May 12, 2026 • 10 mins
If the present day is a path we are all traveling, we can learn a lot by looking out at the land beyond. These two tales should help you do just that.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. There is no name
(00:37):
more controversial in modern Indian politics than oring Zeb. But
he's not a modern politician.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
No. He was an emperor who ruled from sixteen fifty
eight to seventeen oh seven. Indian Muslims see him as
a national hero, while Indian Hindus see him as a
murdering tyrant, and because of this, frequent violent clashes have
erupted over his tomb as recently as last year. It's amazing,
but perhaps not surprising, that someone from hundreds of years
(01:05):
ago could still be having such an impact today. All
countries like to co opt certain historical figures and push
a modern narrative, but for the curious, the actual historical
details can bring us closer to the truth. Oringzeb's childhood
is a familiar one to cabinet listeners. Born into royalty,
he had to murder or imprison his family in order
(01:27):
to become king. The most notable detail from his childhood
has to do with his mother's death. You've heard of
taj Mahal right, well, that was his mother's tomb, built
by his grief stricken father. However, Oringzeb was less interested
in building monuments and more interested in expanding his power.
His kingdom, known as the Mughal Empire, was a Sunni
(01:48):
Muslim empire with its origin in modern day Afghanistan. His
great grandfather had expanded it to cover half of India,
but Oringzeb thought that he could unite the entire Soub continent.
He believed that he could do this through Islam, bringing
various regional princes under his control by forcing them to
more closely obey religious law. Once he had done this,
(02:11):
he started to tax Hindus and Shia Muslims at double
the rate of Sunni Muslims. This was obviously unpopular, to
say the least, but Oringzeb would put down any resistance,
violently burning the temples of those who didn't comply. However,
he would spare those who did and adamantly protected their communities. Ultimately,
(02:31):
only a small fraction of Hindu temples were ever destroyed.
There are several cases of Muslims harassing Hindu temples and citizens,
and in such cases Orringzeb often sided with the Hindus
and had them protected and compensated. But his taxation policy
did more than create violence. It inherently made Hindus into
a second class citizen, and Oringzeb's protective tendencies only extended
(02:55):
so far. Three major challenges to his rule would test
his power and lead him into violent action. First, the
Sikh Guru of the time, the leader of that entire faith,
had a popular following within India. He was said to
perform miracles and was actively converting people to his faith,
which was in direct conflict with Oringzeb's policies. On top
(03:17):
of this, he had a large nomadic army that sometimes
followed him around. Oringzeb couldn't allow this threat to his rule,
and so he had the Guru captured and executed. Second,
he didn't anticipate what would become his greatest rival of all,
the Marata Empire. It was a Hindu empire in southern
India that had only recently risen against the previous oppressors
(03:39):
and started to expand once Oringzeb encountered them, he found
their hit and run guerrilla tactics hard to contend with.
By sixteen eighty one, the Marata Empire was led by
King Sambachi, whose men were known for their violent burning
of villages and the raping of women. This was in
contrast to Oringzeb's treatment of women, which was traditional and
(04:00):
tricked by any modern standard, but still afforded them protection
and certain rights. Simbaji contributed to Orringzeb's third great challenge,
the defection of his fourth son, Akbar. Akbar had been
sent to put down rebellions in the south, but was
instead tempted to join them and depose his father. When
this failed, Simbaji took him in and tried to help
(04:21):
him muster more support. When this didn't happen, Simbaji sent
Akbar to safety in Persia, while Oringzeb ultimately captured Simbaji
and had him executed in sixteen eighty six. Oringzeb never
did find his son Akbar, but he swore that he
would outlive him if nothing else. Oringzeb would continue to
fight rebellions his entire reign, but by the end of
(04:43):
his life in seventeen oh seven, he had conquered almost
the entirety of India. Despite all of the turmoil, his
kingdom was incredibly wealthy, producing more goods than any other
on the planet at the time. He was more powerful
than contemporaries such as Louis the fourteenth and Frank and
the Qing dynasty emperors in China. His strict religious policies
(05:05):
may have led to violence, but they did bring about
a unification that India wouldn't enjoy again for decades after.
Following his reign, infighting among the different groups in his
empire made India an easy target for British invasion. This
also gets blamed on Oringzeb but it's hard to know
if a more pluralized India would have stood a better chance. Ultimately,
(05:26):
he was less the tyrant that modern pundits paint him
as and more a stern, traditional leader, no more violent
than any other leader of the time, And for those
who are curious, he lived to the age of eighty eight,
outliving his hated son Akbar by just one year. A
(05:57):
long time ago, a stagecoach was rolling through the Wealth countryside,
not far from the town of Clandilo. The road ran
alongside a river. As the passengers looked out over the water,
they noticed a strange phenomenon, three red lights hovering over
the waves. Not knowing what to make of it, the
coach rolled on and the passengers put the strange sight
(06:18):
out of their minds. Soon after, three men found themselves
traveling down that very same river in a small boat
known as a coricle. They fought against the raging currents. However,
their boat overturned and all three were drowned in exactly
the same spot where the lights had been seen hovering
over the water. These lights, of course, have a special
(06:39):
name in Welsh folklore. They're known as a corpse candle.
They're rarely depicted as literal candles with wax and a wick.
There more often just lights hovering in the dark like fireflies.
Whenever a corpse candle appears, it's said to be an
omen of impending death, sometimes for someone nearby and other
times for the person who saw them. Their size can
(07:01):
correlate to how old the victim will be, and the
location can show where their final resting place will be.
When the lights are red, the doomed individual will be
a man, and when they are white, it will be
a woman. If the light is tall, it means that
they'll be old and if it's short, they'll be a child.
The earliest corpse candle stories are much like the one
(07:21):
with the men on the boat, simple ambiguous tales of
strange phenomena connected to the dead. Of course, if there
was a connection between the lights and the deaths, it
was a circumstantial one. The candles pointed to a location
where death would lurk, but they did little more than
shine ominously in the dark. Travelers saw them beside long
and lonely roads, pointing off into the gloom. Some of
(07:43):
these are known as corpse roads, which usually lead to
a cemetery or a churchyard, a place for rest for
those who have passed on. But as the legends expanded,
corpse candles were more than just a creepy signpost. If
you followed them, they said, you might find where some
or forgotten soul had died or been buried. One particularly
(08:03):
vivid story tells of a roving corpse candle that perfectly
traced a future funeral procession, right down to a fifteen
minute pause they had to make along the road to
the churchyard. Over time, they began to serve a dual purpose,
both as an omen and as a memorial. At first, glance,
it's impossible to tell if the corpse candle signals a
(08:24):
death that will happen or one that already has. If
you see one, you might even foretell your own impending doom. Later,
Welsh legends tell of corpse candles burning from within the
mouth of a dead man, or bringing a ghost to
pronounced doom upon a household. It became the proverbial light
that dying men and women would see as they passed on.
(08:46):
Like many folk tales, though these stories were first documented
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with their origin stretching
back into oral tradition, finding the very start of such
legends can be nearly impossible, even for experts in the
but of course folklorists have their own theories. Some have
suggested that the essential roots of the story, that is,
(09:07):
someone seeing a mysterious light on a road, are true,
and the supernatural elements are what came in later. According
to them, the story of the stagecoach near Clandilo may
not have literally happened, but someone might have had a
similar sighting and related it into the world of legend.
But what they saw wasn't an impossible flame floating over
(09:27):
a river. Now theories suggest that the first corpse candles
were in fact glow worms or electrical phenomena in the air,
natural things that the early Welsh people wouldn't have understood,
but would have been awed by all the same. Our brains,
after all, love to make connections. It's easy to imagine
that someone saw one of these optical effects and then
(09:48):
heard the story of a drowning nearby, and simply connected
the two. Rumors and speculations about deaths are temporary things,
but once a rumor becomes a ghost story, it tends
to have a much longer afterlife. I hope you enjoyed
(10:08):
today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show
was created by me Aaron Manke in partnership with iHeart Podcasts,
researched and written by the Grim and Mild team, and
produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and
the people who make it over at Grimandmild dot com
slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link to the official
(10:28):
Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores and online,
as well as ebook and audiobook, and if you're looking
for an ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's
all the same stories, but without the interruption for.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
A small monthly fee. Learn more and sign up over
at patreon dot com. Slash Grimandmild, and until next time,
stay curious.
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. There is no name
(00:37):
more controversial in modern Indian politics than oring Zeb. But
he's not a modern politician.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
No. He was an emperor who ruled from sixteen fifty
eight to seventeen oh seven. Indian Muslims see him as
a national hero, while Indian Hindus see him as a
murdering tyrant, and because of this, frequent violent clashes have
erupted over his tomb as recently as last year. It's amazing,
but perhaps not surprising, that someone from hundreds of years
(01:05):
ago could still be having such an impact today. All
countries like to co opt certain historical figures and push
a modern narrative, but for the curious, the actual historical
details can bring us closer to the truth. Oringzeb's childhood
is a familiar one to cabinet listeners. Born into royalty,
he had to murder or imprison his family in order
(01:27):
to become king. The most notable detail from his childhood
has to do with his mother's death. You've heard of
taj Mahal right, well, that was his mother's tomb, built
by his grief stricken father. However, Oringzeb was less interested
in building monuments and more interested in expanding his power.
His kingdom, known as the Mughal Empire, was a Sunni
(01:48):
Muslim empire with its origin in modern day Afghanistan. His
great grandfather had expanded it to cover half of India,
but Oringzeb thought that he could unite the entire Soub continent.
He believed that he could do this through Islam, bringing
various regional princes under his control by forcing them to
more closely obey religious law. Once he had done this,
(02:11):
he started to tax Hindus and Shia Muslims at double
the rate of Sunni Muslims. This was obviously unpopular, to
say the least, but Oringzeb would put down any resistance,
violently burning the temples of those who didn't comply. However,
he would spare those who did and adamantly protected their communities. Ultimately,
(02:31):
only a small fraction of Hindu temples were ever destroyed.
There are several cases of Muslims harassing Hindu temples and citizens,
and in such cases Orringzeb often sided with the Hindus
and had them protected and compensated. But his taxation policy
did more than create violence. It inherently made Hindus into
a second class citizen, and Oringzeb's protective tendencies only extended
(02:55):
so far. Three major challenges to his rule would test
his power and lead him into violent action. First, the
Sikh Guru of the time, the leader of that entire faith,
had a popular following within India. He was said to
perform miracles and was actively converting people to his faith,
which was in direct conflict with Oringzeb's policies. On top
(03:17):
of this, he had a large nomadic army that sometimes
followed him around. Oringzeb couldn't allow this threat to his rule,
and so he had the Guru captured and executed. Second,
he didn't anticipate what would become his greatest rival of all,
the Marata Empire. It was a Hindu empire in southern
India that had only recently risen against the previous oppressors
(03:39):
and started to expand once Oringzeb encountered them, he found
their hit and run guerrilla tactics hard to contend with.
By sixteen eighty one, the Marata Empire was led by
King Sambachi, whose men were known for their violent burning
of villages and the raping of women. This was in
contrast to Oringzeb's treatment of women, which was traditional and
(04:00):
tricked by any modern standard, but still afforded them protection
and certain rights. Simbaji contributed to Orringzeb's third great challenge,
the defection of his fourth son, Akbar. Akbar had been
sent to put down rebellions in the south, but was
instead tempted to join them and depose his father. When
this failed, Simbaji took him in and tried to help
(04:21):
him muster more support. When this didn't happen, Simbaji sent
Akbar to safety in Persia, while Oringzeb ultimately captured Simbaji
and had him executed in sixteen eighty six. Oringzeb never
did find his son Akbar, but he swore that he
would outlive him if nothing else. Oringzeb would continue to
fight rebellions his entire reign, but by the end of
(04:43):
his life in seventeen oh seven, he had conquered almost
the entirety of India. Despite all of the turmoil, his
kingdom was incredibly wealthy, producing more goods than any other
on the planet at the time. He was more powerful
than contemporaries such as Louis the fourteenth and Frank and
the Qing dynasty emperors in China. His strict religious policies
(05:05):
may have led to violence, but they did bring about
a unification that India wouldn't enjoy again for decades after.
Following his reign, infighting among the different groups in his
empire made India an easy target for British invasion. This
also gets blamed on Oringzeb but it's hard to know
if a more pluralized India would have stood a better chance. Ultimately,
(05:26):
he was less the tyrant that modern pundits paint him
as and more a stern, traditional leader, no more violent
than any other leader of the time, And for those
who are curious, he lived to the age of eighty eight,
outliving his hated son Akbar by just one year. A
(05:57):
long time ago, a stagecoach was rolling through the Wealth countryside,
not far from the town of Clandilo. The road ran
alongside a river. As the passengers looked out over the water,
they noticed a strange phenomenon, three red lights hovering over
the waves. Not knowing what to make of it, the
coach rolled on and the passengers put the strange sight
(06:18):
out of their minds. Soon after, three men found themselves
traveling down that very same river in a small boat
known as a coricle. They fought against the raging currents. However,
their boat overturned and all three were drowned in exactly
the same spot where the lights had been seen hovering
over the water. These lights, of course, have a special
(06:39):
name in Welsh folklore. They're known as a corpse candle.
They're rarely depicted as literal candles with wax and a wick.
There more often just lights hovering in the dark like fireflies.
Whenever a corpse candle appears, it's said to be an
omen of impending death, sometimes for someone nearby and other
times for the person who saw them. Their size can
(07:01):
correlate to how old the victim will be, and the
location can show where their final resting place will be.
When the lights are red, the doomed individual will be
a man, and when they are white, it will be
a woman. If the light is tall, it means that
they'll be old and if it's short, they'll be a child.
The earliest corpse candle stories are much like the one
(07:21):
with the men on the boat, simple ambiguous tales of
strange phenomena connected to the dead. Of course, if there
was a connection between the lights and the deaths, it
was a circumstantial one. The candles pointed to a location
where death would lurk, but they did little more than
shine ominously in the dark. Travelers saw them beside long
and lonely roads, pointing off into the gloom. Some of
(07:43):
these are known as corpse roads, which usually lead to
a cemetery or a churchyard, a place for rest for
those who have passed on. But as the legends expanded,
corpse candles were more than just a creepy signpost. If
you followed them, they said, you might find where some
or forgotten soul had died or been buried. One particularly
(08:03):
vivid story tells of a roving corpse candle that perfectly
traced a future funeral procession, right down to a fifteen
minute pause they had to make along the road to
the churchyard. Over time, they began to serve a dual purpose,
both as an omen and as a memorial. At first, glance,
it's impossible to tell if the corpse candle signals a
(08:24):
death that will happen or one that already has. If
you see one, you might even foretell your own impending doom. Later,
Welsh legends tell of corpse candles burning from within the
mouth of a dead man, or bringing a ghost to
pronounced doom upon a household. It became the proverbial light
that dying men and women would see as they passed on.
(08:46):
Like many folk tales, though these stories were first documented
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with their origin stretching
back into oral tradition, finding the very start of such
legends can be nearly impossible, even for experts in the
but of course folklorists have their own theories. Some have
suggested that the essential roots of the story, that is,
(09:07):
someone seeing a mysterious light on a road, are true,
and the supernatural elements are what came in later. According
to them, the story of the stagecoach near Clandilo may
not have literally happened, but someone might have had a
similar sighting and related it into the world of legend.
But what they saw wasn't an impossible flame floating over
(09:27):
a river. Now theories suggest that the first corpse candles
were in fact glow worms or electrical phenomena in the air,
natural things that the early Welsh people wouldn't have understood,
but would have been awed by all the same. Our brains,
after all, love to make connections. It's easy to imagine
that someone saw one of these optical effects and then
(09:48):
heard the story of a drowning nearby, and simply connected
the two. Rumors and speculations about deaths are temporary things,
but once a rumor becomes a ghost story, it tends
to have a much longer afterlife. I hope you enjoyed
(10:08):
today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show
was created by me Aaron Manke in partnership with iHeart Podcasts,
researched and written by the Grim and Mild team, and
produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and
the people who make it over at Grimandmild dot com
slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link to the official
(10:28):
Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores and online,
as well as ebook and audiobook, and if you're looking
for an ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's
all the same stories, but without the interruption for.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
A small monthly fee. Learn more and sign up over
at patreon dot com. Slash Grimandmild, and until next time,
stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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