YUDDHA is going on a mid-season break as Anirudh and Aditya are struggling with a sudden invasion of responsibilities from their day jobs (and Anirudh's very exciting first book!) More in this brief episode. YUDDHA is made possible thanks to the support of the Takshashila Institution and the Independent and Public Spirited Media Foundation. Notes and sources will be available at https://www.anirudhkanisetti.com - sign up for updates! You can follow Anirudh on Twitter @AKanisetti and Instagram @aniryuddha, @connectedhistories, or @cholabhaturaempire. You can follow Aditya on Twitter @adityascri ..read more

YUDDHA is going on a mid-season break as Anirudh and Aditya are struggling with a sudden invasion of responsibilities from their day jobs - we'll be back on December 1st! More in this brief episode. YUDDHA is made possible thanks to the support of the Takshashila Institution and the Independent and Public Spirited Media Foundation. Notes and sources will be available at https://www.anirudhkanisetti.com - sign up for updates! You can follow Anirudh on Twitter @AKanisetti and Instagram @aniryuddha, @connectedhistories, or @cholabhaturaempire. You can follow Aditya on Twitter @adityascripts or In ..read more

By the time of the Battle of Haldighati in 1576, the Mughals had consolidated their power over a large swathe of North India. Yet, the desire for further conquests never waned. As the Mughals transformed from a war band into an empire, their armies also mutated into gigantic earth-shaking beasts. Yet it required deft politics and a complex bureaucracy to build and maintain this massive war machine. The Mughals may have made war, but war in turn, made the Mughal state. YUDDHA is made possible thanks to the support of the Takshashila Institution and the Independent and Public Spirited Media Foun ..read more

It is the unlikeliest of stories. In 1540, Humayun was out of luck and on the run, while Sher Shah was victorious. Barely fifteen years later, Sher Shah was dead in a freak accident and his empire was in chaos. The Mughals returned to the plains of Hindustan with a renewed fury. But it was Humayun’s brilliant young son, Akbar, that would bring fire and death to his enemies and create a world-changing empire. Check out our discussion on the mysterious Rajput warlord Silhadi here: https://takshashila.org.in/all-things-policy-the-other-rajputs-purbiya-warriors-in-16th-century-malwa/ YUDDHA is mad ..read more

The establishment of the Mughal empire was by no means inevitable. In the 1530s and 40s, Farid, the grandson of a horse trader and daughter of an Afghan father and Rajput mother, would drive out Babur's heir, Humayun, and establish one of the most remarkable Indian polities: the Sur Empire. Join us as we explore his brilliant, ruthless career, witnessing how he innovated his way from humble beginnings to become the most powerful man in Hindustan: remembered today as Sher Shah. YUDDHA is made possible thanks to the support of the Takshashila Institution and the Independent and Public Spirited M ..read more

How did a small-time Central Asian warlord defeat the vast army of the Delhi Sultanate? Join us as we explore the turbulent, syncretic culture of North India in the 15th century, witness the growing ambitions of the Timurid prince Babur, and his finest hour at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526. YUDDHA is made possible thanks to the support of the Takshashila Institution and the Independent and Public Spirited Media Foundation. Notes and sources will be available at https://www.anirudhkanisetti.com - sign up for updates! You can follow Anirudh on Twitter @AKanisetti and Instagram @aniryuddha ..read more

Season 2 of YUDDHA returns us to the turbulent world of the 16th century. Join us as we explore the social and military churn of the globe from Europe to Central Asia, and meet the ruthless, cultured warlords Timur and his descendant Babur. Together they will transform the history of India and the world. YUDDHA is made possible thanks to the support of the Takshashila Institution and the Independent and Public Spirited Media Foundation. Notes and sources will be available at https://www.anirudhkanisetti.com - sign up for updates! You can follow Anirudh on Twitter @AKanisetti and Instagram @ani ..read more

In our Season 1 finale, we look at the saga of how an unlikely coalition of warring sultanates came to destroy the might of Vijayanagara. We begin with the Battle of Raichur in 1520, in which Vijayanagara's Krishna Deva Raya inflicted a humiliating defeat on the Bijapur sultanate. Over the half-century after Raichur, Bijapur and the other sultanates would learn bitter lessons, creating an unparalleled military revolution that blended the best of European and Indian innovations. On 23 January 1565, they would meet the armies of Vijayanagara in the climactic Battle of Talikota, one of the most e ..read more

In the 15th century, the Indian Ocean was visited by two fleets that would change the history of the world. The first was the gigantic armada of the Chinese admiral Cheng He, carrying thousands of sailors and tons of luxuries representing centuries of development of maritime commerce in this interconnected region. The second was the tiny squadron of bedraggled ships that came from a distant, insignificant European country: Portugal. The Portuguese and their leaders - da Gama, Cabral, Almeida, Albequerque - would transform this ocean, and eventually be engulfed in it. This is the second episode ..read more

The great 300-year eruption of the Turkic and Mongol peoples has come to an end, and the sun rises upon a world transformed. The peoples of Eurasia are now welded into an enormous network of competing, innovative, and "globalised" states and societies ranging from England in the West to Japan in the East. And as the Sultanate of Delhi unravels and collapses after its Deccan misadventures, two empires rise south of the Narmada river: the Bahmani Sultanate, the first Sultanate ever seen in the Deccan, and the famous empire of Vijayanagara, City of Victory, one of the most remarkable of all India ..read more