vanga

rAjA gaNesha

Raja Ganesha (Maharaja Ganeshnarayan Raybhaduri) ruled as a Bengali Hindu ruler in the early 15th century, when Bengal was bordering the Muslim state of Jaunpur on the North-west. Raja Ganesh was an officer for the Ilyas Shahi dynasty, which was ruling Bengal Sultanate. According to Firishta, Raja Ganesh acquired high influence in Bengal Sultanate’s governance in the reign of Shihabuddin Bayazid Shah (ruled 1413-15).

1414: Raja Ganesh deposes the Ilyas Shahi dynast, Alauddin Firuz Shah, and becomes the de facto Hindu ruler of Bengal. Seeing a Hindu ruling after deposing a Muslim ruler, a Muslim Chishti Shaikh - Nur Qutb-ul-Alam - wrote a letter to Jaunpur Sultan Ibrahim Sharqi. There are conflicting accounts regarding the battle between Ibrahim Sharqi & Raja Ganesh, and its aftermath. Riaz-us-Salatin (1788 CE source) states that Raja Ganesh got his son converted to Islam to pacify Ibrahim Sharqi. But other Chinese, Arakanese accounts state that, Raja Ganesha defeated Ibrahim Sharqi in battle. Raja Ganesh got his converted son to become ruler for brief period to pacify Muslims. However, he still held de-facto power behind the scenes.

1416/17: The Chishti Shaikh, Nur Qutb-ul-Alam died. Seizing the opportunity, Raja Ganesh got his son to step down, and reconverted him to Hinduism! According to accepted view of many scholars, Raja Ganesh assumed the title of Danujamardana-deva on re-ascension. Raja Ganesha ruled for two years in this second phase.

1418/19: Raja Ganesh passed away. His son ascends the throne. The Ganesha dynasty founded by him ruled over Bengal from 1415−1435.

rudranArAyaNa of bhUrishreShTha

who “broke the traditional alliance with the Pathan sultans of Gaur and struck new alliance with the Hindu kingdom of Odisha and accounted for the downfall of the Pathan regime in Bengal”. (wiki)

bhavashankarI

wife of rudranArAyaNa of bhUrishreShTha, (wiki), trained militarily from childhood, raised a group of woman bodyguards, killed a wild buffalo while hunting as a teenager, received sword from rAjavallabhI, encouraged wide military preparedness among citizenry, overcame betrayal of her commander chaturbhuja chakravartI through intelligence and defeated paThAn attackers multiple times, accepted token mughal soverignity. “Maharani Bhavashankari became famous by her title Raibaghini, who gradually came to denote a courageous or sometimes rebellious woman and became a part of Bengali proverb.”

pratApAditya

[wiki], kAyastha vassal of jessore who initially consolidated power by killing his uncle, constructor of jassoreshvarI temple, ally of the arakan king, expeller of jesuits, rebel against the mogols.

rAjA sItArAMa ray

[wiki], kAyastha vassal of southern bengAl, defeater of dacoits and assorted paThan-s, rebel against mogols, friend of the warrior menahAthi ghosh, a shAkta and later part-vaiShNava,

Kalidas Baidya

Dr Kalidas Baidya was a Bangladeshi hindu freedom fighter. After independence understood Mujibur is another Islamist. Expelled from country, wrote books, formed Banga Sena. BJP sabotaged it, Advani handed over many fighters to Bangladesh army.