4. History of Nepal
The history of Nepal can broadly be divided in
to three phases, Ancient, Medieval and
Modern. The history of the Nepalese
monarchy has been the integral and
inseparable part of the history of Nepal.
Nevertheless, Nepal has much more than
Monarchs when it comes to realm of history. It
has a Vedic past to boast about and a bright
feature to look to.
5. Ancient History of Nepal
The history of Nepal dates back to 11000 years. This
tells about the pre-Aryan settlement in the then
Nepal. These people were of Bhutanese-Mongoloid
parentage. Nepal once again gets mentioned in the
Hindu epic of Ramayana. It is said that Janakpur, in
the Tarai Nepal, has been the birthplace of Sita, the
wife of Rama. Nepal is mentioned as Kirat Pradesh
in the epic Mahabharata that is said to be composed
around 1000 B.C. This place has been mentioned
many a times in the epic. It is mentioned that the
concerned king supported Kaurvas against the
Pandavas in the battle. In the years around 500 B.C,
6. Nepal had many small kingdoms and the most
powerful among them were Shakyas of
Kapilvastu. It was in the house of one of the
Shakya kings that Gautam Siddhartha was
born. He got the name of Buddha when he was
enlightened. In the later era Nepal fall under
the rule of the Maurya. Ashoka finds mention
in many of the rock edicts. In the post-Christ
era, the Licchhavis of Bihar ruled Nepal. There
are many historical edicts that glorify the
reign of Licchhavis
9. The Medieval History of Nepal
Nepal remained largely undisturbed in the medieval
period. Mallas used to rule Nepal and were largely
confined to their own territories. In the sultanate era,
there were some attempts of assault on Nepal but they
were met with sporadic successes only. The relief and
the climate of Nepal have always served as its military
generals. It was king Jaisthitimalla who tried to bring
Nepal under one reign in the late 14th century. The
unification was short-lived and Nepal got divided in to
3 kingdoms namely, Kathmandu, Patan and
Bhadgaon. Apart from these, in the medieval period,
Nepal was largely peaceful. May be that lull was going
to bring a severe storm.
11. The Modern History of Nepal
The modern history of Nepal starts with the establishment
of the Gorkha kingdom by Prithvi Narayan Shah in the 18th
century. He had his own designs and wanted to unite the
various warring kingdoms of Nepal. He was largely
successful in his attempts of invasion. He annexed a large
area of Bhutan and Tibet. His designs were later put to
action by his successors. Their attempts hit a roadblock at
the advent of the 19th century. The British East India
Company got apprehensive of their maneuvers and took
them head on. The kingdom was soundly humiliated and
routed in the Anglo-Nepalese war of 1816. They had to
agree to some of the very insulting terms, on the
negotiation table. They conceded the entire Gadhwal and
Kumaon region to the British India.
16. In the same decade, Jung Bahadur, one of the
valiant generals of Shahs tried to topple the regime.
The queen met the efforts with the bloody counter
initiatives. This led to various massacres on both
sides. The Kot massacre is considered to be the
bloodiest of them all where close to 30,000 Nepalese
were chopped to death in matter of hours. This
started the century long conflict between the Shahs
and Ranas, the descendants of Jung Bahadur. In
later years close to 20th century, both the warring
dynasties established matrimonial relations
between them and started to rule Nepal jointly. This
pact is evident on the flag of Nepal as well. The two
triangular flags, that are the part of a single flag,
represent these two dynasties.
18. Political condation of
Medival Nepal
Complete monarchical system existed in Nepal during
medieval age. Kingship was hereditary. Except some
ruler the kings according to their own whims during
this period. During the medieval age kings of different
dynasties malla, sen and shah had ruled over Nepal.
The political condition of Nepal was deteriorating
as Nepal was divided into small tiny states during this
age. There were 22 states in karnali reason which were
popularly known as Baise Rajya such asAchham, Jumla,
Jajarkot, Rukum, Salyan, Doti, Bajhang, Dang, Bajura,
etc.
19. Similarly there were 24 states in Gandaki
reason known as ‘‘Chaubise Rajya” such
as Argha, Isma, Udaypur, Uaski, Khanchi,
Garahum, Galkot, Gulmi, Gorkha, Dhor,
Tanhun, Dhurkot, Nuwakot, Parbat, Palpa,
Puythan, Painya, Bhirkot, Mustan, Musikot,
Lamjung, Satahum and Syangja. In the same
way Kathmandu valley was divided into three
kingdomsKantipur Bhadgaun and
Patan were ruled by malla and dev kings.
20. These kingdoms were also called ‘Nepal Mandal’.
The art and architeahture of which Nepal boasts
today, is because of these.Malla period. Among the
malla kings Jayasthiti malla Yaksha malla Jitamitra
malla, Pratap malla, Siddhinarshing malla,
Bhupatindra malla, Jayaprakash malla, Ratna
malla, Mahendra malla, etc. had a special rule in
marketing kantipur, Patan and Bhaktapur
artistically beautiful. Likewise there were three
more states in the eastern part of Nepal such as
Bijayapur, Chaudandi and Makawanpur.