Podcasts about ranthambore

शेरखान (Sher Khan) के इस एपिसोड में आपको ले चलेंगे राजस्थान के रणथम्बोर (Ranthambore) और सुनाएंगे कहानी ‘मछली' की. पानी वाली मछली नहीं बल्कि रणथंबोर जंगल की रानी, बाघिन मछली (Machli). बाघिन जिसकी कहानी के बिना रणथंबोर अधूरा है. इस मशहूर बाघिन की पूरी कहानी सुनिए आसिफ़ 'खां चा' और जमशेद क़मर सिद्दीक़ी के साथ. साउंड मिक्सिंग: कपिलदेव सिंह

Join me as I recount my journey through India, a land of vibrant cultures, ancient history, and unparalleled beauty. This episode of 'The Intrepid Traveler' delves into the mesmerizing sights and unforgettable experiences across different regions of the country.Navigating Old Delhi on a bicycle tuk-tuk was a feast for the senses. From bustling markets to aromatic spices, the rich tapestry of life here is unmatched. The streets brimming with wedding goods showcased India's deep-rooted traditions.New Delhi contrasted sharply with its historic counterpart. While the traffic can be daunting, the city's modern infrastructure stood out. My stay at the Oberoi hotel offered a serene escape, blending luxury with the vibrancy of urban life.Seeing the Taj Mahal in person was awe-inspiring. Its grandeur and intricate details are beyond words. Visiting in the evening provided a more intimate experience, away from the usual crowds. The Oberoi hotel's views of the monument added to the magic.Jaipur's red sandstone structures, including the Palace of the Winds and Amber Fort, are architectural gems. The Oberoi Raj Vilas provided a luxurious base for exploring this enchanting city. Despite the heat, Jaipur's cultural richness made every moment worthwhile.Udaipur's serene water bodies offered a peaceful retreat. The City Palace and the floating Taj hotel, famous from the movie 'Octopussy,' were highlights. Dining on the rooftop amid the water's stillness was unforgettable.Ranthambore National Park, renowned for its tigers, was a significant highlight. Staying in luxurious tented safari tents and witnessing a tiger in the wild was thrilling. The experience, although more chaotic than an African safari, was equally enriching.India's blend of ancient traditions and modern advancements exceeded my expectations. I felt entirely safe, and transportation between regions was seamless. If India intrigues you, don't let stereotypes hold you back - the country's magic is worth experiencing firsthand. Stay tuned for my next solo episode where I explore the unique charm of Sri Lanka!Thanks for joining us on today's episode of The Intrepid Traveler podcast! If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate and review our show to help us reach even more aspiring travelers. Don't forget to check out our website, visit us on Facebook, Instagram or follow us on LinkedIn to stay up-to-date on our latest epic travel adventures! Use the following links when planning your own travel!TRAVEL INSURED INTERNATIONALMEDJETVIRTUOSOPROJECT EXPEDITION

It's Friday, March 1, 2024. My name is Nelson John. Let's get started:Sensex and Nifty remained flat on Thursday. Both market indices marginally increased by around 0.2 percent.Ever had a single malt named Rampur? Or a gin named Ranthambore? They're all made by a distiller named Radico Khaitan. And with a topline of close to 12 thousand crores, it's doing quite well. Radico Khaitan caters to the higher end of the alcohol market, which has found many suitors. Mint's luxury and lifestyle correspondent Varuni Khosla speaks to its managing director Abhishek Khaitan to find out about the distiller's present and future plans.Placements at IIMs usually consisted of consultancies or large corporates. But a surge in mergers and acquisitions has changed that. Investment banks and private equity firms are now lining up at IIMs to hire aggressively. Mint's startups reporter Sneha Shah and workplaces and HR correspondent Devina Sengupta team up to bring you this news from our nation's top institutions. These firms are estimating that the India growth story will need more analysts and bankers. This is good news for IIM graduates, who were anticipating a muted placement season. However, companies across consulting, FMCG or banking still prefer applicants with prior work experience. What would you prefer - an electric vehicle which runs purely on electricity or a hybrid which has both an electric motor and a conventional engine? Data suggests that Indians are leaning hard towards a car that can do it both, also called the hybrid. This is despite hybrids getting no incentives or tax concessions from the government, as opposed to EVs. Hybrid cars attract 43 per cent GST, compared to a mere 5 per cent on EVs. In 2023, more than 82 thousand hybrids were sold in India. This marked a four-fold increase in hybrid sales compared to 2022. The growth in EV sales was subdued compared to hybrids. However, the number of EVs sold in 2023 was close to that of hybrids. So what's fuelling the growth in hybrids? It is a slew of new models. The expansion in this segment is being led by Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara and Invicto, along with Toyota Hyryder and Innova Hycross. But what does a growth in the hybrid sector mean for EVs? EVs continue to be in demand but with a lack of charging infrastructure, range anxiety is still a deciding factor behind an EV purchase. Mint's autos correspondent Sumant Banerji takes a look at India's changing automotive landscape. He also takes on the hotly debated question - should hybrids be incentivized?Punjab - the land of five rivers, has historically been an area prone to conflicts. C Subramaniam, the agriculture minister behind India's green revolution, wrote in his memoir that the area's proximity to foreign invasions has made the people enterprising. Farming has been the main occupation for people here since centuries. And the area is yet again at the epicentre of the ongoing farmers' protests. The state has been supplying food to the rest of the country for decades. Perpetual harvesting over the decades resulted in its soil getting ruined. With a depleting yield of paddy and wheat, and a lack of jobs elsewhere, farmers in Punjab are tied to their land. The increased dependence on rice and wheat at assured prices is also what makes the Punjab farmers edgy. Mint's Sayantan Bera who writes on rural India, takes a deep dive into the issues plaguing the farmers of Punjab. He also explains why Punjabi farmers have been at the forefront of the ongoing protests. Is diversifying their crop a strategy that could work for the farmers of Punjab? Is there a solution to their issues? Sayantan tries to answer these questions in today's long story.India is still growing, and it's growing well. The latest data shows that India's GDP grew at an 8.4% pace. That is double of what we saw in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Mint's economy correspondent Subhash Narayan writes that this growth can be attributed to robust manufacturing and construction activity. However, an erratic monsoon lead to negative growth by the agriculture sector, official data showed.We'd love to hear your feedback on this podcast. Let us know by writing to us at feedback@livemint.com. You may send us feedback, tips or anything that you feel we should be covering from your vantage point in the world of business and finance. Premium push: Radico Khaitan sees sixfold rise in shareholder value in 5 yearsI-banks at the IIMs drop an optimistic note on India's economyHybrid cars are winning as range anxiety grips EVsA crisis is brewing in Punjab and farmers know itDecember quarter, when GDP beat every forecast

Beyond the lavish amenities, luxury train travel offers an intimate glimpse into the soul of Incredible India, inviting passengers to slow down and saour the journey as much as the destination.

Embark on a captivating Indian odyssey! Join me and my Columbia Business School companions, along with 20 of our friends, as we explore Mumbai, Delhi, Agra, the majestic Taj Mahal, Jaipur, and then plunge into the wilderness of Ranthambore for an up-close encounter with Bengal tigers and an exhilarating West India safari.

An ode to Ranthambore, where the kings of yesteryears ruled and the mighty tigers roam free. Join me as I chat with Sanjeev Banga, President- International Business and Kunal Madan, Vice President – International Business. This incredible Indian whisky is something to talk about!

Wildlife tourism has a crucial role in India's conservation success. With nearly 300 million people living in and around forests, tourism has a crucial role in bolstering the economies of local communities. Tourists also help monitor protected areas in detecting wildlife crimes, such as poaching. Wildlife tourism was temporarily banned in protected areas in India in 2010 to minimise its impact on the environment. While the industry certainly can be improved,  the Supreme Court has reversed this order and the industry is currently thriving. In Episode 19, we interview Anurag Sharma, the founder of Tigerwalah, a wildlife tourist company, based in Ranthambore. Listen more for insights into the industry and the impact of covid-19. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit anishbanerjee.substack.com

Today we're heading over to India where we've spent some time recently in Delhi, Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur and Ranthambore to learn more about what the low season experience is like in the heat of the North Indian summer. India has some incredible palatial hotels and perhaps one of the most iconic of these is the stunning Taj Rambagh Palace in Jaipur. There is truly no bad time to experience the Rambagh Palace and arguably, the low season summer months are optimal due to the relaxed and quiet ambiance coupled with the significantly lower prices. Last week I met up with the General Manager, Mr Ashok Rathore, who kindly gave me a tour of the property and some of the amazing initiatives which they have been implementing recently to further enhance the guest experience. After our tour, Mr Rathore sat down with me in the lavish Suvarna Mahal dining room so that I could learn more about this incredible property. And you can learn more about this fabulous property by visiting https://www.tajhotels.com/en-in/taj/rambagh-palace-jaipur/ I can say with all honesty that this hotel is one of the very finest we have ever been in and you can only truly “feel” the experience by visiting it for yourself. Next week, we head over to Delhi to stay in one of the most iconic properties in the city as we meet the General Manager of the famous Taj Mahal Palace Hotel which has recently undergone an astonishing makeover. But That's our show for this week. Thanks as always, for your company, and if you enjoyed this podcast, please do leave us a positive rating and review on your podcast app and also don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn to be the first to hear our latest low season stories, articles and guides.

Tiger T-24 was the king of Ranthambore National Park until he was removed to live a life of captivity inside a zoo. After being linked to 4 killings of people, he was labeled a man-eater who was too dangerous to exist in the park. This sparked nation wide protests and the conversation of the detrimental impacts of human-wildlife conflict. Documentary recommendation: Tiger T24 We love our National Parks and we know you do too but when you're out there, remember to enjoy the view but watch your back. Please take a moment to rate and subscribe from wherever you're listening to NPAD! Become part of our Outsider family on Patreon to gain access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more. Follow our socials Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. To share a Trail Tale, suggest a story, access merch, and browse our book recommendations - head over to our website. Thank you so much to our partners, check them out! Athena Club: Go to athenaclub.com and use promo code NPAD today and you'll get 25% off your first order! Earth Breeze: Use our link to subscribe and save 40%. Prose: Use our link for a free in-depth hair consultation and 15% off your first order. BetterHelp: National Park After Dark is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month of online therapy by using our link. References: DOCUMENTARY TIGER T-24 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/bengal-tiger https://www.ranthamborenationalpark.com/wild-animals.html https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/16981-report-at-least-150-tigers-are-killed-by-poachers-every-year https://www.ranthambhorenationalpark.in/ganesh-temple https://www.ranthamborenationalpark.com/t-24-tiger-ranthambore.html https://www.firstpost.com/living/after-supreme-court-decision-ranthambore-tiger-ustad-aka-t-24-is-resigned-to-life-in-captivity-2703042.html

I hope I'm wrong, but I'm pretty good at recognizing a pattern. It's just been so busy that I haven't been able to write.  Yesterday I spent the entire morning with JessAnn from Group Nine and Mary Beth from the Dodo to let them capture slo-mo footage of our cats to promote Samsung's new phone camera.  Group Nine is the company that pays us for ad revenue share on our YouTube channel and The Dodo and El Dodo have been working with us every week to provide two LIVE shows for them.   Rebecca Chaiklin and Eric Goode returned with a crew on Tuesday (4/3/2018) to get pick up shots, they said, at the direction of CNN.  When they were here before (they've been filming this thing for 4 years) they wanted me to trash talk Joe Schriebvogel, but I told them I wouldn't stroke his ego by even saying his name.  They came back this week saying they just needed to film me filling in a few gaps in their script and to do some overview shots of the sanctuary.   They spent the entire day asking about Don, Jamie's father, my relationship with Don's kids, my family, and just kept trying, in about a dozen different ways to get me to say that all the lies the backyard breeders and dealers tell about me is hurting my feelings.  It doesn't.  I couldn't be any more clear about the fact that I am not defined by anything anyone says about me.  They were so Hell bent on getting me to say it that I'll be interested to see how they edit the footage to get what they want.   Interested, but not concerned.  No matter how they portray me, if the documentary airs it will only be good for the sanctuary.  Any press is good press. I told Rebecca that I can't imagine why CNN would have any interest in the tabloid trash questions they were asking.   Meanwhile...   It's Spring Break and a dozen of our people went to India with Jamie to film tigers in the wild at Ranthambore and Sariska (3/17-3/27).  That left us short handed while dealing with more guests than ever before.   I hired Mojca Mars to help with the Facebook ads for BigCatRescue.biz about 6 weeks ago and her success has meant that I have to create more ads and deal with more sales, and sales related issues.  I interviewed Andrew Swearingen, from Merkato, about handling the ads and listings for our Amazon store but he wants 7200.00 a month to do it plus an ad budget of 3k per month.  Those kind of numbers made me spend days really diving into what's happening there financially, and it's barely break even.  Here is the letter I sent him:   Dear Andrew,   After putting a pencil to this, based on my current margins, I'd have to generate more than 30,000 a month in sales (and maybe a lot more like 145k a month in sales) because the stats I used, from Manage By Stats don't calculate my actual cost of goods, in order to maintain the same mediocre profits.  Given that I'm currently only generating about $4500 per mo. via Amazon sales, I just don't think the products we offer have high enough demand, outside of our loyal fan base, to make this work.   If I were selling even 30k a month it would require staffing to ship out 6 times as many products as we currently do, and that would mean having to hire more people, which eats further into the profits.  Volunteers are great for doing cat related things, but they don't want to be in retail.   I'm sure you could grow our business, but I just don't think we could handle the kind of growth it would take, for this to make it worth all of the time, money and manpower when there is lower hanging fruit.  Our biggest driving factor to getting people to choose us for Smile, is via our social posts, mostly LIVE videos, where I tell people about it and how to do it.  I don't think ads would have as much effect on our warm audience and probably very little effect on those who don't know us yet.   I do really appreciate the time you spent and it was valuable to me to know that outsourcing will be much more costly than makes sense for us currently.  If you are ever in Tampa, I'd love to introduce you to the cats.  For now I will just keep plowing forward as best I can, and will revisit the idea of hiring you when we are more confident in our ability to make the most of it.    So, Jamie said Brittany Mira, came back from India wanting to make a difference with her life for big cats.  I sent her this:   I wonder if you would be interested in trying to grow an online sales channel for the sanctuary in exchange for some sort of commission?   I don't know if your job is full time, or if you have hours at night, to try and build up our Amazon store?   http://bigcatrescue.org/amazonstore   I believe this could be a huge revenue generator for us without being a huge drain on our staff and volunteers, IF I can figure out what sells, and then ship 100 or so at a time to Amazon for them to do the fulfillment.   I've spent the last year learning everything I can about selling on Amazon through their Seller Central University (free online videos) and through podcasts and Facebook groups.   I've just now gotten the store to about break even where it's selling about $5,000 a month.  I think it could be far more profitable, but I'm torn in so many directions, it's hard for me to focus enough time and energy on it to really make the most of the opportunity.   There are other aspects of Amazon too, that I think could generate income and make use of your photography skills.   BigCatRescue.org/shirt takes you to our tee shirts that are fulfilled by Amazon.  All we have to do is upload designs that people will buy and give them names and descriptions that would make them show up when people search.   Photos could work, especially if you have any PhotoShop skills, to add our text or make the edges look, well... edgy.   I also run a for profit store, at CatRescue.biz where I donate all of the profits to our legislative work.  There is a whole section there where people can buy and download images of our cats in different sizes, but the selection is very old and I just don't have the time for making the three size images and then uploading them, & adding all the stuff to the listing that makes it searchable and thus salable.   I can't pay you a set wage to take on these responsibilities, but if they are something you think you'd love to do, then we could talk about some sort of a commission basis that might make it feasible for all of us.  It wouldn't be enough to live on for a while; maybe not even for another year or two, but I think it could grow into something substantial.   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and I've been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views.  These are my views and opinions. If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story.  The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/   I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story.  My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk  

Our guest today is the much-admired Bittu Sahgal.  Mention Mr. Sahgal and three words come up: Sanctuary, activism, and conservation.  He founded Sanctuary magazine in 1981. It morphed into Sanctuary Nature Foundation in 2001.  In these capacities, and in his role as the President of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), Mr. Sahgal knows the wildlife and ecology of Asia intimately.   Today, he suggested that we talk about avians to the rescue.  We are the Bird Podcast after all.   Links: Wonderful article about Salim Ali written by Bittu Sahgal here. Wikipedia on Bittu Sahgal Some thought-provoking images from the Sanctuary Wildlife Photography awards Sanctuary Nature Foundation Santuary Asia magazine   Questions:   3:00 How does protecting birds and their habitats help us deal with what you call an existential crisis?  He talks about climate change and small interventions.  He compares tigers with avians in terms of conservation.  “You save the forest. You save the species.”  Talks about nematodes in the soil, tics on the backs of the tigers, the whole ecosystem. 7:00 It is time that the tigers came down from the pedestal and birds need to go higher on the pedestal. 8:00 Birders as climate warriors.  Birds disperse seeds, maintain habitats. 9:30 Economists are realizing that the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the biosphere. 10:20: There is an urgency to his mission.  Thanks to climate change, the economy is teetering on the brink of collapse.  Technology alone cannot help.  My loyalty is to the biosphere.  It is necessary for us now to go down to the minutiae. 11:40 He talks about Dr. Salim Ali 12:00 Talks about how birds are protectors of the infrastructure. 14:00 What is a magic wand that he would wave to influence.  He says that he would try to influence the brain between the two ears of human beings.  Nature is a simple economic principle.  If you undervalue an asset, you will lose it.  The time for fighting is over.  Self interest in protecting habitat comes from making sure that we use local communities to protect areas. 16:00 Can you walk us through how things have changed since you began Sanctuary Asia?  How things have go sharply downfill.  Forests dismembered.  Our power as environmental protectors has come down.  Biodiversity that you protect gives a chance for the local communities to benefit from tourism. 18:30 How tigers numbers going up is a facade. 18:55 There is no doubt that the biosphere will win this battle.  There is no doubt that we will make life difficult for ourselves.  The circle of life.  Logic is the same as the tiger.  Birds occupy vital habitats. 21:00 Last year, you delivered a keynote titled “To protect nature, start at home.” Can you elaborate on that for our viewers and listeners? In your instagram posts, you talk about preserving little areas of wilderness within the city.  What do you mean? Not golf courses, football fields.  If we want the city to be future ready, use one-third of what you have for real wilderness. 22:00 About the common Pipistrelle bat.   23:00 Humayun Abdul Ali.  When Indira Gandhi wanted to sent frog's legs to France, Mr. Ali's reply. Send frogs leg but ask them to give us medicines for malaria.  Humayun Ali got people to change using logic. Birds are protecting water.  Wetlands. 24:15 Favourite spot? He talks about Ranthambore being “home.” 25:00 How he loves Dachigam and the Dagwan river.  About the peace that comes. 26:00 I don't know whether to celebrate what exists or mourn what is going.  Talks about Kaziranga. 27:30  Protecting nature.  Start at home.  Gandhi quote.  The person who does nothing because he cannot do everything is the worst of the lot. 29:00 About his conversation with the Dalai Lama.  About monks carrying tiger bones inside their robes.  Belinda Wright.  Debbie Banks.  Exposed this.   32:00 What is the pleasure of birding for you? Human beings are soiling their own homes.  The need of the hour is to share your love of nature.  Join the BNHS.  Birders are going to be the saviors of this subcontinent.   34:00 Are you optimistic about the future? We think we are more clever than we really are.  We haven't learned to use our brains.  Like a baby elephant.  Darwin said, it is the most adaptable that will survive.  We haven't learned to adapt.  We want the environment to adapt to us. 37:37 He loves spiders.  Loves sparrows.  He talks about children being his main constituents.  Kids for Tigers.  The tiger is a metaphor for all of nature.  Protect trees, protect all that live in trees.  How to protect the powerful from consuming everything that there is in the buffet. 40:30  Haven't been to Ladakh.  Talks about his wish to go to Ladakh. 41:25: Message to birders   Formal Bio below: Bittu Sahgal is an environmental activist, writer and the founder of Sanctuary Nature Foundation, an Indian nonprofit conservation organization that works on environmental policy, advocacy, science, on-ground support and habitat management. He is also the founding editor of Sanctuary Asia, a wildlife and ecology magazine.  Besides the Sanctuary Asia and Cub magazines, Sahgal has published numerous works in both English and regional languages. He has authored coffee table books on wildlife, including a series on some of India's national parks and sanctuaries: The Bandhavgarh Inheritance, The Sundarbans Inheritance, The Bharatpur Inheritance, The Kaziranga Inheritance, The Corbett Inheritance and The Periyar Inheritance and a stand-alone, India Naturally. He also produced 30 wildlife documentaries.      

In this Round, Gauri is joined by Jaisal Singh of the Sujan group. He recalls his parents' discovery of Ranthambore and how that place eventually became home for the family, his initial years around forts and wildlife, the love and passion for animals, his business initiatives at a young age, and how they are an established hospitality brand in the region working to provide luxury with a conscience. You can find him @jaisalsujansingh on Instagram Check out Sujan, & Relais Chateux on InstagramFind Jaisal's books on Amazon Check out 50 amazing episodes of 'This Round Is On Me' You can follow Gauri on Instagram: @gauridevidayalTwitter: @gauridetailsYou can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: IVM Podcasts - Apps on Google Play or iOS: ‎IVM Podcasts, or any other podcast app.You can check out our website at https://shows.ivmpodcasts.com/featured

Namaste, Aadaab, Sat Shri Akal! We are back with Season 2 of the India Chalo podcast! In this episode, I speak with Ganesh Raj on his trip to Jaipur and Ranthambore. Key highlights:Forts in JaipurWildlife in RanthamborePeople and food in Jaipur Follow Ganesh's' adventures at https://gunsgreat.wixsite.com/thewanderlustdiaries or on Instagram at guns_82 / thewanderlustdiaries_82.Let us know what you thought of this episode. We are on Instagram @indiachalo. Leave us a holler! :)

Mine damer og herre!! Vi er kommet til vores 20. afsnit og den sidste rejseanekdote, nemlig Indien. Vi tager jer en tur igennem Agra, Ranthambore, Jaipur og Delhi. I kan se frem til os, der plaprer i lidt over en time om alt fra Taj Mahal, tigere, en dværg ko, mad der minder om diarré på en sølvtallerken, en slangevisker der fotobomber os, Lotus Templet, Red Fort, verdens største solur, Amber Fort og ikke mindst ham fyren der kommer og fodre aberne. Og så er der selvfølgelig en enormt svær quiz.

“I was just wondering what it was like working with Prince Philip on environmental issues? Because from what I know - and this is a bit controversial - he had some very apparent contradictions in his love for conservation. For example, the year that he became the president of WWF was the same year that he was in Ranthambore, a forest that I love so deeply, hunting an eight foot tiger with local Rajasthani maharajas. How did those things balance out?” What do a 24 year-old filmmaker from India and a 67 year-old British theologian who worked closely with the late Prince Philip think is the best way to save the planet? In this episode of Forces of Nature. Martin Palmer and Malaika Vaz sit down for a debate about HRH The Duke of Edinburgh’s approach to conservation, hunting and the role of religion in protecting the environment. To access the transcript of the show or find out more, go to https://lp.panda.org/forces-of-nature-podcast/episode1 Follow WWF on Twitter https://twitter.com/WWF or Instagram https://www.instagram.com/wwf/ Join the conversation using #ForcesofNature Follow Malaika here: https://www.instagram.com/malaikavaz Check out Malaika’s film production company - Untamed Planet here: https://untamedplanet.in Check out Martin’s membership association for religious groups - FaithInvest here: https://www.faithinvest.org/ Check out Martin’s book Faith in Conservation: New Approaches to Religions and the Environment here: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/15083See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Back in our 15th episode of this series, we looked at Khwarezmian prince Jalal al-Din Mingburnu's exploits in India in the early 1220s. Having fled there after Chinggis Khan's devastating invasion of the Khwarezmian Empire, Jalal al-Din's flight brought India to the attention of the Mongols. While Chinggis Khan did not invade the subcontinent, this was not the last that India would see of the Mongols. In today's episode, we return to northern India, dominated by the Sultanate of Delhi, and look at its interactions with the Mongols who repeatedly raided its borders. Why the Delhi Sultans, from Iltutmish, Balban to Alauddin Khalji were able to largely successfully resist the Mongols will be examined, over nearly the century of Mongol-Delhi interactions. I'm your host David, and this is Kings and Generals: Ages of Conquest.   The Delhi Sultanate arose from the ruins of the Ghurid Empire which had stretched from Afghanistan to Bengal. The Ghurids, or Shansabanids,  had been a regional power in central Afghanistan emerging in the ninth century but were subdued by the Ghaznavids, also known as the Yamanids, a persianised Turkic dynasty which dominated much of the Iranian world up to the borders of India from the tenth to the twelfth centuries. The Ghaznavids under their great expander, the mighty Mahmud of Ghazna, reduced the Ghurids to a subject state early in the eleventh century, though in turn the Ghaznavids were pushed from Iran by the Seljuqs with the famous battle of Dandanaqan in 1040, and became tributary to the Seljuqs under their Sultan Sanjar at the start of the twelfth century. In this time, the Ghurid elite converted from Buddhism to Islam, and could be said to have bided their time. The Seljuqs weakened over the twelfth century with the arrival of  the Qara-Khitai, the Ghuzz Turk invasions and independence of the Khwarezmian Empire in the north. In turn, the weakness of the Seljuqs advanced the weakness of the Ghaznavids, which provided an opportunity for the Ghurids to rise in the second half of the twelfth century. Under the brilliant leadership of Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad Ghuri, better known simply as Muhammad of Ghor, and his brother Ghiyath al-Din, the Ghurids conquered the remnants of the Ghaznavids. Repulsing invasions by the Ghuzz  Turks and proving a staunch foe to the Qara-Khitai and Khwarezm-Shahs, Muhammad of Ghor received backing from the Caliph and expanded across the region. By the end of his life, he had forged an empire stretching from eastern Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan across Northern India to Bengal.   Muhammad of Ghor's military might rested in large part on his loyal ghulams, Turkic slave soldiers, though over the thirteenth century the term gave way to mamluk. A similar institution existed in the form of the Ottoman janissaries. While it was common for any good regional warlord to employ nomadic Turkic tribes due to their military prowess, they often proved unreliable and self-interested. For the conquest-minded Muhammad of Ghor, he could not put much stock on nomad chiefs  who may value their own advancement over Muhammad's glory. Instead, Muhammad looked to the classic islamic institution of slave soldiers. Ghulams and Mamluks were young boys, generally sold by enemy Turkic tribes, that were brought into the Islamic world and raised from birth to be elite soldiers. Generally having already some horse and archery skills from their youth, these boys were converted to Islam and given the finest training in military matters, with top of the line equipment, weapons and horses, in addition to receiving education and even salaries. The result was a core of fierce warriors loyal not to any tribal or family ties, but to their fellow ghulams and their master, who sheltered and provided for them. No shortage of Islamic princes lamented on how their ghulams tended to be more loyal than their own sons; the sons awaited only the death of the father, while the ghulams wanted only his glory. Famously, the child-less Muhammad of Ghor is supposed to have remarked that, while other monarchs could have a few sons, he had thousands in the form of his ghulams.   The source of many of Muhammad of Ghor's ghulams were various Qipchap Turkic tribes from the great steppe. As in late Ayyubid and early Mamluk Egypt, and indeed much of the islamic world, the Cuman-Qipchaqs were prized as warriors. His ghulams proved themselves in combat repeatedly. Though supported by local tribes, both Turkic and Pashtun, Muhammad of Ghor over his life increasingly relied on his ghulams, and in time they commanded his armies and acted as his governors. Attacking the Hindu kingdoms of northern India at the close of the twelfth century, Muhammad of Ghor had to return to Afghanistan to face the Khwarezm-Shah Tekish, and Tekish's son Muhammad. Muhammad bin Tekish, of course, we know best as the gentleman who antagonized Chinggis Khan some two decades later. In Muhammad of Ghor's absence fighting the Khwarezmians, his ghulams like Qutb ad-Din Aybeg were left to command his troops and govern his territories in India. And these same loyal ghulams, upon the childless Muhammad of Ghor's assassination in 1206, then quite loyally tore the Ghurid empire to pieces, each one declaring himself master of his own domain.    Qutb ad-Din Aybeg claimed Delhi, and though he tried to establish a dynasty, his early death in 1210 in a polo accident resulted in his young son pushed out by one of his own ghulams, his son-in-law Shams-ud-Din Iltutmish. Iltutmish, a Qipchaq like Aybeg, consolidated the Delhi Sultanate as one of the chief powers of northern India. So began the first of five separate Turko-Afghan dynasties that would rule the Delhi Sultanate over the next three centuries. Because of the ghulam, or mamluk origin of the first dynasty, the first dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate is sometimes known as the Mamluk Sultanate of Delhi, sometimes to mirror the contemporary Qipchaq founded Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. For the next two hundred years, their foreign policy on their northern border was defined by the Mongol Empire and its successor states.    Relations between the Delhi Sultanate and Mongols began in the 1220s, in the middle of Iltutmish's reign, when Chinggis Khan himself rode to their borders chasing the Khwarezmian Prince Jalal al-Din Mingburnu, son of the late Khwarezm-Shah Muhammad II. Chinggis did not invade India, though he sent some forces to pursue Jalal al-Din in India. According to the Persian writer Juvaini, Chinggis actually did advance some days into the Punjab, having hoped to find a route that would allow him to march around the Himalayas and attack the Jin Dynasty from the south, but could not find such a road. Other medieval sources and modern historians offer alternative explanations for Chinggis' refusal to spend more time in India, with reasons ranging from respect for Delhi's neutrality, the heat of northern India, bad omens, Delhi's diplomacy appeasing the Khan through token submission, to the simple fact that Chinggis may not have had interest expanding into a new, unknown territory while already dealing with much of Iran, Central Asia and China, with Chinggis intending all along to return to China and deal with the Jin and Tangut. We discussed the matter more in episodes 9 and 15. As it was, Chinggis returned to the east, and died while on campaign against the Tangut in 1227. As we saw in episode 15, Jalal al-Din spent a few years in India making a mess of things, nearly attacking Delhi before withdrawing to Iran after a massive coalition of the post-Ghurid and Hindu forces threatened him.  The great consequences of Mingburnu's time in India was that he and the Mongols sent to pursue him  greatly undermined Iltutmish of Delhi's other Ghurid rivals in the northwest and the Punjab. Thanks to wars between the Khwarezmian and Mongol forces, Iltutmish over the late 1220s and 1230s gradually absorbed the other post-Ghurid powers up to the Indus River. In addition, he became overlord of a number of regional Hindu kingdoms; some have for this region compared the Delhi Sultanate to a collection of subkingdoms. By Iltutmish's death in 1236, the Delhi Sultanate was the great power of northern India and the Gangetic plain, from the Indus to Bengal, with recognition from the Caliph as the only Muslim sovereign in India, and indeed, one of the mightiest Muslim rulers in the world.   However, in Iltutmish's final years the Mongol presence on his border increased. When Chormaqun Noyan and his army entered Iran at the start of the 1230s to complete the conquest of the region and finish off Jalal al-Din -something we discussed in detail in episode 15- a portion of his force was sent into southeastern Iran and Khurasan, which included modern Afghanistan. The remnants of the empire Jalal al-Din Mingburnu had left in Afghanistan and India submitted to the Mongols, and the Mongol Empire now directly bordered the Delhi Sultanate. A tamma force under Dayir was stationed in Afghanistan, and part of the duty of the tamma was to disrupt the states along the borders of the Mongol Empire. As such, Mongol raids into the Punjab and Sind began with increasing regularity in the late 1230 and 40s, which proved difficult for Iltutmish's troubled successors.   Iltutmish's eldest son and heir had been groomed for the throne, but his premature death in Bengal was a severe blow to the Sultan. A younger son, Rukn ud-Din Firoz Shah, ultimately succeeded Iltutmish, but the youth enjoyed alcohol and good times more than the complicated court machinations and governance. The boy's mother acted as the true governor, using her power to take out her grievances. It was not a winning combination. Within months a rebellion removed Firoz Shah and his mother from the scene, which placed Iltutmish's daughter Raziyya on the throne. Famous as the only female Muslim monarchs in India's history, and popularly known as Raziyya Sultana, her ascension owed much to the strong Turkic force in the government, many of whom were only recent converts to Islam. Some are known to have been denizens of the former Qara-Khitai empire, which had influential women empresses, and therefore the prospect of a woman ruling in her own name was not as dreadful to them.    Apparently Raziyya had been expected to act as a figurehead, though proved herself, in the vein of all good Qipchap women, to be very assertive and insisted on a prominent, public role. Enjoying horseback archery and riding elephants in public, she supposedly even dressed as a man. Seeking to expand her powerbase, she sought to create additional sources of support in competition to the Turkic ghulams. Her appointees to power included Ghuris, Tajiks, Hindus and even Africans. The ghulams did not appreciate it, and by 1240 Raziyya was deposed and, after a brief attempt to restore her to the throne, killed in favour of her brother, Bahram Shah. So ended the brief reign of perhaps the most well known female Muslim monarch. Her brother and successor Bahram Shah did not long enjoy the throne. A brave and often blood thirsty individual, his effort to totally remove the powerful Turkic aristocracy, increasingly showing itself a rival to power to the Sultan, resulted in his commanders storming Delhi and killing him only two years into his reign.  Bahram Shah's most notable act was appointing Juzjani, a refugee from Khwarezm, as grand qadi of Delhi. Minhaj-i-SIraj Juzjani is one of the most important sources for the period, writing a mammoth history in the 1250s. We've visited it often in the course of this series to generally remark on his well known hatred of the Mongols but it is a key for the early history of the Delhi Sultanate. His great history, the Tabaqat-i-nasiri, was translated into English in the late nineteenth century by Major Raverty, and can be found in two volumes free to download by archive.org.   After Sultan Bahram Shah's death, he was succeeded by Rukn ud-Din Firoz's son, ‘Ala al-Din Mas'ud Shah. Despite having gained the throne with the support of the Turkic aristocracy,  like his predecessors Mas'ud shah sought to weaken them. His four year reign ended with his death at the hands of the youngest surviving son of Iltutmish, Mahmud Shah. From 1246 until 1266, Mahmud proved the longest reigning of Iltutmish' sons. He was though, the most ineffective, and gradually found himself reduced to puppet by his na'ib, Balban, who we will return to shortly.   While these political upheavals rocked the capital, the Mongols pressed on the northwestern border. In 1241 a Mongol force under Bahadur Tair took Lahore, and Multan was captured in 1245, and by the 1250s, Sind and the Punjab were largely under Mongol control and Mongol raids were a nearly annual occurrence. By the reign of Mahmud Shah, the authority of the Delhi monarch, both within his court and northern India, had declined dramatically. Fortunately for the Delhi Sultan, no full Mongol invasion yet threatened, but the stream of refugees from Iran and Central Asia must have brought constant news of the Mongol terror. Juzjani certainly reported seemingly every rumour he heard, and was certainly under the impression that at least some of the Mongol leadership, particularly Chagatai, favoured the extermination of Islam. The learned and informed in Delhi must have feared greatly what would happen if the Mongols pushed the advantage while Delhi was in the midst of another coup.   Sultan Mahmud Shah bin Iltutmish was overshadowed by his wazir and eventual successor Balban, who changed Delhi policy to the Mongols. An Ölberli Qipchaq and ghulam, Balban had risen in influence over the 1240s, and finally between 1246 and 1249 was raised to the viceroyalty, his might beneath only the Sultan himself. Often, you will see him referred to as a member of the “Forty,” or the “Forty Chiefs.” These were, if you believe some modern writers, forty ghulams of Sultan Iltutmish who acted as kingmakers in Delhi since Iltutmish's death. However, as pointed out by historians like Peter Jackson, the “Forty”  are only mentioned by Ziya' al-Din Barani, an official writing in Persian in the Delhi Sultanate in the mid-fourteenth century. No other source on Delhi from the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries, especially the more contemporary Juzjani, mention such a distinct coalition. It seems likely that “Forty” refers to the fact that these men commanded corps of forty elite men; such groups are mentioned in other contemporary sources, and the same organization was present in the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt at the same time.  The “Forty” was not some provisional governmental body composed of forty men who tried to exert their power over the Sultans, but rather Barani's way to refer to the influential members of the aristocracy and elite- many of whom were Qipchaq Turks, but including Ghuris, Tajiks and even Hindus-  who were associated with the military elite and had a vested interest in remaining influential, and were no monolithic body. Balban was a part of this elite, a man experienced with command and the court.   From 1249 through to 1266, with only a brief break, Balban was the #2 man in the Delhi Sultanate, the na'ib, who handled government himself, styled himself Ulugh Khan and married his daughter to the Sultan. Sultan Mahmud Shah turned into a shadowy figure behind Balban's power. In 1266, Mahmud Shah and his children died in unclear, but almost certainly not natural, circumstances, and Balban took the throne himself. So ended the line of Iltutmish. After many years in the viceroyalty, Balban had moved his allies and friends into prominent positions of power, and thus held the throne securely. He was therefore able to finally act more aggressively towards the Mongols. Initially, diplomacy under Mahmud Shah and Balban had sought to appease the Mongols, and envoys from Hulegu in the 1250s had been honoured and respected, friendly relations urged. Considering the size and might of Hulegu's army, it was a wise decision. But following Hulegu's death in 1265, the outbreak of civil war between the Mongols and Balban's direct seizure of the throne in 1266, Balban went on the offensive. On his order, the Sultanate retook Multan and Lahore by force. Balban worked to fortify India's rugged border through building forts garrisoned by the various mountain tribes. Further, Balban welcomed Mongols, Persian and Central Asian refugees fleeing the Mongol civil wars in the 1260s, and gave many of them military positions which provided the Delhi Sultans' with knowledge of Mongolian military tactics. Similar to the Mamluks of Egypt, Mongol refugees were valuable immigrants and their flight was welcomed. Supposedly entire neighbourhoods in Delhi were formed from the Mongols who fled there. Some of these men of Mongol background came to positions of great prominence, after their conversion to Islam of course. Under Balban and his successors, these neo-Muslims, as they were called by Barani,  were given command of armies and powerful positions close to the Sultan. One of these men was a member of the Khalaj tribes, named Jalal al-Din.   Beginning in the 1260s, the source of the Mongol incursions into India changed. Rather than an imperial effort, it became led by the Neguderis based in southern Afghanistan, known also as the Qaraunas. With the outbreak of war between the Ilkhanate and Golden Horde, the Ilkhan Hulagu had attacked the Jochid forces who had been a part of his army. Many fled to southern Afghanistan under their general Neguder, becoming a local and unruly power the Ilkhan and Chagatai princes sought to control. From then on, the Neguderis undertook nearly annual raids into India's northwestern frontier.   Over Balban's long reign he often still relied on diplomacy to keep the Mongols at bay in between periods of fighting. While he consolidated Delhi's hold on northern India, Balban expanded southwards and restored the Delhi Sultante's hegemony after a nadir in the 1240s. While often successful and gaining valuable experience with Mongol tactics, Balban received a great shock in 1285 when his favourite son and heir, Muhammad Shah, governor of Lahore, Multan and Dipalpur, was killed in a vicious Mongol attack on Multan. The once vigorous Balban lived the rest of his life quietly, and largely retired from governance, dying in 1287, succeeded by an inept grandson named Kayqubad. Of the eight sultans who reigned between 1236 and 1296, Sultan Balban was the only one known to have died of natural causes.   Sultan Kayqubad's reign ended quickly, and following his murder in 1290, Jalal al-Din Khalji established the second dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, the Khalji dynasty.  The name Khalji refers to their background, for their family came from Khalaj tribesmen of what is now Afghanistan.While generally later medieval and modern biographers have seen the Khalaj as a Turkic people, the indication from contemporary sources is that they were seen as a group distinct from the Turks- perhaps due to not being associated with horsemanship or ghulams. The Khalaj were originally Turkic speakers, but over  centuries had mingled with the various Pashtun peoples of Afghanistan. The Pashtun are a branch of the Iranian peoples, speaking a language from the Eastern Iranic language family. While associated with the Pashtun, the Khalaj were distinct from them; Juzjani, during his writing in the 1250s, always distinguished the Khalaj from Turks, Persians and Pashtuns. As such, you will often find the Khalji remarked as a Turko-Afghan dynasty. Individuals of Khalaj stock were certainly raised to prominent positions under the Khalji Sultans, but contrary to some statements, it was not a replacement of the existing multi-ethnic, but still largely Turkic nobility, but a mere another addition to it, just one group among Turks, Mongols, Hindus, Persians and more.   Around 70 years old when he became Sultan in 1290, Jalal al-Din Khalji first appeared in Mongol service. According to the fourteenth century Ilkhanate historian Wassaf, Jalal al-Din had held command over the Khalaj on behalf of the Mongol appointed governor of Binban, west of the Indus River. A fifteenth century source identifies Jalal al-Din's father as Yughrush, the name of the Khalaj Amir who is known to have taken part in a Mongol embassy to Delhi in 1260. In the ebb and flow of frontier fortunes, perhaps falling out with the Mongols or too ambitious for the existing climate, at some point in the 1260s Jalal al-Din and a body of his men fled to the Delhi Sultanate to offer their services to Sultan Balban, who rewarded them a position on the frontier against the Mongols. This was part of a growing trend in the second half of the thirteenth century. Whereas Iltutmish and the early Sultans had given command of the borders to men trained as ghulams or mamluks, under Balban and the Khaljis the border with the Mongols was increasingly defended by Turkic tribal leaders, who came with their own retinues and forces. Many had even been in Mongol service and therefore had intimate experience with them. It was a position for any ambitious general to develop a reputation, experience and a sizable military following.    Jalal al-Din's prominence grew over the reign of Balban as he built his reputation against the Mongols. In the reign of Balban's grandson Kayqubad, Jalal al-Din Khalji was invited to Delhi to assist against Kayqubad's court rivals. Despite becoming Kayqubad's regent, it did little good for the young sultan who was soon murdered, and  Jalal al-Din seized power in the aftermath, though faced stiff court resistance throughout his reign.    Sultan Jalal al-Din Khalji is generally portrayed as downright mild-mannered. A devout  and forgiving Muslim, often shown to be extraordinarily benevolent and generous to his subjects, he was also very capable miltiarily, personally leading armies against independent Hindu kingdoms and Mongols invaders, a great contrast to Sultan Balban who only rarely headed armies during his long dominance. One of his most notable victories came at Bar-Ram in 1292, where when a ceasefire was declared, some 4,000 of the Mongols under their Prince decided to stay in India after converting to Islam. Sultan Jalal al-Din also cultivated good relations with the Ilkhans. A notable exception to the Sultan's demeanor, an outright moral failing in the view of his medieval biographers like Barani, was the brutal murder of a famous sufi whose hospice was found to be attached to a conspiracy against him. Jalal al-Din Khalji's violent reaction was rather unusual for him, given his general clemency to others who plotted against him.    The general kindness, almost certainly overstated, made him appear weak to his ambitious nephew, Alauddin. In 1296 Alauddin Khalji killed his uncle, and arrested and blinded his sons and their allies, and thus usurped power in the Sultanate. So began the reign of the most famous Delhi Sultan. You may know him best as the primary antagonist in the recent Bollywood film, Padmavat, where he is portrayed by Indian actor Ranveer Singh.  Alauddin Khalji was not noted for any benevolence, but for his cunning, ruthlessness, and paranoia alongside an iron will and exceptional military ability. Cruel but highly capable, his reign began with a large Neguderi incursion, attacking Multan, Sind and Lahore. Alauddin's commanders Ulugh Khan and Zafar Khan were mobilized with a larger army than the Mongols, and at Jaran-Manjur defeated them, capturing many men, women and children and executing them.   Alauddin Khalji initiated a number of reforms to strengthen his control and prepare against Mongol invasions. Most of these were directed to enlarging the Delhi military and making it more effective, and building new fortifications. His army and officers were paid in cash and the Sultan had personal control over the army, rather than leaving it in the hands of his amirs. Economic reforms were undertaken as well, with high taxes, up to 50% of each crop, and efforts to prevent hoarding to keep prices low, making it cheaper to feed his men. His position was strengthened by a strong spy network and his loyal eunuch and possible lover, Malik Kefar, who secured him from court intrigues. Alauddin Khalji showed exceptional cruelty as he waged war against Mongol and Hindu alike. His wars in Gujarat were accompanied by the destruction of hundreds of Hindu temples and the massacres of men, women and children. The only extant history written in the reign of Sultan Alauddin, that of Amir Khusrau, speaks of the sultan killing some 30,000 Hindus in a single day during his 1303 campaign in Chittoor. In the words of Khusrau, he cut them down as if they were nothing but dry grass. Alauddin's conquest of the independent Hindu kingdom of Ranthambore in Rajasthan in 1301, a state which had long held out against the Delhi Sultans, was an event which has since held significance in Indian memory. A number of later poems were written on the fall  of Ranthambore which have done much to cement Alauddin's legacy for Indians as a cruel tyrant with a near genocidal hatred for Hindus. Whether Alauddin actually carried such hatred for Hindus, or this was a consequence of a violent imitation of the cruelty associated with the very successful Mongols, is of little consolation for the many thousands killed on his order.   While these developments were occurring within the Sultanate, to the north was a major shift in the Mongol territory, largely covered in our second episode on the Chagatai Khanate and on Qaidu Khan. With Qaidu's influence, Du'a was appointed as Khan over the Chagatai Khanate. Splitting rule of central Asia between them, Du'a and his oldest and favourite son, Qutlugh Khwaja, were able to finally bring the fearsome Neguderis, or Qara'unas,  under their power in the 1290s. Qutlugh Khwaja was given command over them. While Qaidu and Du'a focused on the border with Khubilai Khan in the northeast, Qutlugh Khwaja from his southern base turned the Chagatayid-Neguderi attention to India in the closing years of the thirteenth century.  The reasons for this are unclear: we lack sources from the Chagatai perspective, but Ilkhanid and Indian sources give Du'a an intense interest in India. India was famously wealthy and barring raids into the Punjab, was largely untouched by the Mongols. Further, the defeats suffered in the previous incursions into India needed to be avenged, much like Khubilai and his wrath towards Japan or the Ilkhans towards the Mamluk Sultanate. While the Chagatayids could feel they lacked the ability to make great gains against the Ilkhanate or the Yuan, they could have felt a haughtiness to the Turkic and Hindu forces that awaited them in India, and therefore anticipated easy successes.   While generally the Mongol attacks on India are termed as raids, intended for plunder and undertaken on the direction of individual Neguderi chiefs, the most serious invasions which threatened the Delhi Sultanate occurred on Du'a's order. The 1296 attack was already noted, and two years later another Mongol force was sent into India. Alauddin Khalji's army under Ulugh Khan was campaigning in Gujarat when the Mongols attacked in 1298. The commander left in Delhi, Zafar Khan, was able to raise a large army and defeat the Mongols, once more driving them back across the border. The residents of the Sultanate, despite having repulsed attacks before, were not unaware of the destruction caused by the Mongols: many of the new inhabitants of Delhi over the previous decades had been refugees fleeing Mongol terror.  Each Mongol attack was therefore a cause for panic and fear. Thus, Zafar Khan was very popular after his victory, which may have given the always suspicious Sultan Alauddin concern over his loyalty. It was not unfounded that a prominent general with enough reputation could make a claim for the throne: Alauddin's own uncle Jalal al-Din had done just that.   In late 1298 or 1299 began the most serious Mongol invasion of India. On the orders of Du'a Khan, his sons Qutlugh Khwaja and Temur Buqa marched with 50-60,000 Neguderi and Chagatai horsemen over the border. According to sources like Barani, the purpose of this assault was expressly for conquest, and even if we cannot corroborate it from the Chagatai perspective it is evident that this was a serious undertaking compared to earlier attacks. With the arrival of Qutlugh Khwaja's army, greater than any preceding it, the Sultanate erupted into panic. Qutlugh Khwaja intended to make his mark as the next great Mongol conqueror.   The sources have Qutlugh Khwaja bypassing villages to maximize speed, intending to strike directly at the city of Delhi itself while the Sultan's army was once again on campaign in Gujarat. At the River Jumna, Zafar Khan confronted Qutlugh but was defeated and forced to retreat to Delhi. News of the defeat of the heroic Zafar Khan caused thousands to abandon their homes in fear, and the capital was soon flooded with refugees flying before the oncoming army. Famine, overcrowding and fear now gripped Delhi as the swarm drained its resources, all while Qutlugh Khwaja closed in.   Alauddin held a council with his generals in the city, where he was advised to abandon the capital: the Mongols were too numerous, too powerful and too close for them to stand a chance.  Alauddin trusted his sword however, and raised what forces he could. Some 24 kilometres north of Delhi, Alauddin Khalji met Qutlugh Khwaja at a site called Kili.   While the sources give Alauddin a force of some 300,000 men with 2,700 war elephants, it is nigh impossible Alauddin suddenly put together and supplied an army of such a size on short notice. Modern estimates give a more feasible number at around 70,000 with 700 elephants, still a huge army that likely outnumbered the Mongols. Both forces deployed in the standard formation for steppe armies, a center and two wings. The Sultan took the Delhi center, while Zafar Khan commanded the right wing and Ulugh Khan the left, with elephants dispersed among the three groups. Like the Mongols, the Delhi forces relied on Turkic horse archers, light and heavy cavalry, with much of their army experienced in the same style of warfare as the Mongols.    Zafar Khan, looking to avenge his defeat on the Jumna, led the first charge, attacking the Mongol left flank, which broke before him. Zafar gave chase to drive them from the field, but as he was led further away from the rest of the army, he soon found that he had fallen for a feigned retreat. Zafar was encircled, the Noyan Taraghai leading the ambush. Zafar realized that he had been left to die: the Sultan made no effort to rescue the clearly doomed force, his mistrust of his subordinate's growing popularity being too great. Abandoned and surrounded, Zafar gave his best until he was captured. Qutlugh Khwaja was impressed by Zafar's courage, and offered to let him join the Mongols, where surely his bravery would be appreciated, even offering to make him Sultan of Delhi. Zafar Khan was to the end loyal to his Sultan, and refused, and Qutlugh Khwaja ordered the execution of him and all his men and elephants.   With this victory, Qutlugh Khwaja was poised to defeat Alauddin and conquer the Sultanate. At this point however, the Mongol forces retreated. It seems that at some point over the course of the battle, perhaps in a final struggle during the execution of Zafar Khan's troops, Qutlugh Khwaja was seriously injured, causing his army to retreat. Before he could make it back home, Qutlugh died of his injuries. The Chagatais had lost their prince and another invasion, and Du'a Khan his eldest son, with little to show for it.    This defeat did not end the Mongol invasions of India though, as Noyan Taraghai attacked in 1303 while Alauddin was returning from campaigning in Chittoor where his forces suffered heavy losses. Much of his army was still occupied besieging a major Hindu stronghold. Isolated and besieged near Delhi, inconclusive fighting continued for two months as Sultan Alauddin led a grim resistance. The approaching summer heat and the stalemate tested Taraghai's patience, and he too retreated, almost certainly unaware how tenuous Alauddin's position had been.  From 1304 until 1308 invasions were annual, but victories over major Mongol armies had broken down much of the aura of Mongol terror, Alauddin appearing divinely protected. Mongol armies were defeated in battle, their commanders trampled to death by elephants in Delhi and pillars constructed of Mongol skulls outside the city, and Alauddin undertook a massacre of the Mongols living in Delhi.   The question remains: why were the Mongols so ineffective in India? Delhi familiarity with Mongol tactics was a major factor, both from combat experience, similar army models and the presence of Mongol defectors. Alauddin's military and economic reforms allowed him to afford and quickly raise large armies, while his strong, centralized government kept his state from collapsing under the pressures of these invasions. India's hot summers were hard on the Mongols and their horses, impacting pasturage and limiting when the Mongols attacked. Finally, Alauddin and his generals were simply skilled commanders and a match for the Mongol captains, with luck on their side more often than not. Indian sources however, generally ascribed victory to divine intervention rather than skill, which may be why these Mongol defeats are not remembered like Ayn Jalut.    After Qaidu's death, Du'a helped organize a general peace between the Mongol Khanates, even suggesting they put aside their differences and launch a joint attack on India. However, the death of Du'a in 1307 and reemergence of tension with the neighbouring Khanates brought the attention of the Chagatais away from India. In 1328-1329 Du'a's son Tarmashirin undertook the final major Mongol offensive into India, with similar results desultory. Tarmashirin was briefly the Chagatai Khan from 1331-1334, but his death, as well as the collapse of the Ilkhanate, put Central Asia into chaos. Mongol forces were now focused on internal conflict rather than external assault. Much of this we covered in our third episode on the Chagatai khanate, which created the opportunity for a certain Barlas tribesman named Temur to take power in 1370.    Alauddin Khalji continued to rule with an iron hand and expanded the Sultanate. He fell ill in his final years and grew ever more paranoid and disinterested in government, giving more power to his viceroy, Malik Kafur. On Alauddin's death in 1316, he was succeeded by a young son with Malik Kafur acting as regent. Kafur was quickly murdered and Alauddin's son deposed by a brother, Mubarak Shah. Mubarak Shah ruled for only four years before he was murdered by his vizier in 1320, ending Delhi's Khalji Dynasty. The usurper was quickly overthrown by one of Alauddin Khalji's generals, Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, and so began the Delhi Tughluq Dynasty, the third dynasty of the Sultanate   Like Jalal al-Din Khalji, Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq had rose to prominence as a frontier commander against the Mongols, particularly from his post at Depalpur during the reign of Alauddin. Sources of the period, including the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta who visited his court, indicate Ghiyath al-Din was of nomadic background, possibly Mongol or Neguderi, who had entered the Sultanate during the reign of Alauddin Khalji's uncle, working as a horse keeper for a merchant. The long reigns of Ghiyath al-Din's successors, Muhammad Tughluq and Firuz Shah were stable, but saw the slow decline of Delhi's power and permanent losses of Bengal and of the Deccan. Hindu and other smaller Muslim empires expanded at the expense of the Delhi Sultante. As the Tughluq Dynasty stagnated in the closing years of the fourteenth century, the great conqueror Temur cast his eye towards the jewel of northern India. In late 1398 Delhi was sacked and looted by Temur, but limped on until the 16th century when it was finally destroyed by a descendant of both Temur and Chinggis Khan, Babur.      The later interaction of the Delhi Sultanate with the heirs of the Mongols is a topic for future discussions, so be sure to subscribe to the Kings and Generals Podcast to follow. If you enjoyed this, then consider supporting us on patreon at www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals to help keep bringing you great content. This episode was researched and written by our series historian, Jack Wilson. I'm your host David, and we'll catch you on the next one.

Earlier this year, four tigers from one family went missing from the Ranthambore National Park. A tiger (T-64) tigress (T-73) and their two cubs, have not been spotted by forest officials for nearly a year, and are now thought to be confirmed missing. In this episode, we explain how and why tigers go missing, and what it says about conservation efforts in the country.

Alia Bhatt is having a gala time in Ranthambore with beau Ranbir Kapoor. The actress is accompanied by their families. 

Hello, Bollywood buffs! As this day comes to an end, we are back with a brand new episode of Pinkvilla News Brief, bringing you the latest scoop from Bollywood. The latest news comes from Kajol who is all set to make her OTT debut with Tribhanga. The makers have released the trailer of the movie and it has opened to rave reviews from the audience. Virat Kohli gives a glimpse of his New Year celebration with wife Anushka Sharma and friends Hardik Pandya and Natasa Stankovic. Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor, who were holidaying in Ranthambore lately have returned to Mumbai with their respective families. Kangana Ranaut has reacted to reports of her merging her three flats and called it a ‘fake propaganda' by the government. Shah Rukh Khan, in his recent tweet, has dropped hints about him returning to the silver screen. This and much more. So, sit back and tune in to all the latest and hottest scoops.

Hello, Bollywood buffs! Welcome back to another episode of Pinkvilla News Brief episode. The New Year is upon us and Bollywood is making sure to ring in 2021 with style! While Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt continue to vacay with their families in Ranthambore, Ananya Panday and Ishaan Khatter, and Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani gave a glimpse of their Maldives trip as well. While a part of Bollywood floods our timelines with holiday photos, Anushka Sharma opened up about her pregnancy journey and spoke about raising a child with Virat Kohli. There was also an update from CBI on Sushant Singh Rajput's death probe. All this and more in today's podcast episode.

Hello, Bollywood buffs! Welcome back to another episode of Pinkvilla News Brief episode. With just a day left to the New Year's Eve, more and more Bollywood stars were seen out and about, flying out of Mumbai to ring in the new year in different locations. The latest celebs to have found their way to the airport include rumoured lovebirds Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani, who have jetted off to the Maldives for the New Year. Khaali Peeli stars Ananya Panday and Ishaan Khatter followed their footsteps to the airport are also jetted off to the destination for the New Years. Meanwhile, Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, who are vacaying with their family in Ranthambore, drew engagement rumours. But are they really getting engaged this weekend? Tune in to the podcast and find out!

Today Shifa tells you about a delicacy that was made when the first railway tracks were being laid. She also tells you about a wild life photographer who built his own personal forest in Ranthambore.You can follow Shifa Maitra's page "Good News Indians" on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/GoodNewsIndians/You can follow Shifa Maitra on her instagram handle: @shifamaitra(https://www.instagram.com/shifamaitra/)You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/

Wow! Hasn’t life changed dramatically over the last month?  In late February 2020, Mitch & Mills travelled to India with our clients for a trip to remember!  In this week’s episode of Dorothy and the Dealer, we will share some of our incredible experiences from our recent trip to India.  Each country that we travel to is very unique in what it delivers, but India always seems to get better with every visit. If you have yet to visit India and are overwhelmed or curious by its intensity, Mitch & Mill’s share some insight into the mysticism surrounding it. Although Mitch & Mill’s have both visited India many times, this trip was extra special as this was the first time staying at Diggi Fort. Actually, it was the first time anyone stayed there in 300 years!  Diggi Fort, built by our long-time friend, Nana, who is essentially royalty of Diggi, had recently restored the property after leaving the land vacant for 160 years! Between the incredible stay at Diggi Fort where we were treated like royalty, inclusive of Moet and fireworks, seeing tigers in Ranthambore, and attending Holi festival in Pushkar, we’re not sure how we will top this trip!  It is said, “the best party of travelling is coming home,” and it is with immense gratitude that we were able to arrive back to Australia safely. We look forward to when we are able to travel again and will be planning the next MJB Adventures trip in the meantime.  Have you visited India? We’d love to hear your experience in the comments!  Make sure to subscribe to our podcast, we release a new episode every Sunday.

Die Überraschungsreise 2019 geht nach ... Indien! Guten Morgen! Wir möchten Euch nicht länger auf die Folter spannen und haben hier die grobe Reisebeschreibung unserer Indientour 2019 zusammengefasst: Reisebeschreibung Indien vom 26. September - 4. Oktober 2019 1. Tag Abflug in Frankfurt/M. am Mittag 2. Tag Ankunft in Delhi am frühen Morgen Transfer zum Hotel Frühstück und Stadtbesichtigung Besichtigung Qutab Minar Rahrradrickshaw-trip 3. Tag Fahrt Delhi – Agra Besichtigung Agra Fort Tonga-Fahrt zum Taj Mahal 4. Tag Fahrt Agra – Fatehpursikri – Jaipur 5. Tag Jaipur: Besichtigung Stadtpalast und Obervatorium Elefantenritt zum Amber Fort, Besichtigung, Rückfahrt im Jeep 6. Tag Fahrt Jaipur – Ranthambore Nationalpark Ranthambore 7. Tag 2 x Safari mit dem Jeep im Nationalpark Ranthambore 8. Tag Spannende Zugfahrt von Ranthambore nach Delhi Besichtigung Humayuns Grab in Delhi 9. Tag Abflug Delhi um Vormittag Landung in Frankfurt am späteren Abend Klingt es für Euch gut? Das wichtigste ist der Reisezeitraum: vom 26. September bis 4. Oktober ist die Zeit für Indien! Und buchbar wird die Reise ab Freitag Abend dieser Woche, 18.00 Uhr sein. Für den Reisepreis von 1745.- EUR im DZ erhaltet Ihr folgende Leistungen: Inklusiveleistungen: - Flug Frankfurt – Delhi inkl. 23 kg Aufgabegepäck - Transfer in Indien - Gehobene ***-Hotels im DZ mit Frühstück, 2 x Abendessen in Ranthambore - Deutschsprachiger Guide in Delhi, Agra, Fatehpursikri und Jaipur - Eintrittsgelder zu allen o.g. Bauwerken - Fahrradrickshaw-trip in Delhi - Tonga-Fahrt in Agra zum Taj Mahal - 2 Jeep Safaris (Gemeinschaftsjeep) im Ranthambore Nationalpark - Elefantenritt zum Amber Fort und Rückfahrt im Jeep - Zugticket für die Fahrt von Ranthambore nach Delhi - 2 Flaschen Wasser je 0,5 l je Person und Tag Nicht im Reisepreis enthalten: - Trinkgelder - weitere Verpflegung, Getränke - Ausgaben persönlicher Natur - Visa-Gebühren für e-TV Die Reise wird ab morgen Abend (Fr., 16. November), 18.00 Uhr, buchbar sein. Wir bieten Euch natürlich wieder unseren speziellen Service der ½ Doppelzimmer bei Verfügbarkeit an. Solltet Ihr noch Fragen vor der Buchung haben, schreibt uns doch unter esselborn@cacher-reisen.de. Wir freuen uns auf Euch! Euer Cacher-Reisen-Team

With over 100 national parks, India has an amazing array of wildlife! Planning a safari vacation can be daunting. Listen to this episode as Ambika and Hoshner talk about some of their favourite parks and let you in on all the little details on planning a safari! Fun Fact: Your hosts Ambika and Hoshner met each other for the first time on a safari! Listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcast App on Android: https://goo.gl/tGYdU1 or iOS: https://goo.gl/sZSTU5 You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/

Deepak Dalal, son of celebrity chef and author Tarla Dalal, threw away his chemical engineering career to write 'Indian stories' for children who till then only had Hardy Boys and Sherlock Holmes to read. His books span the vast diverse landscapes of India, from the breathtaking Lakshadweep to Ranthambore, from the mysterious Andamans to Ladakh to the Sahyadris. In fast-paced mystery stories, his intrepid characters Vikram and Aditya find and tackle evil doers. Dalal's love for wildlife, his passion for writing, risk taking ability (How many abandon chemical engineering to be writers?) comes through. Witty, franky and down to earth, he makes writing bestsellers sound easy. His books can hold the attention of both adults and children, and are clean--an important quality at a time when children are still impressionable. His dream is to write a novel based in Arunachal Pradesh and I think, when you finish hearing this, you may want him to start asap:)

In December 2013 on our program “What Do Students, Sports and Tigers Have in Common?” we learned about Tigers4Tigers, a group of concerned students with an affinity for tigers and attending tiger mascot schools, came together and formed the National Tigers for Tigers Coalition. In January 2014, T4T took their passion and skills on the road- to India. Sharing experiences of a lifetime, trip leader, Sean Carnell and the students join us today discussing tiger conservation in the field: from the work of Tiger Trust's operations in Ranthambore and Bandhavgarh National Parks, and the students' insights gained through visits to historical sites and a 3-day cultural exchange and awareness program. T4T students have returned to the U.S., more motivated than ever and are determined to #saveourmascot.

After all the drama and ruckus created by the Mumbaiites post 26/11, it was a no show on election day. Only 43% of us decided to vote while the rest most probably enjoyed a long weekend but a few voters in Madhya Pradesh decided to cast a "no-vote". This episode also covers the suprising death of the man who discovered pebbles in Ambani's helicopter, how the slowdown has resulted in the increase in UPSC applications, and why a tigress in Ranthambore was conferred the Lifetime achievement award.

After all the drama and ruckus created by the Mumbaiites post 26/11, it was a no show on election day. Only 43% of us decided to vote while the rest most probably enjoyed a long weekend but a few voters in Madhya Pradesh decided to cast a "no-vote". This episode also covers the suprising death of the man who discovered pebbles in Ambani's helicopter, how the slowdown has resulted in the increase in UPSC applications, and why a tigress in Ranthambore was conferred the Lifetime achievement award.

Crafts is an integral part of experiential creativity and the conduit for imagination of forms. Today I have Devika Krishnan with us on Audiogyan; She is a founder of Studio sattva and Arthouse. Devika graduate in ceramics from NID and did MBA from ISB —- and since then has been working relentlessly in varied areas of design and empowerment. She continues to work for Dastkar Ranthambhore where she trains new groups of artisans. One of the topics which we will be discussing in this episode is her path-breaking project called Commitment to Kashmir that is enabling young and eager Kashmiris to set up their crafts businesses – with suitable market linkages – to sustain themselves and those they employ. *Questions* * Real India is 60%+ villages. Can you give us a sense of the broad landscape of arts and craft in our country? * After working for more than 2 decades in this space, especially at Ranthambore, what are the insights you can share w.r.t crafts? * Why is Kashmir so fertile when it comes to Crafts? * What is commitment to Kashmir? How does it work? On which criteria these artisan are handpicked? * What are the top 3 or 5 challenges which Kashmiri Artisians are facing? * What all changes happened due to 370 in Kashmir? * It is so juxtaposition that, Mumbai is financial capital of India and also house to biggest slum in Asia. Similarly, Kashmir being area of dispute and terror for nearly 7 decades and yet most beautiful when it comes to design and art. How do you reconcile this thought? * Can you tell us which are the really unique indigenous products produced from Kashmir and why?