Vulgar History - International, part 1： The Disabled Woman Who Ruled Ancient Kashmir

00:00:00.000 Hey, hey, it's Caitlin Bailey here. I am the founder and executive director of Old Pros and the host of The Oldest Profession podcast.

00:00:08.520 If you support sex worker rights, then learn more about our history.

00:00:12.540 The Oldest Profession podcast reminds listeners that sex workers have always been a part of the story.

00:00:17.980 Every episode focuses on an old pro from history, contextualizing that figure in their own time and connecting their story to the ongoing struggle for sex worker rights.

00:00:27.560 episodes of the podcast are available on all streaming platforms and you can always get more

00:00:32.680 information about our sources and subjects by visiting our website oldprosonline.org

00:00:57.560 hello and welcome to vulgar history a feminist women's history comedy podcast

00:01:04.340 my name is ann foster and this is season five so it's great to be back here doing a full season

00:01:11.380 arguably i could say the three-part fredigan super specials was kind of a season but just

00:01:17.460 technically i'm going to call those specials and this is an official season with a topic

00:01:23.860 with a theme and this theme such topic is well it's the we're looking at stories from around

00:01:31.780 the world but the official name is vulgar history international scandalousness without borders

00:01:37.260 tits out sans frontier this bilingual title really it's a great title i agree um but also

00:01:46.960 it really says what we're going to be talking about because the first part vulgar history

00:01:50.880 internationale we're going to be looking at stories from a variety of different countries

00:01:55.660 inspired by you the listeners aka the tits out brigade i've been learning more about where

00:02:03.980 you're from and who some of the people from your countries are and i really have really been

00:02:09.160 enjoying learning all about all that stuff and i'm excited to share it with everybody

00:02:12.440 scandalousness without borders is part of what i think is going to become pretty evident like

00:02:19.640 from this from episode one that the sort of tits out scandaliciousness that we have looked at in

00:02:25.960 the previous four seasons largely centered in england is not that was just kind of where we

00:02:32.360 happened to be but frankly there's people doing scandalous things everywhere and honestly the

00:02:36.900 universality of some of these experiences are it was it was uh interesting for me to realize how

00:02:46.480 how international some of the things that happen are like there's always kind of like some sort of 0.97

00:02:51.440 like fucked up patriarchy there's always someone being like a woman with power she must be a witch 0.94

00:02:56.080 like it's all just like no matter where you are so scandalousness without borders and then also 1.00

00:03:01.960 the third part of the title tits out sans frontiers which is french for tits out without 0.99

00:03:08.880 borders but what I take that part to mean as well is to really talk about how the tits out 0.92

00:03:15.620 ishness is really not limited to um cisgendered women or even to people who like to pull out a 0.94

00:03:24.020 like the fact that it's anyone can be tits out doesn't matter where you're from what kind of 0.95

00:03:30.060 person you are your gender your sexuality any of it like tits out is for everybody so in this season 0.93

00:03:37.460 we will be sharing stories from across as i count them five continents uh i believe 16 countries 0.59

00:03:45.860 um asterix there's not going to be 16 episodes because your girl does not have time for that

00:03:51.740 but there will be less than 16 episodes but 16 countries because some of these people

00:03:57.420 move around we're going to be telling the stories this season of um cisgender women we're also

00:04:03.980 going to be talking about people of other genders and we're going to get to that it's more

00:04:08.560 coincidentally we're going to be doing this as per every season chronologically and just so

00:04:13.120 happens that the we're going to be queering it up more in the second half of the season so like

00:04:17.760 stay tuned for that this topic and direction again was inspired by you the tits out brigade

00:04:23.220 because you are all kinds of people from all different places and i want to honor you all

00:04:27.960 by sharing stories of people from where you're from and people who are in some ways like you

00:04:34.000 all that being said this podcast is frankly about storytelling and honoring these historical

00:04:41.120 people while also telling a really good and scandalous story and I've got I love that we're

00:04:46.560 kicking off with this story it's got a little bit of everything um oh I did fill this up but I forget

00:04:52.160 now um so I made a vulgar history bingo sheet you can find it it's on the vulgar history instagram

00:04:57.020 which is instagram at vulgar history pod i think i also put it on the twitter and i think it's for 1.00

00:05:02.880 sure on the patreon patreon.com slash ann foster writer anyway again with the help of the tits

00:05:07.920 out brigade i made this bingo sheet of just things that happen a lot in these episodes and i feel

00:05:12.480 like this i don't know if i got a bingo i want you to play along if you feel like that and tell

00:05:18.180 me how you do i don't know if i got a bingo when i was just kind of doing it from memory

00:05:22.200 but we've definitely got at least like six to seven bingo squares crossed off here so it's

00:05:26.660 really a great vulgar history story and this is someone I never had heard of I don't know if I

00:05:33.120 would have heard of this person except for Tits Out Brigade member Simran suggested this person

00:05:38.700 and when I started researching I was just like oh hell yeah this is great and then um I got some

00:05:45.420 help as well from Tits Out Brigade member Chloe who helped suggest some resources for me to read

00:05:50.280 and answered some of my questions so we're kicking off this international season with an iconic queen

00:05:56.580 that maybe you haven't heard of either but you're about to and it is ronnie didda of cashmere

00:06:02.820 so references and these are all in the show notes as well as per ever um so i read a bunch of stuff

00:06:12.360 about her as much as i could find frankly not a lot but honestly that's like part of this show

00:06:16.840 it's finding people who sound so cool and yet there's not a full-length biography of them

00:06:22.340 Anyway, so I read a piece from feminisminindia.com, spharajamagazine.com, livehistoryindia.com,

00:06:33.840 cashmereblogs.wordpress.com, as well as some books, which are all listed in the show notes

00:06:38.260 as well.

00:06:40.780 So where does this take place?

00:06:43.460 Well, the story takes place in the 10th century in the kingdom of Kashmir, where this is on

00:06:50.140 a current map and there's a lot of current events happening in Kashmir um and the in the 10th

00:06:59.260 century the kingdom of Kashmir was um in around the same place as the contemporary region known

00:07:04.900 as Kashmir still is so to locate us I'll put a map on Instagram too I think just so everybody

00:07:10.560 can really get the visual so we're in South Asia and where the kingdom was it's in the Himalayan

00:07:16.800 mountains and so where the kingdom was now i don't know how to describe this it's like where the

00:07:24.420 kingdom was is now if you look at a map today um you're gonna it's part of modern day india

00:07:30.880 modern day pakistan modern day tibet modern day afghanistan and modern day china um and that's all

00:07:37.100 kind of i'm saying when you look at a map because that's what a map will say but people from those

00:07:41.220 countries might say something different it's a place that is very much under a lot of conflict

00:07:46.900 about what country is it in but we're looking at the 10th century and what country it was in

00:07:52.820 doesn't matter it was the kingdom of Kashmir in the mountains beautiful valleys lakes and rivers

00:07:58.780 lots of farming going on and so this is again where we find this kind of commonalities between

00:08:05.440 this and other stories and I'm going to because I'm coming at this from my like having mostly

00:08:10.720 studied Western Europe brain like when I make a connection I'm like oh it's like this and this

00:08:16.200 and like other stories so having listened to other episodes of the podcast I'm going to try

00:08:21.060 and relate it back to other episodes so you'll kind of see what the connections are that I'm

00:08:24.400 thinking of um so like when we looked at for instance the story of iconic Fredegand which

00:08:31.180 was in kind of modern day France but it was like the Frankish kingdoms it was like Neustria and I

00:08:37.880 forget the names of the other ones but so it's the same sort of thing so there's the kingdom of

00:08:41.740 kashmir and all around it are all other little kingdoms and the kingdoms are all kind of like

00:08:45.300 sometimes in alliance with each other and sometimes at war with each other each has its own king so

00:08:51.420 a similar sort of situation um also in this place and time 10th century kingdom of kashmir

00:08:56.960 the dominant religion was hinduism although there were also strong buddhist influences the language

00:09:03.220 that everybody was speaking i think well the people in the story who are royal people um with

00:09:09.720 sanskrit and so i will be using sanskrit words on occasion in the story where they make sense

00:09:15.580 like where that word is just the best word rather than choosing kind of an english word that doesn't

00:09:19.960 mean quite the same thing um for instance the name of this woman ronnie didda so her name is

00:09:25.580 didda that's her name and ronnie is a sanskrit title that means basically queen but she was a

00:09:34.160 ronnie that was her thing so it's like how in the danya anna eye patch it's like she was a lady but

00:09:40.980 we say danya because that's like how spanish people did it so ronnie didda so a bit more

00:09:48.300 background stuff just because you need to know who recorded the story of didda because unlike i think

00:09:53.940 in any other episode like this writer is going to come up and that's because he's the only person

00:09:59.440 who wrote about her um other people have since but it's all based on his writing so this was a

00:10:04.600 guy named kalhana so he also lived in cashmere but like 200 years later after the events of did

00:10:10.880 his life and he decided to write a chronicle about all of the history of cashmere and this

00:10:17.400 is in a work that is called I wrote down the pronunciation for myself um Raja Tarangini

00:10:24.060 is the name of the chronicle so it's literally the only source there is about the life of Ditta

00:10:28.760 so we're relying on Kalhana's work exclusively um and that work is obviously written in Sanskrit

00:10:36.060 so I'm personally relying on the resources I mentioned and the books in the show notes

00:10:40.660 who are people who interpreted that and then I read those English language sources because I am

00:10:45.480 a basic bitch who only speaks English so the thing with Calhanna is I feel like we can trust him

00:10:52.060 like so often with these sources who is the one who wrote the mean things about Cleopatra like 0.99

00:10:57.300 sometimes it's like the only person who wrote about them was their like arch enemy oh that's

00:11:00.980 the Fredegund thing right because it was all that guy who like Brunhilde anyway so you know I'm

00:11:08.300 skeptical sometimes when there's just one source about a woman but the thing with Calhanna is that

00:11:13.300 his work is known to be like brutally honest to the point that scholars are like what was this guy

00:11:19.060 about like usually these chronicles are paid for by the kings and so the people were in the

00:11:24.120 chronicles had to be really nice about past monarchs because those were maybe like the 0.82

00:11:28.340 ancestors of the current gang but kalhana i'm gonna say and this is like our tits out sans 0.98

00:11:33.400 frontiers he was just like tits out in his writing he was just like here's what fucking happened 0.97

00:11:38.500 like like i'm just gonna tell you the truth like i'm not gonna spin it like here's what 0.95

00:11:43.480 we know so kalhana he's gonna be kind of like a supporting character in this story

00:11:49.340 so kalhana truly gave zero fucks and seemingly told the truth and so i appreciate that about him

00:11:55.420 a historian named pnk bumsai wrote that in kalhana's history there are no heroes or heroines

00:12:02.980 indeed whether we love them or not for their virtues it is their vices which make them

00:12:07.180 unforgettable and without a mind ronnie didda so she was born in 924 10th century in the kingdom

00:12:18.640 of lohara which is a kingdom that was near kashmir they were on a trade route near kashmir

00:12:24.700 her father was named simharaja and he was the king of lohara so she was the princess um

00:12:32.480 so this is a royal story so not only was she a princess because her father was a king

00:12:38.180 but also she was the granddaughter on her mother's side of Bhima Deva Shahi who was one of the Shahi

00:12:45.540 family of Kabul so the Shahis this is super important they were a dynasty that held sway

00:12:52.040 over this whole region at this time they were a Hindu family the Shahis were just like I don't

00:12:59.160 know who's a contemporary comparison or even one from a previous episode it's kind of like

00:13:02.980 maybe it's like the queen margo episode it's like her mother was catherine de medici so like the

00:13:07.920 medicis were about it um anyway the shahis were just like being the granddaughter of them meant

00:13:14.220 that she was not as powerful as being the king's daughter but the granddaughter of like these super

00:13:19.840 powerful influential people kalhana doesn't write anything about ditta's youth or young childhood

00:13:24.580 because kalhana wanted to get to the good stuff and so am i what we do know about dida though

00:13:30.000 is that she um i think from early on had some sort of physical disability in her legs so we

00:13:37.400 know this because kalhana refers to her with a sanskrit word charanjina which means footless

00:13:43.980 effectively so she had some sort of leg slash foot issue something that affected her walking

00:13:50.060 so maybe polio um i don't know maybe it's like a club foot like she had some sort of 0.99

00:13:56.620 physical disability she could walk but she also had a woman i don't know if this is a servant

00:14:03.100 i'm assuming this is a servant or like a lady-in-waiting situation it was not i don't

00:14:08.980 know maybe it's a hired staff member i do not know but there's a woman called valga who would

00:14:13.680 carry her around um one detail that kahana tells us is that valga would also carry ditta in running

00:14:20.140 competitions which is fascinating to me first of all what was his competition second of all

00:14:26.920 how fast did valga run third of all like i assume ditta won like how when um what's his name nero

00:14:36.400 would do the in like ancient roman times he made them all have olympics but then he made everybody 1.00

00:14:41.600 let him win anyway i don't know so did it had some sort of leg issue but she also would compete 0.97

00:14:48.020 in running competitions and love that for her so unusually in these stories for a princess

00:14:56.420 dida was still unmarried by age 26 so i don't know why that is and that does happen in some

00:15:04.280 other stories sometimes but given who her family is i don't know if it's like they're so powerful

00:15:09.680 people were like like the family wouldn't think anyone was good enough for her or if i don't know

00:15:14.340 maybe they thought there's some information here later about like how people with physical 0.99

00:15:18.120 disabilities were looked at so maybe people didn't want to marry her not sure anyway she was unmarried

00:15:23.980 age 26 and then one day the family received an offer of marriage from kasima gupta the king of

00:15:29.620 kashmir and at this time did his family well her father like lohara but then also her grandparents

00:15:36.540 the Shahis much more powerful than Kasima Gupta and his family even though he was the king of

00:15:42.280 Kashmir. Lohara was in a much better situation than Kashmir and that is because Kashmir was in 0.95

00:15:48.760 turmoil and had been for decades. This was largely because of a group of very unpleasant landowners

00:15:55.580 who are referred to by Kalhana and now by me as the Damaras or the Damaras. This is a word that

00:16:05.180 means basically a landlord but it means a bit more than that and also these guys are so much

00:16:12.940 their own thing like we're just going to go with the word and i'm just going to make a judgment 0.97

00:16:16.080 call that it's the damaras so these assholes had been causing chaos in cashmere for decades by now 0.98

00:16:22.340 and if you're like ann why are you calling these people assholes like you don't know the cultural 0.90

00:16:26.800 context of it and it's like i do because kalhana wrote about them and he was writing in sanskrit

00:16:32.600 so he's different words but he told it like it is and he clearly explains how the damaras were

00:16:39.240 the worst he says they were ill-mannered and uncultured but they put on airs and acted they

00:16:45.060 were better like they were better than they were and just generally inserted themselves in royal

00:16:48.420 business and they kept things in chaos because they kept switching allegiances um like they

00:16:54.240 would support one king then they'd support somebody else and that person would take over

00:16:57.080 his king and then they would switch to another person like they really had the balance of power

00:17:01.060 and they were just making everything a mess because there was constant rebellion and kings

00:17:05.820 were being usurped way too often for any sort of stability and this was for literal decades and 0.98

00:17:12.000 it's all just because of these assholes demras for instance a year before kasima gupta asked if he 0.98

00:17:19.300 could marry ditta a man well his father parva gupta became king so parva gupta became king by 0.99

00:17:27.720 killing the previous king who was a boy i'm not sure how um this came about but he killed the boy

00:17:35.120 previous king by weighing him down with rocks and throwing him in a river so that's that's how

00:17:41.040 parvagupta became the king so he basically threw the king in the river proclaimed himself the king

00:17:45.700 but then parvagupta died within a year of sounds like heart disease type issues which given the

00:17:53.180 kind of high stress way of life that seemed to be going on among people who want to usurp and

00:17:59.140 be the king could make sense you know stress and whatever at the same point there's going to be a

00:18:04.000 number of mysterious deaths in this story and i don't think kalhana theorizes this as murder but

00:18:09.180 i'm going to because that seems suspicious so parvagupta was king for like not even a year

00:18:14.160 and then his son took over the son is kasima gupta so this is kind of the chaos that was

00:18:20.540 already going on like kasima gupta was the king had just taken over because his father died of

00:18:25.060 quote-unquote heart disease after having killed the previous boy king by throwing him in a river

00:18:29.980 like somehow the demoras were profiting off of all this chaos and i don't understand how or why but 0.99

00:18:36.020 that's the sense i get anyway so kasima gupta is just like fuck i'm the king the thing about him 0.97

00:18:41.820 was he would not have expected to become king at this point because his father had like literally 0.97

00:18:46.220 just taken over um allegedly according to kalhana kasima gupta had been known as a bit of a dirt

00:18:53.760 bag he liked women gambling and he liked going on jackal hunts in the woods but now that he was king

00:18:59.920 he was like oh okay like looking at the kind of just like snake's nest all around him this is

00:19:05.800 giving me um you know this is like a thousand years later but like how it was when cleopatra

00:19:10.820 you remember her and her family and they all kept killing each other just like no one could trust

00:19:14.420 anyone he's like i need like i'm gonna clearly be the next one tied to rocks and surround the river

00:19:19.440 unless i figure out some good alliances here he saw and knew that he would get political legitimacy

00:19:25.540 and also the support of the powerful shahis if he married 26 year old dida and the family was like

00:19:33.840 okay cool and so the marriage was arranged and our girl dida comes to kashmir she went to the

00:19:42.040 beautiful city of Srinagar which if you look at pictures it's Kashmir in general just like the

00:19:49.180 picturesque the way that it looks like the mountains and the valleys Srinagar itself

00:19:56.460 it's a beautiful place and so she would have arrived and she's just like here's what's gonna

00:20:00.600 happen I'm gonna become an icon I imagine she thinks to herself spoiler she does but anyway

00:20:06.460 she arrives she's just like this is cool I don't know is she being carried by Valga maybe I don't

00:20:11.080 know so she showed up and everyone's just like okay who's this like 26 year old person with some

00:20:16.340 sort of like leg disability whatever but to the surprise of basically everyone kasima gupta met

00:20:23.300 her and fell in love with her so hard and so obviously that in fact he started to be become

00:20:29.720 known to the people of kashmir his subjects so they started calling him didakshima which

00:20:36.040 effectively means like like did his pet like person obsessed with dida like person who is

00:20:44.480 in love with dida so kasima gupta aka didakshima loves his new wife um and this is where you kind

00:20:52.340 of get the sense of like dida was a cool person like and he maybe you know we think like who is

00:20:59.660 good enough for her but it's like okay like someone who becomes so besotted with her that

00:21:04.360 like is even though he's the king people start calling him that it's like okay i feel like

00:21:08.340 this is what did it deserves so what is the deal with this relationship there are options here and

00:21:15.100 more than one can be true at the same time firstly um he was just totally smitten with didda and who

00:21:20.600 can blame him as we're gonna see she was a great person and again like cleopatra vibes where like

00:21:26.480 i don't know what she looked like and i don't think kalhana writes about that because he had

00:21:29.920 more important things to talk about but i feel like it must just be like a like a star quality

00:21:35.680 like that level of charisma where just people just are besotted by her when they meet her

00:21:42.040 and including luckily her husband kasima gupta um so bear in mind that she was great and of course

00:21:50.360 he fell in love with her and what could be true at the same time is like he knew who her grandparents

00:21:55.060 were like the shahi family who were really powerful and he wanted to stick up to them

00:22:00.100 so by being really good to their granddaughter maybe would make them work harder to like protect 0.98

00:22:06.720 him slash her so both things can be true and then also because this always happens and this is where 1.00

00:22:13.420 it's just like welcome to vulgar history uh there were obviously rumors that ditta was a witch

00:22:18.520 who had put him under a spell and that's why he loved her so much um which i'm gonna

00:22:25.020 guess is because of the physical disability thing like again i don't mean to like i'm not like

00:22:32.720 putting in suspense for this like there's stuff later about another person with a physical

00:22:35.600 disability actually no someone who was from before we're gonna have a flashback moment in a bit

00:22:39.840 this was a culture in time in which people with physical disabilities were not

00:22:43.480 accepted so people like why would the king be so in love with this woman who maybe has like a leg

00:22:50.740 issue i guess she must be a witch who put him under a spell um so mark that off on your bingo

00:22:56.700 cards anyway he had also mark this off on your bingo cards a coin minting moment so ksima gupta

00:23:04.860 had coins minted and just in this era from what i gleaned from reading about all of this slash just

00:23:13.280 the coin listings you can find if you're like a you know antiques coin collector there was a lot

00:23:20.540 of coins coming out of this place in time because who the king was kept changing and a way to be

00:23:24.880 like i'm the king now and everyone's like are you though is to like make coins with your name on it

00:23:28.560 and everyone's like says on the coin i guess you are the king so kasima gupta had coins minted

00:23:32.760 with not just his name on it but did his name also which speaks to how much he loved her and or

00:23:37.700 how important she was so the fact that she was influencing him to this extent made some people

00:23:46.660 upset because this stuff always makes some people upset um one of the people who was upset was

00:23:52.040 enter an important um secondary character felguna who was the prime minister and in fact he was

00:24:00.340 the father of a woman named chandra laka who was also married to kasima gupta so side note

00:24:07.340 polygamy was a thing that happened in this culture don't worry about it it was not unusual for king

00:24:12.780 in this place and time to have more than one wife but guess whose name was not on the coins

00:24:16.780 chandralaika um which i guess maybe made it also even more interesting how much he valued ditta

00:24:23.140 so ditta gave birth to a son whose name was abhimanyu and her grandfather the powerful bima

00:24:31.140 shahi visited kashmir to see his great-grandson and to build a temple in his honor and side note

00:24:35.960 this family as you will see is all about building temples in honor of various people that was their

00:24:42.200 love language um and everything is cool for five years apparently and i mean frankly for like a

00:24:49.000 king in cashmere to last five years seems good like good for you kasima gupta but then when

00:24:54.520 kasima gupta was one on one of his beloved jackal hunts he caught a violent fever and he died so

00:25:02.960 did a widowed and so she immediately hid her son to protect him from being murdered because

00:25:09.740 um young boy kings got murdered as we know like um her son's grandfather so and it was probably

00:25:18.100 pretty likely that um the son might be murdered so like good instincts did a she was on her own

00:25:25.700 now like he had been so he'd loved her so much he supported her so much but now he was gone and

00:25:29.360 she was just kind of like who can i trust who can i lean on here so everyone gathered together for

00:25:35.640 kasima gupta's last rites or his funeral um and there was a great pressure on ditta to throw 0.55

00:25:42.280 herself along with kasima gupta's other wives onto the burning funeral pyre of his dead corpse

00:25:49.440 and so that is a thing that's called sati and we're gonna need to take a little side note to

00:25:55.800 talk about that so this is a custom where a widow throws herself on the burning pyre of her dead

00:26:01.980 husband in order to kill herself there's a whole other conversation about sati in like not in 10th

00:26:09.480 century cashmere like in post-colonial india in like 20th 21st century like this is a whole

00:26:17.060 we're talking about 10th century cashmere and in 10th century cashmere sati was very prevalent

00:26:24.000 and culturally expected kalhana and just yeah so kalhana did not support this as a tradition

00:26:33.100 so it's a thing that some people did um not everybody not everybody was expected to do it

00:26:40.920 um so kalhana our main our man on the ground um he explained that even though he did not

00:26:50.400 personally support it the custom at this time did his era was so deep rooted in the ruling families

00:26:54.960 of cashmere that not only like the people who did this who like died by throwing themselves on the

00:27:01.760 burning pyre of men so it wasn't just wives who did it but in this era did his era but also 0.68

00:27:07.300 concubines would do this mothers would do this sisters sisters-in-law which this all sucks i

00:27:13.820 don't want to make light of it this is a horrible thing but the point where it's like oh your

00:27:17.580 brother-in-law died like no you have to die it's like sister-in-law anyway during this like big

00:27:23.880 trend um kohana reports in this era ministers servants and nurses um would burn themselves

00:27:30.600 when they're like king or whatever head of the household died he also says one time literally

00:27:36.420 a cat like a feline animal out of affection for its dead master voluntarily threw itself

00:27:43.020 onto the funeral pyre so people are just like this is what was happening like and if you're

00:27:49.280 expecting like the cats and the sisters-in-law and like housemaids to all do it then like of

00:27:54.300 course the wife is expected to and especially the like main wife which did a seem to be

00:27:57.900 so she was age 31 and it was very culturally expected that she was going to throw herself 0.99

00:28:04.580 on kasima gupta's funeral pyre and die the damaras would have been especially wanting her to do that

00:28:11.040 because they lived for drama but dida was like i'm gonna pass like no thanks on the sati

00:28:19.300 and the thing is she had historical precedent to support her reasoning for staying alive

00:28:23.860 she said she wanted she had to stay alive to protect her young son who is the new

00:28:27.820 king and the historical precedent she had for this was recent enough she must have known that this

00:28:34.460 happened and what happened about 50 years earlier was another widowed queen had refused sati for

00:28:39.200 the same reason and that person was rani suganta and this is our flashback moment rani suganta

00:28:46.380 so again this is like 50 years pre ditta there was this person so suganta like ditta had been

00:28:56.400 the daughter of a king who was then married to the king of kashmir who then um i didn't write

00:29:03.160 down his name anyway she married who the king of kashmir was at that moment and that was like a

00:29:09.120 decent reign her husband the king reigned for about 15 years and then when he died it was

00:29:13.960 expected sugantha would commit sati but she refused saying she had to stay alive to act as

00:29:18.380 regent to her son who is the new boy king and his name was gopala varman like so many other

00:29:25.200 queen regents we've looked at on this podcast again looking at you fredegand brunhilde sugantha

00:29:31.140 was more than capable at managing the affairs of the kingdom while the king was literally a son who 1.00

00:29:36.060 like i don't know played with trucks or whatever there were rumors that she was promiscuous 1.00

00:29:42.220 which seems unlikely given the culture she was living in and the position she was in 1.00

00:29:46.900 but given that the damaras hated her and wanted to ruin her reputation um so of course there were 1.00

00:29:52.740 these rumors that she was just like this crazy what's her name the one um from the agrippina

00:29:57.600 story i can hear you all yelling at me or imagine you are you know remember when there was like the 0.97

00:30:03.520 wife and then she like theoretically had the like having sex contest like people are messalina

00:30:08.580 people are just like she's just like this messalina type person and sugantha is just like i'm just 1.00

00:30:13.980 trying to rule the country get off my back damras anyway one rumor which maybe it's true is that she

00:30:19.800 had an affair with her treasury minister who allegedly took on king-like powers so sugantha

00:30:26.500 was like the regent the son was technically the king but this guy the treasury minister was maybe

00:30:31.920 sort of like manipulating her to get more power for sure he was a shady guy for instance he stole

00:30:38.060 state treasures so sugentha's son started investigating the treasury minister um the

00:30:45.000 treasury minister heard about this so he hired someone to assassinate the king via witchcraft

00:30:49.620 as you do so it's like hiring an assassin who knows witchcraft love it so the king in fact

00:30:58.380 coincidentally or witchcraft died of a fever um and then the alleged witch assassin died by suicide

00:31:05.100 after his involvement became known i guess that was more he knew his punishment would be really

00:31:09.480 bad so anyway he died um the son is dead the next king was sugantha's next son or i guess it could

00:31:18.180 have been a different wife's son anyway another little boy became the new king but he died

00:31:22.440 mysteriously after 10 days um the lack of a new air caused even more chaos in cashmere the damaras

00:31:29.220 were just like loving it started plotting a coup um so a group of decision makers this sort of

00:31:36.820 meeting this like grand jury was called that's called the maha panchayat and so it's kind of

00:31:43.100 like leaders from all different parts of the land came together and they voted who should be our new

00:31:49.540 monarch and because sugantha had been effectively leading for a couple years

00:31:53.440 and she was quite popular among the people she was proclaimed to be in charge and so to make it

00:32:00.400 all official i mean you know what she did coin minting so she had coins minted that say

00:32:06.500 sri sugantha diva so unlike the title rani which is always applied to women and mean

00:32:11.940 is a political title meaning queen um three the prefix is a religious term usually given to saints

00:32:19.660 and gurus and almost never to a woman so by putting three sukanta diva on the coins she

00:32:25.880 was making it clear that she was not just the king's mother or the king's wife but basically

00:32:29.160 the king so this is like who is the one i'm sorry i promise i prepare for these podcasts but

00:32:36.860 things occur to me was it the one was it Hatshepsut in ancient Egypt haven't done on the

00:32:42.300 podcast but I feel like you guys might know who wore the like sticky on like beard because she's

00:32:51.060 like yeah I'm a woman but I'm also the king like there's been other stories like this too is it

00:32:56.040 Aethelflaed where it's like the word queen only meant like wife of so if you're in charge then

00:33:00.600 you're called the king guess what there's going to be like at least two more stories this season

00:33:04.560 where women do a similar thing where they're just like i am king now so the thing is part of why 1.00

00:33:10.800 they voted her in and potentially part of why she agreed to do it because i don't know how ambitious

00:33:15.140 she was was because sugentha's daughter-in-law was pregnant so this is the widow of her son

00:33:21.360 who died and presumably this unborn child could be the new king and would replace sugentha when

00:33:26.900 he was born and she could go on and be regent or whatever afterwards but then sadly the birth

00:33:31.660 it was a stillbirth so sugentha was now the monarch with no heir and she looked around she's

00:33:37.460 like okay um i get the sense that she maybe didn't want to be the monarch but she's like okay what if

00:33:44.640 i my heir could be one of my relatives who was a man who was nicknamed pengu which is a sanskrit

00:33:51.400 word that means lame because like ditta this guy had some sort of physical disability the demras

00:33:58.640 didn't support this choice because of his disability and they were the worst in fact

00:34:03.160 they disliked this suggestion so much that they dethroned Sugantha and in her place they put

00:34:09.260 Pengu's son Partha who is 10 years old and Sugantha went into exile eight years later she

00:34:16.980 had gathered enough allies together that she could wage a war against Partha to try and become monarch

00:34:21.540 again there was a fierce battle but her side lost and she was captured imprisoned and killed

00:34:27.500 kalhana really summarizes this all up when he wrote in his book strange are the ways of fate

00:34:34.000 ever falling and rising so ditta would have known what happened to her but she also knew

00:34:41.020 that something's gone right for sugantha like if she was able to stay on top of the political

00:34:46.300 situation and she stayed on as regent maybe she would fare better than sugantha so the issue is

00:34:54.280 of course the damaras and other factions of royal court and did a figured out like okay i need to

00:35:00.320 just like be on top of this and be politically savvy and not get myself murdered or my son usurped

00:35:08.540 her son epimanyu was crowned as the new king she was installed as the regent if you remember the

00:35:15.320 prime minister in her era was falguna remember his daughter had also been married to kasima gupta

00:35:21.620 don't know if his daughter um jumped in the fire or not but anyway i'm gonna assume she did

00:35:26.860 falguna was not a fan of didda's and he was like oh like i'm just gonna like flee the city

00:35:33.560 in fear of my life and hide away somewhere because didda is in charge now and she hates me

00:35:40.840 um and frankly yeah because didda was suspicious of everybody obviously because nobody was

00:35:48.700 trustworthy at all clearly um this is one of the situations where paranoia was like the best call

00:35:56.080 and a reasonable response to what was going on falguna leaving town also good instinct because

00:36:01.780 we're going to get to this but didda was not afraid of murdering her enemies so she faced

00:36:08.320 a direct challenge from her sister-in-law's adult sons so that's her sister-in-law's that would be

00:36:17.740 Kasima Gupta's sisters so I don't know why this didn't just say her nephews anyway two adult sons

00:36:25.200 gathered allies and surrounded her Ditta like literally surrounded her when she was just

00:36:29.980 visiting a temple with her son Ditta managed to get her son taken off somewhere safely and then

00:36:36.760 she asked to negotiate and this is where I know I've been saying she's cool but like we haven't

00:36:40.860 seen her do stuff until this moment so she was just like okay angry mob who wants to like usurp

00:36:45.820 and or murder me like let's just talk this through so she did have a helper with her was um i think

00:36:51.760 it's her prime minister who is a person named naravahana who is very loyal to her smart during

00:36:58.880 the negotiations she and he managed to get everyone to calm down through a combination of just like

00:37:04.820 being like that sucks i'm so sorry for you slash also bribing some others were like empathy didn't

00:37:11.600 really work and then after this she ruthlessly had many of the rebels killed including her the 0.95

00:37:19.000 nephews but she forgave some others who she thought would be of use to her so this is we're

00:37:24.280 gonna see this in action several times we're did is just like in a situation and she's like okay

00:37:28.100 who can i get to switch sides to my side um and some people do that through bribery some people

00:37:35.540 do that just through like emotional manipulation and then whoever's left she's just like and i'm

00:37:40.440 gonna murder the rest because guess what if i don't do that they will murder me so this is like

00:37:45.020 again like a like a cleopatra type situation where it's just like or fretting on too right 0.75

00:37:52.200 where it's just like she did what she did to survive and stay in power and this is what she 0.90

00:37:59.080 had to do and guess what she survived and stayed in power so goal achieved one of the people who

00:38:05.020 she forgave in this instance um one of the rebels who she was just like okay if i forgive you will

00:38:09.400 like be in my side and he was like yes and was a person a warrior named yashod hara but he later

00:38:15.680 started a revolt against her because he was mad this one time when he returned from a successful

00:38:21.140 war mission and she didn't thank him enough or something like that like get over yourself the 0.98

00:38:27.240 damaras who live for drama joined with him against her because they're just like

00:38:31.440 flippy flopping around like who they're going to be on what side because i tell like the worst like 0.96

00:38:37.260 these fucking hate these guys so this was thus far the toughest revolt that did it faced but 0.96

00:38:45.480 she managed to suppress it with the help of her pal naravahana and another minister named raka 0.99

00:38:51.040 and again with her just kind of like ruthlessness like the rebels and the relatives were all

00:38:57.740 brutally killed and like frankly in this situation if you want people to stop rebelling against you

00:39:02.280 that is what she saw she had to do kalhana wrote about this victory he's such a good writer

00:39:10.780 the lame queen whom no one had thought capable of stepping over a cow's footprint got over the host

00:39:17.040 of her enemies just as hanuman got over the ocean so just to fully understand this if you're not 0.66

00:39:24.120 familiar with the sort of hanuman and the ocean so hanuman is a hindu god and one of the important

00:39:30.340 monkey god one of the important things he did is he flew over the ocean to do this he increased in

00:39:35.900 size and with a great roar leapt up to the skies as his gigantic shadow fell on the waters of the

00:39:41.100 ocean nature rose to help him the sun reduced its heat the moon showered its bright light

00:39:45.600 and the wind helped keep him afloat so when kalhana compares dida to hanuman it's not just

00:39:53.360 being like oh yeah she like got over her enemies so easily good for her he's saying like no he

00:40:00.320 was comparing her to like a god who did something amazing and she was an icon who continued to do

00:40:08.260 amazing things this section of my notes i call did it continues being great so she was still

00:40:14.780 mistrustful of everyone obviously why would she suddenly not be like this had kept her alive to

00:40:21.060 this point um she started to get concerned when her right hand man naravahana started becoming

00:40:26.360 more powerful and important she's like oh is this is he gonna betray me so she did kind of her

00:40:32.540 version of ghosting him which in 10th century cashmere was she just started favoring other

00:40:38.180 courtiers and this is part of the reason why um didda is sometimes called what is she called it's

00:40:44.020 like people compare her to catherine the great they call her like the catherine of india or

00:40:48.720 something like that because of how catherine the great would favor courtiers over some others and

00:40:55.100 I'm trying to look up what she was called and my cat is on my keyboard so just like

00:41:01.520 hang on a sec these are the high production values that you all come here for

00:41:05.420 yeah she's called the Catherine of Kashmir aka the witch queen anyway so I guess this is the 0.87

00:41:14.900 thing where it's just like if you can't trust 99% of the people around you like when the 1% is

00:41:19.900 maybe okay you're like but can i trust him anyway so she ghosted him nara vahana was

00:41:24.900 brokenhearted and died by suicide shortly after that her other main minister raka also died not

00:41:31.640 sure of what um i'm gonna always just assume poison but could be lots of things anyway so

00:41:39.280 she was left without a man and this isn't like you know did it as a strong independent woman

00:41:45.220 obviously but like when you're in this extremely um misogynistic situation well i don't know if 1.00

00:41:53.120 it's misogynistic but she was in a situation where like women in power were not a normal thing and 0.99

00:41:59.140 there's a lot of men around who want to take a rid of her like she needed like a man helper so 0.94

00:42:04.600 and she knew that without a man by her side that damaras would unite against her like because they

00:42:09.000 would take any excuse so she was just like who can be my helper and then you'll never believe this

00:42:17.840 i love this as a twist so do you remember in the story of margaret of anjou remember when margaret

00:42:23.860 of anjou was like enemies with warwick but then later she like teamed up with warwick when warwick

00:42:30.040 got man at the king this is just like that because ditto was just like who can be my like guy who's

00:42:35.100 my right-hand guy my guy friday and she's like you know who it's gonna be falguna the previous

00:42:41.500 prime minister who like fled town who like literally fled town when she gained power because

00:42:45.780 he knew she would kill him she's like what if i get falguna because the damra is like him like

00:42:51.740 he knows everybody he's like been prime minister so she summoned him back to town which i feel like

00:42:58.640 was probably a pretty intense situation i'm picturing him like living off the good like

00:43:04.280 dexter in the finale the first finale of dexter just like lumberjack like anyway he came back to

00:43:11.080 town he's just like a like they're like did it wants you to be prime minister again he's like

00:43:15.080 or does she want to murder me but anyway he came back and guess what he was a great helper to her 0.84

00:43:20.040 he persuaded the dumbest cool off she made a good call this is one of the things she was good at was 0.95

00:43:25.300 finding choosing who would be her good lieutenants but then her son abamanu age 22 died 0.98

00:43:33.100 i i did not write down of what but we're gonna guess it's 50 50 either some sort of plague

00:43:41.600 or murder anyway he's dead his heir he's 22 so he had a son um his son was called nandigupta

00:43:51.400 who's crowned the new child king but because nandigupta was a child did it continued on as

00:43:58.200 regent in that very brunhilde sort of manner but she's obviously very upset about her son's death

00:44:04.300 and she spent a year just like in her grief just like commissioning buildings because that is the

00:44:09.520 shahi way she built so her son was called abamanu so she built a temple and a town named after him

00:44:18.320 um she also built a temple and a town named after her i'm sorry and then another temple named after

00:44:24.160 her um this is now called the didmar area of swinegar she also commissioned a building i think

00:44:30.600 around this time in honor of valga the helper who carried her around called the valgamath but

00:44:35.640 by one estimate she laid 64 foundations so just like the vivid like physical reality of her grief

00:44:44.320 was expressed through this orgy of building commissioning and then her grandson nanda gupta

00:44:51.820 fell sick and he also died and again plague or murder i don't know he was succeeded by a third

00:45:01.040 younger brother who also died this is getting suspicious so then did a so then another another

00:45:13.000 grandson um became king bamagupta at this point did it was again accused of witchcraft and bringing

00:45:20.080 about their deaths i would also suggest was she or someone else literally just killing them not

00:45:26.440 in witchcraft but just with like murder ways anyway did i you know still lots of people

00:45:33.020 suspicious of her but she's still in power and then speaking of death felguna died i have to

00:45:40.120 i have to assume there's some sort of plague going around like this is a lot of people to all die

00:45:43.860 all in a row i'm gonna guess dysentery just so you can mark that square off on your bingo cards 0.99

00:45:50.060 but it could have been anything anyway but then twist so did is just like fuck i need like a man 0.98

00:45:56.080 again but guess who came on the town a new man came on the scene named tunga tunga was a casa 0.99

00:46:04.260 buffalo herdsman from punch who had come to cashmere with his brothers and was employed

00:46:09.020 in her government as a letter carrier she was impressed by his capabilities i mean at carrying

00:46:16.260 letters i don't know i have to assume he was also really hot maybe um dida started promoting him

00:46:24.300 she's just like whoa i don't know what the sequence of jobs was but it ended up with him

00:46:28.280 tunga becoming prime minister slash commander of the armies so the trajectory from like buffalo

00:46:34.360 herdsman letter carrier prime minister speaks to his abilities i guess but also at this point i

00:46:42.000 think we all trust Dida can spot when someone has talent she's not just like promoting rando

00:46:46.920 anybody he was widely considered to be her lover and frankly I hope he was good for both of them

00:46:52.400 meanwhile the king was her grandson Bhima Gupta who is getting close to being an adult and he was

00:46:58.320 getting more interested in like administration and like didn't want Dida to be like doing all

00:47:04.100 the work all the time and then just as he started to be like I want to like emancipate myself from

00:47:09.240 didda he died in mysterious circumstances um kalhana says there's a rumor that didda imprisoned and

00:47:16.860 tortured him to death so she wouldn't have to give up power which is like quite a specific

00:47:21.840 rumor if i was didda and i wanted to get rid of him i wouldn't imprison and torture him to death 0.98

00:47:28.060 i would just either hire a witch assassin or just like secretly poison him anyway did didda kill all 1.00

00:47:36.380 of her grandsons did she kill even one of her grandsons you know it's 50 50 maybe whether she 0.99

00:47:43.260 killed him or not she took over after him and like sugantha before her she was not just rani didda

00:47:49.340 she's now three didda devi and had the coins minted to prove it that's right this is a three

00:47:55.720 coin minting moment episode and then for the next 22 years she continued on as a ruler

00:48:02.520 i love this is just like how much stuff happened like every day for the last little bit and then

00:48:08.280 it's like and then 22 years everything is fine and honestly like the world we are all living in

00:48:13.080 right now i would love nothing more than for the next part of my personal biography to be like and

00:48:18.560 then for the next 22 years like nothing interesting happened i would love that for all of us but i

00:48:25.540 mean i'm sure lots of interesting things happened did it quashed rebellions by using her standard 0.87

00:48:30.340 combination of bribes um murdering people she did what she had to do but i think she would just get 1.00

00:48:36.540 more and more powerful the longer she was in power right and that would make people less likely 0.90

00:48:40.960 to rebel against her you would think um in this instance i think that's true but there's some 1.00

00:48:46.760 other people this season where you would think but then in fact when the woman in power got older

00:48:52.380 that made people more bold anyway kalhana writes about this 22 year period so those treacherous

00:48:59.660 ministers who for 60 years had robbed kings from king Gopala to Abhimanyu of their dignity lives

00:49:05.860 and riches were quickly exterminated by the energy of queen Ditta like she like things had been so 0.69

00:49:12.240 chaotic in Kashmir for so long 60 years according to Kelhanna and then Ditta was just like here's 1.00

00:49:18.020 what's going on I'm gonna just like clean this place up and that is what she did don't want to 0.99

00:49:22.960 lose sight of the fact that it was still very unusual um to have a woman ruler in this time 0.98

00:49:29.560 and place like although like there have been sugantha and another female ruler before her

00:49:36.060 which is more than a lot of other regions of the world had had by then um this is still very rare

00:49:43.600 and unusual so and like the culture of this era um so for instance there's an epic called the

00:49:51.680 Mahabharata which is a famous Sanskrit epic that had been written about 600 years before this

00:49:57.300 and it said the country where a woman a child or a gambler rules sinks helplessly as a stone raft

00:50:04.620 in the river so the fact that these rulers had been all like little boys with her as the

00:50:11.140 regent was kind of not this is like this sort of stuff the damaras would be like yeah this book

00:50:16.140 says this so women should be a ruler etc and yet did a brought about a period of stability 0.99

00:50:22.600 cashmere had not seen in generations because she was good at her job and her buffalo herding lover 0.97

00:50:31.520 was right by her side tanga being her prime minister helping to take down potential rebellions

00:50:36.480 because remember he's also captain of the army what couldn't this guy do he was like he was the

00:50:42.940 jungkook of this era he was her golden maknae i didn't mention but in hiatus between seasons

00:50:49.420 i've become really into bts anyway did it had no literal heirs left because of the mysterious

00:50:56.720 deaths of all three of her grandsons so she had to choose an heir and unlike sugantha she wasn't

00:51:02.340 just like how about this one person and the demara's like get rid of her she's like here's 0.93

00:51:06.200 i'm gonna do and it's a great story so she called for many boys from her maternal family the shahis

00:51:12.800 like the more powerful family she called for all the boys from the shahi side of the family and

00:51:16.860 placed a heap of fruit in front of them and she said whoever picks up the most pieces of fruit 0.93

00:51:21.600 will be my heir most of the boys started just grabbing the fruit and fighting with one another

00:51:26.820 but at the end of it her brother's son sam gramadja had the most pieces of fruit without

00:51:33.120 actually engaging in any physical fighting he had managed to incite the other boys to fight

00:51:37.880 while he calmly gathered up the booty which honestly is a good way to choose an heir and

00:51:45.140 honestly like good choice so she was impressed by his political acumen and declared him her heir

00:51:52.580 but then she made some grammar raja and tonga swear a holy oath that they would work with each

00:51:59.440 other even after she died and they all worked together it's just kind of this little team

00:52:04.560 um and didda just kept being rani didda until she died at age 79 in the year 1003 like she was never

00:52:14.940 usurped nobody took that away from her she kept on and after her death true to their word tonga

00:52:22.200 and samgrammaraja continued on they worked well together they continued on the stability she had

00:52:27.600 created, which lasted for another 20 years. In fact, Sam Grammarajah was one of the only kings

00:52:35.000 in Indian history to beat back Mahmud of Ghazni, who attacked Kashmir twice. And Sam Grammarajah

00:52:41.580 was able to do that because he had this strong army and administration created by Ditta.

00:52:47.180 Legacy. So despite her gender, despite her leg issue, Ditta was able to rule Kashmir with an 0.91

00:52:56.940 iron fist for more than four decades her rule represents the peak of unfortunately her rule 1.00

00:53:03.580 repeat represents the peak of women's power in cashmere like there wasn't really another did a 1.00

00:53:07.620 level in cashmere history after her and yeah it was a sort of situation where it's like

00:53:13.640 she was the person the the right characteristics at this time to succeed

00:53:19.760 or so many people other people wouldn't have um in the face of great odds so her political 0.99

00:53:27.480 survival skills were tremendous clearly she ruled for what like 40 years um in this like 1.00

00:53:37.140 ruthless environment where people are constantly trying to to overthrow her she figured out how

00:53:42.760 to make them not do that um part of that was her really good ability at figuring out who to trust

00:53:48.920 figuring out who to murder she created this stability in a very chaotic time and place

00:53:55.480 which speaks to her skill it's just kind of like having a goal manifesting just like

00:54:01.300 doing what needs to be done to make this happen and it's all sort of like

00:54:05.240 you've listened to this podcast you know my deal I'm not being like yeah murder people

00:54:10.300 but it's like if everyone's trying to murder you then like yeah murder those people it's kind of

00:54:16.080 like for the greater good and the greater good being like 40 years of non-chaos like yeah she

00:54:23.960 just had to kind of quell some stuff going on so again like the only source about her is kalhana's

00:54:30.960 writing and then that's been interpreted various ways by various different people some

00:54:36.020 researchers have found it um hard to digest how ambitious she was her thirst for power

00:54:44.840 some people thought like she was able to control her ministers so well people are like is that 0.99

00:54:51.500 because she was like having sex with all of them i would argue if she was having sex with all of 0.83

00:54:56.300 them she would control them worse because they'd all be jealous of each other so some people were 0.79

00:55:00.880 just like oh but it's the same thing it's like when people weren't calling her in her day like

00:55:05.260 oh is she a witch like people listen to her and she's a woman then researchers were like oh people

00:55:09.860 listen to her so she must have just been like really sexy and it's like the cleopatra thing

00:55:13.500 all over again like get over it she was just awesome and a legend we stan um and frankly

00:55:21.780 what in men would be admirable ambition and displays of power becoming her like a failing 0.87

00:55:28.860 and an evil like women shouldn't be like this etc etc but i mean who gets the last laugh is like 1.00

00:55:34.880 this fucking woman who like stayed on the throne until she died like no one ever managed to get 1.00

00:55:41.820 rid of her I love her so it's time to give her oh before we get to the score there's a new little 1.00

00:55:47.400 section so if you've been following the Instagram stories which is kind of where a lot of slash all

00:55:55.460 of my sort of interaction has been lately with you the tits out brigade in preparing this season

00:56:00.340 I came across some people who I thought were good helpful people so so often these stories are about

00:56:08.600 like a woman or a person who is just like all on their own and they have to figure it all out

00:56:14.600 themselves and everyone's betraying and being terrible to them but sometimes a person is good

00:56:18.480 and helpful and so this is i'm not going to have this in every episode god knows but in some

00:56:25.660 episodes i will bestow the lady jane seymour memorial award for outstanding supporting

00:56:32.720 performance lady jane seymour just to remind you not the one who married king henry the eighth

00:56:40.720 lady jane seymour was the best friend of catherine gray and she was the one who helped catherine gray

00:56:45.800 send the sexy letters back and forth with ned um she was the one who like helped arrange the super 0.73

00:56:50.840 secret sexy wedding i believe lady jane seymour was the one who like literally ran outside grabbed 0.99

00:56:55.760 a priest dragged him inside and made him do the super secret sexy wedding like above and beyond

00:57:00.960 lady jean seymour like bff hall of fame but also she's now the namesake for the lady jean seymour

00:57:06.960 memorial award for outstanding supporting performance now i've only thought of one

00:57:12.380 other person besides her who would get it and that is thomas keys who was the husband of lady

00:57:17.900 mary gray remember she was very short and he was very tall and then he was put in the little jail

00:57:23.120 cell and his arms and legs were too long and he was so uncomfortable and all he wanted to do was

00:57:27.820 love her anyway he gets that too because i don't know exactly what the qualifications are for this

00:57:34.620 but it's basically like you need to be like supportive of the main character of the podcast

00:57:40.320 and also like go to the your deathbed never having betrayed them so lady didn't see more

00:57:46.780 thomas keys and i am going to include tanga in here as well because he just came on the scene

00:57:53.940 didda saw his potential he lived up that potential he swore an oath to always be

00:58:00.180 um to work with her heir and then he did like tunga i feel like was there for her

00:58:06.260 in a way that i really appreciate so thomas keys tunga well done kasima gupta i considered but he

00:58:16.220 wasn't in the story long enough to really do anything but i do appreciate that he loved her

00:58:19.820 so much and put her on coins that really set her up for success later on so now it's time for the

00:58:24.940 Fredegund Memorial Scandaliciousness Scale the first category is Scandaliciousness so

00:58:32.520 this is often like it's did somebody have super like secret sexy affairs did somebody have

00:58:41.560 um secret scandals was there espionage involved was there um you know that level of stuff and

00:58:51.060 with ditta it's like we don't know like there's one source it's kalhana who like tells it like it

00:58:55.760 is big fan of kalhana but like did she have affairs maybe did she murder all of her grandsons

00:59:06.620 with witchcraft like potentially but like we don't know that she did so like that's not and

00:59:11.940 honestly in terms of scandalousness like you'd have to do more than that to get a 10 in 0.98

00:59:16.220 scandalousness i'm going to give her respectfully given that i think a lot of the rumors about her 0.94

00:59:21.300 were not true even though i do think being called the witch queen is cool i'm gonna give her a six

00:59:28.640 for scandalousness because it's not there's a potential that some scandalousness was there 0.98

00:59:33.880 but um you know we don't know that she did it for sure uh scheminess in some of the stories 0.99

00:59:45.160 that's just like did this person like scheme their way through like you know royal court um

00:59:51.760 with gossip reasons but for ditta and for other people who like fredigan like people who are 0.97

00:59:57.260 literal queens like her schemes are also it's like her ambitions and her plans and like what

01:00:01.940 did she do and so all the stuff like the fact that the people surrounded her and her son and

01:00:06.020 they're like we want to be king now and she's like but do you and then she like used her words

01:00:11.500 slash her money to convince and bribe them to not rebel against her and then she killed all 1.00

01:00:16.980 the people too like i am comfortable giving her a very high score in scheminess because 1.00

01:00:22.200 had she not had a high level of scheminess she would not have reigned for as long as she did 1.00

01:00:27.100 in the situation she was in i oh i'm i'm gonna give her a 9.5 9.5 for scheminess

01:00:37.140 what's keeping from a 10 is just like

01:00:39.780 i just and this isn't her fault and this is not kalhana's fault but there's just not enough

01:00:47.320 examples of specific things she did to give her a full 10 but 9.5 admirable score her significance

01:00:54.620 hints and this is this season especially like I'm looking at regions of the world that I have

01:01:00.620 not studied before up until now so I don't know enough about that region and the history

01:01:06.520 of the Kashmir region slash India slash the Himalayas like to be able to say like what is

01:01:14.260 the effect of her reign in today's world but what I will say is what was the effect of her reign in 0.99

01:01:19.520 her world which was monumental i think to go from 60 years of just chaos with the damaras

01:01:25.060 and she brought 40 years of stability is like highly significant than the fact that because

01:01:31.680 of the infrastructure she had set up her heir was able to to stop those invasions like this is a

01:01:38.500 long time ago so i'm not gonna like where in the world is there somebody who like was a king in the

01:01:46.040 10th century and like literally the effects are still being felt i don't know maybe with someone

01:01:50.280 i feel her significance that's very good i'm gonna give her a 7.5 for significance

01:01:56.220 i don't know you know what because there's still like that part of the town that's called like did

01:02:01.080 did a something like she built all those buildings the buildings that are significant 1.00

01:02:05.780 eight i'll give her an eight for significance the sexism bonus is the bonus points for how much did 0.99

01:02:13.640 being a woman hold her back and this is tricky because um she was not held back like she found 1.00

01:02:20.780 ways to like scoot and like dodge and like achieve all this stuff even though women were not set up 0.97

01:02:29.740 for success in this culture at the same time like was she pressured to throw herself onto her 1.00

01:02:36.120 husband's burning corpse like yes like were people upset when she didn't do that yes like did people 1.00

01:02:41.300 keep trying to usurp her power because she was a woman yes so she had like it's like a higher level 1.00

01:02:46.740 of challenge for her as a woman ruler on top of the fact that it was already challenging for anyone 1.00

01:02:53.960 to be a ruler as evidenced by the fact that people kept usurping kings every year so she 0.99

01:03:01.060 achieved everything she did despite sexism um sexism did not bring her down in the way it did 0.99

01:03:07.200 some of the other stories but she encountered a lot of it but that's why everyone gets automatically

01:03:11.920 a five i'm gonna say for sexism 6.5 and then i just need to quickly do some math oh my god that's

01:03:23.960 a 30 30 oh my god i'm really excited for her this makes me really happy you might think and don't

01:03:33.460 you figure out these scores beforehand no it's all about vibes for me but also I'm not good at math

01:03:39.840 and so like adding I can't add in my head so I really I truly don't know where they're gonna

01:03:45.080 land until I do the math so Ronnie Ditta I love that she's at a 30 I love that she was so

01:03:50.680 to me like Fredigan level I knew nothing about her but even beyond Fredigan level because I'd

01:03:57.380 heard of the Franks before and I did not know anything about Kashmiri history Ronnie Ditta

01:04:02.480 has a 30 so that's let's see who else has a 30 empress matilda has a 30 juana the first of castile

01:04:10.620 has a 30 does this get her yeah she's in the top 10 she's in the top 10 like we're already it's

01:04:17.800 episode one of season five and we're already in top 10 territory like this season it's going to be

01:04:22.380 it's going to be a great season the the women and other people who are looking at this season

01:04:28.900 all of whom suggested by you like you get it like the suggestions you've given me have been great

01:04:35.080 like it was i've got a really long list of people to do in other later seasons you know what i'm

01:04:40.980 looking for and you're suggesting people who are incredible so as evidenced by this um so again

01:04:48.140 just thank you to to simran from the tits out brigade honestly who was just like

01:04:54.120 did it would be great and i'm like you know what an icon an icon for all of us

01:05:00.320 so i wanted to just say that the inspiration for this season of the show scandalous justness

01:05:08.360 without borders tits out sans frontier is my very silly tribute to a very real organization

01:05:14.060 called doctors without borders medicine sans frontier this is a worldwide movement that

01:05:19.220 provides medical assistance to people affected by conflict epidemics disasters or exclusion

01:05:23.880 from healthcare their actions are guided by medical ethics and the principles of impartiality

01:05:28.900 independence and neutrality so truly without borders they just go wherever medical help is

01:05:35.220 needed and they have worked and i believe are still working in places including cashmere so

01:05:41.880 more than 1 000 years after ditta lived there the region is today facing lots of really horrific

01:05:47.180 violence and conflict so you can visit their website at msf.org or click the link in today's

01:05:54.240 show notes to learn more about Doctors Without Borders and or to donate to this organization

01:05:59.940 speaking of websites I have one now you can go to vulgarhistory.com for show notes I'll be putting

01:06:09.900 up the references for every episode there as well as links to the store and there's also a contact

01:06:15.360 button so you can send me a message to suggest somebody who you think i would like to talk about

01:06:21.400 on the podcast and thank you to everybody who already has suggested people please know

01:06:25.720 that i have an extremely long spreadsheet and so if i haven't gotten to talking about the person

01:06:31.700 you suggested that doesn't mean i'll never do them that just means there's a lot of names on

01:06:37.220 the list but i'm happy to add more names to the list so please um yeah you can contact me there

01:06:42.400 or also send me DMs on Instagram.

01:06:45.880 And the store also has been revitalized for season five.

01:06:50.260 So if you go to vulgarhistory.store,

01:06:52.320 I'm going to be putting out,

01:06:54.100 I don't know if there'll be like a new design per episode,

01:06:57.820 but there's definitely at least one new one there so far,

01:07:01.520 which is inspired by the overarching philosophy of the season.

01:07:05.340 So there's a design there inspired by Tits Out Brigade member Kelly.

01:07:09.920 and the slogan is tits out is for everybody another way to support me slash this podcast

01:07:16.780 is wherever you're listening to this podcast is to give it the five star rating and also put in

01:07:24.400 a little review and if you're listening to it on a platform where there's not a place to put a

01:07:29.300 review then like just go to itunes which is a place where you can do reviews and just like put

01:07:33.480 one there like it just really helps other people find out about the podcast the podcast has

01:07:37.680 obviously been doing amazing lots of people listening i'm still blown away with how many

01:07:42.080 people are listening and where you are in the world but you know what like ditta i'm never

01:07:47.140 satisfied with with the small ambition like i want to get vulgar history to the top of the charts so

01:07:52.760 anyway that really helps and that's the thing you can do without spending any money at all

01:07:55.820 um but if you want to spend money to help me also there's the patreon so if you go to patreon.com

01:08:01.860 slash Anne Foster writer that's where you can pledge some monthly money and in exchange you

01:08:10.200 get special benefits um like you get early access to podcasts I send out little email kind of

01:08:17.300 newsletters every now and then and then the main thing is if you pledge at the Glorianos level which

01:08:22.060 is five dollars per month although I'm in Canada I don't it might be a different amount in your

01:08:27.220 country equivalent Canadian five dollars a month you get the extra podcasts that's what I do so 0.96

01:08:33.020 this asshole so every month I do a podcast about some man who is terrible I just did one about last 0.88

01:08:39.640 month about or I forget when you're listening to this versus when I am recording this recently 0.99

01:08:44.800 I've done Henry VIII and then I also did Aristotle and also on Patreon that's where you can get the

01:08:51.900 vulgar peace theater um movie discussions with me lana wood johnson and allison epstein so so far

01:08:58.860 of those we've done shakespeare love um on the patreon there's amadeus and yeah you can keep up

01:09:06.060 with the podcast on instagram vulgar history pod twitter at vulgar history and if for some reason

01:09:11.780 you feel like you want to email me you can um by emailing vulgar history pod at gmail.com and i'm

01:09:18.300 so excited to be back i'm so excited to be back it's great to be i'm so much fun researching um

01:09:24.680 i'm having so much fun like making my notes up i'm having so much fun talking

01:09:28.200 so as forever i mean i started this podcast in like i think it was like october 2019 so we had

01:09:37.820 like 1.5 seasons before it's like hey guess what covid and so this has really been a thing that's

01:09:44.840 keeping me more sane during COVID to have this to focus on. I hope it's bringing joy

01:09:50.020 into your lives. And I started saying this a while ago and I still wholeheartedly believe it because

01:09:57.000 masks are good and make people not get sick. So I hope you're all keeping your masks on.

01:10:08.360 i hope you're keeping your tits out um be that literal and or metaphorical and or both 0.98

01:10:15.880 um i'll talk to you all next time this is gonna be fun season and yeah talk soon 0.99

01:10:38.360 The war is over and both sides lost.

01:10:42.140 Kingdoms were reduced to cinders and armies scattered like bones in the dust.

01:10:47.160 Now the survivors claw to what's left of a broken world, praying the darkness chooses someone else tonight.

01:10:55.080 But in the shadow dark, the darkness always wins.

01:10:59.400 This is old school adventuring at its most cruel.

01:11:02.580 Your torch ticks down in real time, and when that flame dies, something else rises to finish the job.

01:11:08.760 This is a brutal rules-light nightmare with a story that emerges organically based on the decisions that the characters make.

01:11:16.320 This is what it felt like to play RPGs in the 80s, and man, it is so good to be back.

01:11:21.060 Join the Glass Cannon podcast as we plunge into the shadow dark every Thursday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on youtube.com slash the glass cannon with the podcast version dropping the next day.

01:11:31.600 See what everybody's talking about and join us in the dark.

01:11:39.000 Oh, please, not that music.

01:11:40.860 That music gives me nightmares from my childhood.

01:11:43.240 Could we get something a little bit lighter, some lighter music here?

01:11:46.260 Are you a fan of true crime TV shows?

01:11:49.500 And what about Unsolved Mysteries, the show that jump-started all of our love of true crime?

01:11:54.280 I'm Ellen Marsh.

01:11:55.640 And I'm Joey Taranto.

01:11:56.640 And we host I Think Not, a true crime comedy podcast covering some of the wildest stories from your favorite true crime campy TV shows all the way to Unsolved Mysteries.

01:12:07.360 Baby, you will laugh, you will cry, you'll think about true crime in a whole new way, and you'll also ask yourself, who gave these people mics?

01:12:14.620 New episodes of I Think Not are released every Wednesday with bonus episodes out every Thursday on Patreon.

01:12:20.620 And every Monday, you can listen to our True Crime Rundown, where we go over the top true crime headlines of the week.

01:12:28.220 So come and join us wherever you listen to your podcasts.

01:12:33.440 You've watched them from the outside your whole life, on TV, on stage, on the cover.

01:12:39.100 The success that always looks like it happened to someone on a different planet.

01:12:43.480 But what if it didn't?

01:12:44.900 I'm Evelyn, and I've spent over 25 years in entertainment, producing for some of the biggest names in Hollywood.

01:12:50.620 And here's what I learned.

01:12:52.380 The distance between you and them, it's a lot shorter than anyone's letting on.

01:12:57.180 On my podcast, Reppin', I sit down with the people you've been watching and I ask them

01:13:01.840 who they actually are.

01:13:03.480 Not the brand, the person.

01:13:05.820 Where they started.

01:13:07.020 What it costs them.

01:13:08.360 What almost broke them.

01:13:10.380 Their grit, their courage, their resilience, and the lessons they've learned.

01:13:14.680 It's all yours for the taking.

01:13:17.520 Reppin', wherever you listen.

01:13:20.620 Thank you.

Vulgar History - March 02, 2022

International, part 1： The Disabled Woman Who Ruled Ancient Kashmir

Episode Stats

Transcript