sagara and Adbhuta Sagara. But history remembers him less for his books and more for a particular system. Which system? The system that has influenced Bengal's society to this day, and the name of that system was the Kulin system. Ballala Sena decided that there should be a strict hierarchy in society. He investigated the gotras and lineages of Brahmins, Vaidyas, and Kayasthas. Those who were found to be the purest in conduct and thought were given the status of Kulin, or high-born. It was said that a Kulin person should marry his daughter into a Kulin family. Now, this rule might seem simple to you, but its effect was terrible. Nitish Sengupta writes in his book that this practice made Bengal a closed society. The demand for Kulin grooms increased so much that one Kulin Brahmin would marry 50, 60, and sometimes even 100-100 times. Many girls were married off to old Kulin men to save the family's honor. Society continued to be divided into castes. Bengal, which was once connected to the world, now became a frog in a well, entangled in its own rules. And this Kulin system became so dominant in Bengali society that various legends arose. One such unverified story is that once someone offered gold to Ballala Sena. But Ballala Sena, considering the gold brick or whatever jewelry it was, impure, threw it away. Why? Because the person who gave the gift belonged to the Sonar (goldsmith) caste. Now, according to Ballala Sena's strict criteria, this caste was considered lower at that time. The second part of the story is that after Sena threw away the gold, the Sonar caste's status became like that of Shudras. One thing our viewers should note is that this language of high and low, superior and inferior, should be viewed in its historical context. This is a story from a particular time. Khabargaon does not endorse these views. Anyway, while society was dividing internally, the Sena court was also celebrating culture. Ballala Sena's son, Lakshmana Sena, ascended the throne. He was the king we mentioned in the introduction. Lakshmana Sena was a very powerful king of his time. He unfurled his victory flag in Puri, Kashi, and Allahabad, or rather, present-day Prayagraj. His court had great poets like Jayadeva, who composed the Gita Govinda, and this era is considered the golden period of Sanskrit literature. But now the scene is also that the lamp flickers most just before it goes out. Lakshmana Sena had grown old. His capital, Nadia, was a large, peaceful city on the banks of the Ganges. Now the king felt safe. But he did not know that a storm was waiting for him in the forests of Bihar, and that storm was Ikhtiyar-ud-din Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khilji. Now, Bakhtiyar Khilji was not a prince. He was an ordinary man from the warm regions of Afghanistan. Charles Stewart, in his book "History of Bengal," describes his appearance in an interesting way. He was short in stature, with very long arms, so long that when he stood upright, they reached below his knees. His appearance was such that the Sultans of Ghazni and Delhi refused to recruit him into their armies. Tired and disheartened, he started working for the governor of Badaun. Then he was granted a small jagir near Mirzapur. But Bakhtiyar had very big dreams. He gathered some fighters and started looting around Bihar. He attacked the fort of Bihar. Then thousands of people there were tonsured. Bakhtiyar killed them all, and when he saw the library there, he realized that the fort he thought he had conquered was actually a Buddhist monastery. We are talking about Udantapuri. The place got its name Bihar from this very word "Vihara." After conquering Bihar, Bakhtiyar's gaze fell on Bengal. But conquering Bengal was not easy. The rivers of Bengal and its navy had the power to stop any foreign force. The courtiers and astrologers of Lakshmana Sena had also warned the king. They said that old texts mention that a Turk will come who will conquer Bengal. Lakshmana Sena asked for his identification. The astrologers said he would have long arms. Bakhtiyar's arms were indeed very long, and he was famous for this. Out of fear, many courtiers and merchants started packing their belongings and fleeing. But Lakshmana Sena refused to flee. He did strengthen his security, especially on the Teliagarhi route, which was the main entry point into Bengal from Bihar. But Bakhtiyar Khilji and his advisors were very cunning. In the year 1204, some historians also say it was 1202 or 1203. In this year, Bakhtiyar did what no one expected. Lakshmana Sena certainly did not. He did not come with his army via the direct route. He chose an extremely difficult route through the dense forests and mountains of Jharkhand, and this route was so difficult that the story says the entire army was left behind in the process. When Bakhtiyar reached the gates of Nadia city, he had only 17 or 18 horsemen with him. It is written. He told his soldiers not to draw their weapons, to remain calm. The palace guards saw them. They thought they were horse traders who had come to sell horses at the court, so the gate was opened. Bakhtiyar and his 18 companions entered the palace unhindered, and then what we mentioned at the beginning happened. It was afternoon. Lakshmana Sena was eating. Suddenly, instead of "Har Har Mahadev," foreign slogans were heard. Bakhtiyar's soldiers drew their swords and cut down the guards right there. Minhaj-i-Siraj, a historian of the Delhi Sultanate, writes in his book "Tabaqat-i-Nasiri" that by the time Lakshmana Sena understood what was happening, the attackers had already entered. The king fled barefoot through the back door and then escaped by boat towards East Bengal. A little later, Bakhtiyar's remaining army arrived there. Thus, Nadia was captured, and Lakshmana Sena spent the rest of his life as a minor king in East Bengal. West Bengal and the Radh region were lost to him forever and remained so. Historians still debate whether it was indeed 18 people who conquered Bengal. Now, a simple answer to this is, no, this is...
There were 18 people, they were shock troops. Their job was to create chaos and end the king's leadership. They succeeded in this, and as soon as the king fled, his army's morale also plummeted. And this victory was not of weapons, but a victory of surprise and psychological pressure. After that, Bakhtiyar's army came there again. After looting Nadia, Bakhtiyar abandoned it and made Lakhnauti, i.e., the fort, his capital. Bakhtiyar then built mosques here, opened madrasas, and laid the foundation of Islamic rule in Bengal. But the story does not end here. Bakhtiyar Khilji's ambition also led to his downfall. They thought that if Bengal could be conquered with 18 people, then the whole world could be conquered now. They then made the insane decision to attack Tibet. They marched into the Himalayas with an army of 10,000. But the mountainous paths, the cold, and the guerrilla attacks by the local people made their condition dire. Bridges were destroyed. Supply lines were cut, and Bakhtiyar had to kill and eat his army's horses. They somehow managed to escape and returned to Bengal. But this defeat had broken them. They fell ill and eventually, one of their own generals, Ali Mardan, murdered him. It is said that Ali Mardan plunged a dagger into the stomach of the sick Bakhtiyar, who was covered with a sheet. Thus, just as Bakhtiyar conquered Bengal with the sword, so did Bakhtiyar meet his end by the sword. But after Bakhtiyar's death, certain events occurred in Bengal that history could never reverse, because Bengal now became an arena for the Delhi Sultanate and its rebellious governors. After the death of Bakhtiyar Khilji, the distance between Bengal and Delhi increased. By the time the Sultan sitting in Delhi reached Bengal with his army, the governor here would have already become a rebel. As soon as the rains arrived, the routes would be closed. There are very large rivers there, and the Delhi army, defeated by the mud and mosquitoes, would return every time. The Delhi historian Ziauddin Barani, in frustration, even renamed Bengal as Bulgapur, which means the city of rebels. This hide-and-seek continued for about 100-10 years. Sometimes Delhi would win. Sometimes the rebels of Bengal would win. But then a man came who united these scattered pieces and made a country. In the year 1342, when Muhammad bin Tughluq was in trouble in Delhi, an ambitious governor named Haji Ilyas in Bengal took full advantage of the opportunity. At that time, Bengal was divided into three parts: Lakhnauti, Satgaon, and Sonargaon. Ilyas conquered all three one by one with the power of the sword and diplomacy and declared himself Shah Bangla in 1352. Historian Nitesh Sen Gupta states that this was a very significant event because Ilyas gave this entire region a single linguistic and geographical identity for the first time. This is where the word Bengali originated, and the people of Bengal also began to consider themselves a nation. We are saying Bengali, not Bangla. Obviously, Delhi could not tolerate this. It did not. Sultan Firuz Shah Tughluq arrived in Bengal with a very large army. But Ilyas Shah was very cunning. Instead of fighting a pitched battle, he shut himself up in a fort called Ikdala. This fort was like an island, surrounded by water. Firuz Shah laid siege for months. He built fortifications, but the rains and mosquitoes of Bengal made his army sick. And finally, Tughluq had to make a compromise. He returned to Delhi. And thus, Bengal became independent from Delhi. Now, with independence, the Ilyas Shahi dynasty flourished. But at the beginning of the 15th century, a strange game of thrones began in the court. The power of a Hindu landlord named Raja Ganesha had greatly increased. Ganesha was a wealthy landlord of Bhaturia, who had sensed the weakness of the Sultans. He first infiltrated court politics. He conspired to have Sultan Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah killed and then became the real power behind the throne. The limit was reached when he shed his disguise and sat on the throne with the title of Chakravarti in an Islamic Sultanate. After 200 years of Muslim rule, the presence of a Hindu king on the throne was unacceptable to the orthodox Mullas and Sufi saints of Bengal. A prominent Sufi saint of that time, Noor Qutb Alam, wrote a letter to the Sultan of Jaunpur, Ibrahim Sharqi, stating that Islam is in danger and asking him to come to Bengal. Now Ibrahim Sharqi also came to Bengal with his army. Raja Ganesha was in a terrible predicament. On one side, an external attack; on the other, internal rebellion. Then Ganesha made a historic agreement. He fell at the feet of Saint Noor Qutb Alam and said that he was ready to give up the throne, but on the condition that his son would become king. The saint said that your son is a Hindu. Then Ganesha replied that he would also become a Muslim. A deal was struck. Ganesha's son Jadu became a Muslim overnight, and then his name was changed to Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah. Ibrahim Sharqi returned. But as soon as the danger passed, Raja Ganesha had his son reconverted to Hinduism through purification and sat on the throne himself again. However, after Ganesha's death, his son Jalaluddin became a Muslim again, and this time he became a Muslim of his own volition. Jalaluddin was a very interesting king. A son of Hindu parents in the history of Bengal, but a Muslim ruler. Yet, he gave high positions to Hindus in his court. During his reign, the Ramayana was written in the Bengali language, and this was a significant beginning for Bengal's composite culture. The wheel of time turned, and in 1493, the Hussain Shahi dynasty came to the throne of Bengal, which is also called the Golden Period of Bengal. Sultan Alauddin Hussain Shah was of Arab origin but Bengali at heart. He understood that to rule, one had to rise above religion because the population was Hindu. His ministers, his generals, his bodyguards were all Hindus, and he greatly promoted Bengali literature. He gave grants. People loved him so much that they also called him Draupadi Tilak and Jagat Bhushan. But amidst this peace and prosperity, a voice arose from the streets of Nadia that awakened the soul of Bengal. In that era, untouchability was at its peak in Hindu society, and then a fair-skinned young man named Nimai emerged, whom the world later came to know as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Chaitanya did not wield any sword. He just took a mridangam and went out onto the streets. He said that there is no need for Sanskrit verses to attain God. Just chant God's name and dance. This was called Sankirtan. It was a revolution, and his kirtans included Brahmins, Shudras, other sections of Hindu society, and even Muslims. He broke down the walls of caste and religion and gave a new sweetness to the Bengali language. What you call Bengali culture today, what you understand as Bengali culture, its foundation was laid in the era of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Hussain Shah. Everything was going well. Bengal was rich, and its culture was flourishing. But in the west, a major change was happening on the throne of Delhi. An invader named Babur had come to India from Kabul, and the Mughals had their eyes on Bengal's treasury. And it wasn't just the Mughals; another danger was lurking in the rivers of Bengal: Portuguese pirates. How the Mughals tried their best to conquer Bengal, and how the landlords of Bengal made an emperor like Akbar sweat for years, we will learn in the next part. After the Hussain Shahi dynasty, the game of power began again in Bengal. But this time the players were not the old ones. A new storm was coming from the west, which the world knew as the Mughals. But before the arrival of the Mughals, Bengal also saw a lion who, for a short time, drove the Mughals out of India, and that lion was Sher Shah Suri. Sher Shah Suri was a remarkable person. Rising from the jagirdari of Bihar, he captured the throne of Delhi. He defeated the Mughal emperor Humayun so badly in the battles of Chausa and Kannauj that Humayun fled to Iran to save his life. Now these Sher Shahs had great affection for Bengal. They built the famous road from Sonargaon in Bengal to Peshawar, which we call the GT Road. The Grand Trunk Road was later named by the British. He tightened the administrative system of Bengal so much that the saying went, even an old woman carrying a basket full of gold at night would not dare to touch it by any thief. This was the law and order during Sher Shah Suri's time. But after Sher Shah's death, the grip of the Afghans loosened. In 1576, the Battle of Rajmahal took place, and Akbar's Mughal army defeated Daud Khan Karrani, the last Afghan Sultan of Bengal. Now Akbar thought that Bengal was conquered. He sent his most capable generals like Todar Mal and Man Singh to Bengal again, and in Mughal documents, Bengal was written as a Subah. But there is a big difference between conquering on paper and conquering on the ground. The Mughals soon realized that Bengal was not like their other conquests. Abul Fazl wrote in the Akbarnama that the Mughal army found Bengal a nightmare. There was humidity in the air, the land was marshy, and rivers cut across the path every other mile. The heavy horses and cannons of the Mughals, the artillery they brought, were made for the firm plains of North India, not for the soft soil of Bengal, which turned into mud with a little rain. And hidden in this mud and network of rivers were the greatest enemies of the Mughals: the 12 Bhuiyans or 12 Bhuyans. From Bhuyan, you must understand that these were not a single king, but an alliance of 12 big landlords and chieftains from Eastern Bengal, i.e., the Bhatti region. Bhuiyan means one who has land. Among them were Hindus and Muslims, but their objective was the same: they would not become slaves of Delhi. And the leader of these 12 Bhuiyans was Isa Khan. Isa Khan's name still echoes in the folk songs of Bengal. Sonargaon was his capital. He was a great diplomat. When the Mughal army was overpowering, he would make treaties, send gifts, and say that he was a loyal man. And as soon as the Mughal army turned back or the rainy season arrived, they would become independent again and start attacking Mughal outposts. Akbar changed governors one after another. Munim Khan came, Khan Jahan came, Shahbaz Khan came. All tried their best, but no one had a solution for Isa Khan. The story is so famous that once Akbar's greatest commander, Raja Man Singh, and Isa Khan came face to face. They had a sword fight. Man Singh's sword broke. Isa Khan could have taken Man Singh's life, but he gave his sword to Man Singh. And Man Singh was so impressed by this bravery that an unspoken respect was established between them. Although historians consider this duel a mere anecdote, not a part of documented history, it shows the stature of Isa Khan. Isa Khan and his companions, like Kedar Rai and Pratapaditya, managed to keep an emperor as powerful as Akbar away from complete control over Bengal for about 30 years. The Mughals' problems were not just on land; they were also on water. There are many rivers in Bengal, and there were many crocodiles in those rivers. But even more dangerous was another creature swimming there: the Portuguese pirates, called Harmats in the local language. Perhaps it was a corruption from the Spanish Armada. The Portuguese came in the early 16th century under the guise of trade but soon resorted to looting. They had control over the ports of Chittagong and Hooghly, and they were supported by the Mag bandits from Arakan (Myanmar). Now, the alliance of these two was so terrifying that in the riverside villages of Eastern Bengal, people did not light lamps at night, fearing that the pirates would come seeing the light. These pirates would attack villages, loot, and the most horrifying thing was that they would abduct people, children, and women. They would take them away in chains and sell them as slaves in the Deccan or other countries. The French traveler Bernier wrote that the pirates would kill old people on the spot because they wouldn't be sold. But they would torture young people very badly. It was a double trouble for the Mughals. Rebels like Isa Khan on land and Portuguese pirates on water. Akbar tried his best throughout his life to pacify Bengal, but he could not. When Akbar died in 1605, a large part of Bengal, especially the Bhatti region, was still outside Mughal rule. It was free. The task of bringing Bengal completely under Mughal control was accomplished during the reign of Akbar's son Jahangir. In 1608, Jahangir sent a very strict and intelligent governor, Islam Khan Chishti. Now Islam Khan understood that Bengal would be conquered by boats, not horses. He prepared a large navy for the Mughals. Then he deployed gunmen on boats. Islam Khan also played another trick. He moved the capital from Rajmahal, which was on the Bihar border, to Dhaka, in the heart of Bengal. This is how Dhaka became the capital. Now Dhaka was surrounded by rivers, and it was relatively easy to keep an eye on the rebels from here. Amidst all this chaos, Dhaka's name changed. A new name emerged: Jahangir Nagar. Now, after doing all this, Islam Khan continued his work. The alliance of the Barahbhuiyans had to be broken. So what did he do? He won some over with diplomacy, and those who did not come, he crushed. By 1612, Isa Khan had died, and his son Musa Khan surrendered. Then Usman Khan, the last Afghan chieftain, was also killed. Finally, after decades of struggle, Bengal became a part of the Mughal Empire. Now the law of Delhi began to operate in Dhaka. Some peace also came. Trade increased, and in this atmosphere of peace, Bengal's fate turned once again because a new city named Murshidabad was about to be founded, and a man was coming as the Subahdar who was loyal to the Mughals but made Bengal so economically powerful that Delhi became indebted to him. We are talking about Murshid Quli Khan. The person after whom Murshidabad is named and who initiated the Nawab period of Bengal. But was this Nawab period truly a period of freedom, and how did the family of Jagat Seth, the world's richest bankers, get involved in this politics? Let's find out now. Now the Mughals had conquered Bengal, but it was not easy to manage. The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb needed a lot of money for his battles in South India, and this money could only come from one place where trade was flourishing: Bengal. In the year 1700 AD, Aurangzeb sent a man to Bengal who was an expert in accounts, not in wielding a sword. And this person's name was Murshid Quli Khan. Now Murshid Quli Khan's story is also quite cinematic. He was a Deccan Brahmin by birth, but in childhood, he was bought by an Iranian merchant and converted to Islam. His talent brought him to the Mughal court, and when he came to Bengal, he saw that the money here was going into the pockets of corrupt officials. As soon as he arrived, he first reined in the landlords and moved the capital from Dhaka to a new place on the banks of the Ganges, which he named after himself: Murshidabad. Murshid Quli Khan greatly strengthened Bengal's economy. So much so that crores of rupees were sent to Delhi every year in bullock carts. We are talking about crores of that period. Historians say that Bengal's money alone kept Aurangzeb's declining empire alive in those days. Murshid Quli Khan brought peace to Bengal. But he also gave birth to another power that would make and break kings in the coming times, and this power was the Jagat Seth family. The Jagat Seth family was from Marwar, Rajasthan. The head was Manikchand. But real fame came to his nephew, Fatehchand. Fatehchand became Murshid Quli Khan's right-hand man. In the coming times, he was the royal treasurer, and he had so much money that people said he could build a wall of gold in the Ganges. The Delhi emperor called him Jagat Seth. This is where the word World Bank came from. Jagat Seth's house was the central bank of that era. The British, French, and Dutch all had to take loans from them for trade. Their hundis, or checks, or hawala, were valid throughout India. This means Bengal was now not just for Nawabs but also for merchants and bankers. After Murshid Quli Khan, his son-in-law Shujauddin and then his grandson Sarfaraz Khan ruled, but Sarfaraz proved weak. In 1740, an ambitious Naib Nazim of Bihar, Ali Vardi Khan, rebelled. Sarfaraz was killed in the Battle of Giria, and Ali Vardi Khan became the Nawab of Bengal. Ali Vardi was a very capable and brave ruler, but his luck was very bad. As soon as he ascended the throne, Bengal was struck by a calamity whose terror is still heard in Bengal's lullabies. This calamity was called the Bargi. Bargi refers to Maratha horsemen. Raghoji Bhosle, the ruler of Nagpur, had sent his general Bhaskar Pandit to Bengal. Now their objective was not to rule. They just wanted to collect Chauth. Ali Vardi Khan showed great bravery. He was old but did not dismount his horse. He defeated the Marathas many times, but the Marathas were a rising sun, so they would come with a new army every time. They fought a kind of guerrilla warfare. Their methods were very new, and finally, tired and defeated, Ali Vardi Khan had to make a treaty with the Marathas in 1751. He gave the province of Orissa to the Marathas and agreed to pay an annual Chauth of ₹1 lakh. This Bargi attack broke Bengal from within. Villages became desolate. Trade came to a standstill. Mothers in Bengal started singing songs to put their children to sleep: "Khokha ghuma lo, pada jura lo, Bargi elo deshe." Meaning, the child has slept, the neighborhood is quiet, the Bargis have come to the country. While Ali Vardi Khan was fighting the Marathas, another danger was quietly spreading its wings. And you can easily guess this danger: the British. In Kolkata, the East India Company had started fortifying its factory. They built a large ditch, using the fear of the Marathas as an excuse, which was called the Maratha Ditch. Ali Vardi Khan did not trust the British. He gave his grandson and heir, Siraj-ud-Daulah, one piece of advice as he was dying: "Keep an eye on these European nations. Like honeybees, if you don't disturb them, they will give honey. But if you disturb them, they will sting you to death." In 1756, at the age of 80, Ali Vardi Khan died, and the throne of Bengal was occupied by the 23-year-old young man, Mir Muhammad Siraj-ud-Daulah. You know the rest of the story. Siraj, a young man, hot-tempered, overconfident in his strength, did not like it at all that the British were flouting their own laws while staying in his country. He saw that the British were fortifying Kolkata. He forbade them, but the British did not obey. Now young Siraj's blood boiled. He attacked Kolkata with a large army and on June 20, 1756, he conquered the British Fort William. Governor Drake and other Englishmen fled through the back window in a boat, and Siraj renamed Kolkata as Alinagar and returned to Murshidabad, celebrating his victory. But Siraj made a big mistake. He did not kill the snake; he left it wounded. When an English officer in Madras received the news of Kolkata's defeat, he prepared his army, and this person's name was Robert Clive. Clive knew that it would be difficult to defeat Siraj on the battlefield. You cannot defeat him in a direct fight. Therefore, Clive chose the path that led directly to Jagat Seth's drawing-room. What followed was the biggest conspiracy in history. A conspiracy in which a Nawab was betrayed by his own people. What happened in the garden of Plassey? And how a trick of a red paper and a white paper pushed India into 200 years of slavery. This is the story of the day when India's future was decided not by swords but by the deceit of a red and white paper. But let's pause here and tell you a story related to Siraj-ud-Daulah's personal life. Siraj's mother's name was Amina Begum. In her court, there was a girl named Raj Kunwar. She was a maid, young, beautiful, simple, and innocent. Due to her nature and beauty, she was much discussed in Amina Begum's court. When Siraj used to visit Amina Begum, he would look at Raj Kunwar and, with time, became attracted to her. This matter went beyond the walls of the court. Various discussions started, saying that the heir of the Nawab's family had his heart set on a maid. Such gossip was considered a disgrace even then. But why would the Nawab care about it? He mentioned this matter to his mother one day and asked for the girl for himself. Amina Begum agreed. Siraj-ud-Daulah decided that he would marry that girl, but the girl was Hindu. So, first, the girl's religion was converted, and then she was given the name Lutf-un-Nisa. Then he married her. Lutf-un-Nisa became the Nawab's second wife, but her status was always the highest. After the Nawab's marriage, let's return to the conspiracy. The air in Murshidabad was thick with conspiracy. Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah felt that he had achieved a great victory by driving the British out of Kolkata. But he had no idea that the real war had just begun. Robert Clive had returned to Bengal with his army from Madras and had recaptured Kolkata. But Clive knew very well that Siraj-ud-Daulah had an army of 5,000, while the British had only a handful of soldiers and could not win in a direct confrontation. Therefore, Clive chose the path that led not from the battlefield but from the drawing-room of the richest man in Murshidabad, Jagat Seth. What happened was that at that time, the Jagat Seth family was very angry with Siraj. It is said that once in a full court, Siraj slapped Jagat Seth Mehtab Chand, and the world's greatest banker could not forget this insult. On the other hand, the Nawab's chief commander, Mir Jafar, also hated Siraj because Siraj had removed him and preferred Mir Madan. The British found these disgruntled people. Clive made a direct offer to Mir Jafar: "Leave the Nawab's side, join us. In return, we will give you Bengal. We will make you the Nawab." Now, Mir Jafar's eyes sparkled. A deal was struck. But there was an obstacle in this deal: Omich. Omich, or Amir Chand, was a Sikh merchant who acted as a mediator between the Nawab and the British. He got wind of this secret conspiracy. He tried to blackmail Clive. He said that if you don't give me 5% of the Nawab's treasury, which was 30 lakh at that time, I will go and leak the plan to Siraj. The ground slipped from under the British's feet. If Siraj had found out, the game of both Clive and Mir Jafar would have been over. They had an army of 500. Then Robert Clive played a trick. He prepared two agreement papers. One on white paper, one on red paper. Now, the white paper was the real one, on which the condition of Mir Jafar becoming the Nawab was written. But Omich or Amir Chand's 5% commission was not mentioned. The red paper was fake, on which the 5% commission condition was written to appease Omich. Clive showed the fake paper to Omich and kept the real paper in his pocket. An English Admiral, Watson, refused to sign this lie. So Clive forged Watson's signature. Now Omich thought his old age was secured, but he didn't know that he himself had been sold. Date: June 23, 1757. Place: Plassey. On the banks of the Bhagirathi, there was a large garden of mango trees. On one side, Siraj-ud-Daulah's army of 5,000 soldiers, large cannons; on the other, Clive had only an army of 3,000. On paper, the battle was the Nawab's, wasn't it? At 8:00 AM, the cannons roared. Siraj's loyal commanders, Mir Madan and Mohan Lal, wreaked havoc on the British. The British retreated. They even had to hide behind the mango trees. But then, in the afternoon, dark clouds gathered in the sky, and it rained heavily. Siraj's army had not made arrangements to cover their gunpowder, so all their gunpowder got wet, and the cannons became useless. On the other hand, the British were prepared for this bad weather. They had covered their gunpowder with tarpaulins. As soon as the rain stopped, Mir Madan thought that the British guns must also be wet, so he advanced with his cavalry, but the British unleashed a volley of bullets. Mir Madan was shot and died on the spot. Siraj panicked. He called his chief commander, Mir Jafar. Then he took off his turban, placed it at Mir Jafar's feet, and said, "Brother Syed, the honor of Bengal is now in your hands." Mir Jafar placed his hand on the Quran and swore that he would fight till his last breath. He told Siraj, "It is evening now. Stop the fight. Call the army back to the camp. Tomorrow morning, I will launch an attack." Siraj was swayed by his words. He ordered the army to retreat. This was the moment Clive was waiting for. As soon as Siraj's army turned its back, Mir Jafar gave the signal. The British attacked from behind. But the most horrific scene was what the rest of the Nawab's army witnessed. A large part of Siraj's army, whose commanders were Mir Jafar and Rai Durlabh, did not move an inch from their positions. They stood like statues and watched the scene of destruction, and an army of 5,000 lost to an army of 3,000 because its commander was sold to the enemy. By evening, the battlefield of Plassey was in the hands of the British. Siraj-ud-Daulah understood that he had been bitten by his own people. So he got on a camel and fled towards the capital Murshidabad, and from there, taking his wife, his beloved Lutf-un-Nisa, he set off in a boat towards Patna. But misfortune did not leave him. Near Rajmahal, he felt hungry. He went to a fakir's hut to ask for food, and ironically, this was the same fakir whose ears Siraj had cut off as punishment for some mistake. The fakir recognized Siraj and betrayed him. Siraj was caught again. He was brought back to Murshidabad. Mir Jafar's son, Miran, had him brutally murdered, and the next morning, Siraj-ud-Daulah's body was paraded on an elephant through the streets of Murshidabad so that people would know that their Nawab was no more. The Begums who were killed with the Nawab also met their end. 70 women from the Nawab's court were murdered. Only one Begum's life was saved. The one whose beauty Siraj was infatuated with. After sparing Lutf-un-Nisa, both Mir Jafar and his eldest son Miran sent her marriage proposals. Karam Ali, in "The Muzaffarnama of Karam Ali," writes that Lutf-un-Nisa rejected both marriage proposals, saying, "I have already ridden an elephant; now I will not marry a donkey." Why would she say "donkey"? You will find out later. After Siraj's murder, Robert Clive took Mir Jafar's hand and led him to the throne. Mir Jafar became the Nawab, but in history, he became infamous as Clive's donkey, Clive Jacques, and he gave so much money to the British that Bengal's treasury was emptied. And when Omich found out that he had been tricked with a red paper and would not get a single penny, he went mad with shock and died within a few years. The defeat at Plassey did not just change one Nawab; it changed the history of India. The Bengal that the world called Paradise, from there began a period of looting that sucked India dry for the next 190 years. A poet said so beautifully about that day: "What complaint can we have from strangers when our own were traitors? In that garden of Plassey, the whole world was sold." What happened next in that world? This story will be in the next episode of Shonar Bangla. The story you have heard and seen so far was written by Kamal and Akash together, and this beautiful frame you are seeing was put together by Nivedita and Irshad. Please tell us in the comment box how you liked the first episode of Shonar Bangla. We are waiting for your suggestions, and please also tell us about any other stories related to Bengal that you would like us to tell you. Thank you.