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Radio War Nerd EP #220 — Malik Ambar, Shivaji & Rise of the Maratha Empire (Patreon)

Published:
2020-02-29 23:28:14
Edited:
2021-06-01 15:22:11
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Downloads

Content

Guest: "The Fakir"

Recorded: February 28, 2020

First, the Nerd and Ames briefly discuss the hot news out of Idlib, where "Syrian" (ie Russian) air power demolished a Turkish military position, killing at least 34 high-value Turkish commandos...

At 18:45 — We're joined by fellow war nerd "The Fakir" to talk about the rise of the Maratha Empire. This first part begins in the 13th century, and takes us to the late 17th century, just before the British enter the scene and the Anglo-Maratha Wars, which we'll get to in part two.

**DON'T FORGET: RADIO WAR NERD LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO, APRIL 22! DOUBLE-FEATURE WITH TRUEANON! 

TICKET INFORMATION HERE:  https://www.talentmoat.com/upcoming/radiowarnerd-trueanon

Maps & Illustrations

*India & Deccan Plateau

*Mughal Empire (north) vs Deccan kingdoms, 16th & 17th c.

*Areas Shivaji fought & ruled

*Malik Ambar

*Mughal Emperor Jahangir commissioned painting expressing his anxiety-fantasy: shooting arrows at Malik Ambar's decapitated head

*Shijavi sticking hidden claw weapon into the Goliath-like Bijapuri Gen. Afzal Khan

Total time: 2:29:31

Direct link to this episode's mp3 here 

Files

Comments

zaabittimov

Great episode! Looking forward to part two. I've thoroughly enjoyed all the South Asia content on this show, so much interesting stuff there....This episode in particular was exciting for me, since I spent some time working on a film in Ahmednagar district (mostly Pathardi taluka, Shevgaon, etc) back in 2013, so some of these places and names are familiar. I remember being in what seemed to me to be a pretty backwater village that had these massive stones gates in the middle of it and you really get the sense of how important some of these places were and the scale of their infrastructure. We were shown a water distribution system dating back to around the 16th century that was still reliably bringing water into the homes of residents even in the middle of one of the worst droughts in the area in decades.

Eamon

That's amazing, thanks for sharing that. I love our Radio War Nerd community

The Fakir (edited)

Comment edits

2026-09-07 15:00 Just thought I'd add the books that would be interesting to read : On the more academic/semi academic side - The Marathas 1600-1818 by Stuart Gordon, A Social History of the Deccan 1300-1761 by Richard Eaton, both from the Cambridge History of India series On the more popular history side : Rebel Sultans by Manu Pillai, Shivaji the grand rebel by Dennis Kinkaid (which Gary mentioned and quoted from in the episode). For what happens next, the last 1/3 of Gordon's book, the lasst chapter of Eaton's book is relevant. Other books for maratha history in years following the period covered in this episode (and spoiler alert, at one point maratha history becomes Indian history), interesting books to read are Solstice at panipat by Uday Kulkarni (well researched popular history) and Panipat by Vishwas Patil (dramatized retelling of history). For completeness, a good overview of the Anglo Maratha wars (more detailed than the account in Gordon's book) is in The Anglo-Maratha Campaigns and the Contest for India by Randolph Cooper (I'm judging by reviews, I have not read this one myself).
2020-03-03 15:42

AJ

Gary, your take on the shortage of Turkish Air Force pilots makes sense why Turkish is offering Pakistanis dual citizenship. I read that they will bring in a lot of Pakistani Air Force pilots to fly the F-16s since the Turkish most experienced pilots were sacked!

Simon

This may be a lot to ask, but a character and place glossary for the episode might be useful for these longer timelines. I kept going to Wikipedia in between pauses. This was a great story in any case! Really enjoyed it

Tupac Chopra

Excellent episode! Looking forward to the second part.

M A K Fazlulla Khan

Excellent interview with The Fakir. I’m from India with good knowledge on Indian History and I’m impressed by the knowledge that The Fakir has and the way he narrated the knowledge in an interesting way. Looking forward to part-2 and if there are any audiobooks that he has read, I’ll be glad to buy them!

radiowarnerd

That's interesting. Air Force officers are hard to replace, which is tricky because they also tend to be 'politically active'.

radiowarnerd

Yes, it was a lot to learn for me too. If anybody knows about a Maratha glossary, pass it on!

AJ

Good episode. Only gripe I have is with the map. It shows Pakistan’s Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan as Indian territory when in reality it’s not.

radiowarnerd

We should be doing part 2 soon. We probably would have but... these pesky plagues!!