Masala History Deepthi Murali and Manamee Guha

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 British said he was or was he India’s first freedom fighter?

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 seas.

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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 stood out, and purposely so. The Mughal emperor Shah Alam II depended on her as much as the British sometimes did. In this episode, we discuss the remarkable life of a woman leader who fought on the field and off it. Born in poverty, she died as one of the richest people in the subcontinent, Begum Samru's life and legacy is the topic of this podcast episode.

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 which these performances are embroiled. In this episode, Shilpa Menon breaks down the practice of female impersonation in South Asia providing us the history of the practice as well as its contemporary relevance, while presenting these practices as an important issue when considering rights of marginalized groups in India and other parts of the subcontinent.

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 of the great goddess within Hinduism is explored through the telling of the stories contained in the sixth-century scripture, Devi Mahatmya.

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, provides us with a glimpse into the society of Chalukya--their games, food, dress, and architecture.