NATIONAL 9 (Spotlight Weelky)]

Unsung Hero

Intrigues entered the court not long after King Prithvi Narayan Shah declared Kathmandu the capital of modern Nepal

BY AKSHAY SHARMA

King Prithvi N. Shah : Warning against courtiers

The most authentic records on the country’s history are of modern Nepal. Information on the earlier eras is available in bits and pieces in the form of folklore and tales. Historians say medieval Nepal has many stories and anecdotes of enduring value. However, the difficulty in getting written material stands in the way of putting together a coherent and conclusive series of events.

"It was in the 17th century AD that the emergence of the powerful Kingdom in Tibet with its capital at Lhasa transformed the Kathmandu valley, an isolated sub-Himalayan backwater, into the commercial entrepot between India and central Asia," writes Leo Rose in "Nepal: Strategy for Survival".

An important figure in the annals of modern Nepalese history is Bahadur Shah, the second son of the founder of Nepal King Prithvi Narayan Shah the Great, who was born on Thursday, June 16, 1757 AD. The news of his birth was a relief to Prithvi Narayan Shah, who was in a state of frustration after the defeats in his battles against the Malla kings of the principalities in Kathmandu Valley, say historians.

Prithvi Narayan Shah’s dream of national unification had been battered by the loss of his faithful lieutenant Kaji Kalu Pandey. The unification campaign had been postponed for two years. Prithvi Narayan Shah had hopes that one day this baby prince would become brave, courageous and stout. Moreover, he hoped that he would assist him in his future expansion campaigns. The baby prince was born of Prithvi Narayan Shah’s queen Narendra Laxmi.

Gorkhavamsa Brikshya mentions three sons of Prithvi Narayan Shah — Pratap Singh Shah, Bahadur Shah and Narayan Shah. Brian Hogson’s report to the India Office Library mentions the sons of Prithvi Narayan Shah’s sons as Pratap Singh Shah, Bishnu Shah and Bahadur Shah. Historians remain unclear whether Narayan Shah and Bishnu Shah was the same person. However, it is clear that Prithvi Narayan Shah had more than two sons of his queen Narendra Laxmi. Those who were dead were not counted according to the traditions of the time.

In Prithvi Narayan Shah’s Divya Upadesh, the general term denoting Bahadur Shah was Mahila Baba (the second son). According to B.R. Bajracharya, "Shashidhar Upadhaya (an officer of Pratap Singh Shah deputed at Betiya, India, to report on the person living there in exile) in his letter to Pratap Singh Shah (1777) referred to the Mahila Saheb (the second Sahib) and so did Rana Bahadur Shah in a letter to him."

According to the tradition then, Bahadur Shah was supposed to have received his early education through Brahmins whose task then was to educate the princes and princesses.

Baburam Acharya and Surya Bikram Gyawali, citing Bahadur Shah’s poor handwriting, argue that he was not well educated. However, poor handwriting cannot gauge a person’s knowledge. Bahadur Shah was supposed to have been trained in such areas of warfare as archery, horse-riding and swimming. Moreover, according to Bajracharya, "He probably took interest in the court discussions and got influenced by the courtiers themselves.

History books suggest that Bahadur Shah was much closer to the Gorkha courtiers because he lived with his father wherever he went. He was supposed to be soft spoken which probably provided him the opportunity to acquire statesmanship. A historian tells us that by the age of 13, Bahadur Shah’s familiarity and attachment with the courtiers had increased. It was then that Prithvi Narayan Shah took over Kathmandu.

Prithvi Narayan Shah appointed his elder son Pratap Singh Shah to look after Kathmandu and the surrounding areas. He went to Nuwakot, where he preferred to live the rest of the 25 glorious years of his life. Bahadur Shah accompanied him.

Historians claim that Pratap Singh Shah soon began to live the life of ease and Pundit Brajanath influenced him into tantrism. Later, he was known to have married a Newar girl named Maiju and gave birth to Bidur Shah. Swaroop Singh Karki and others who were opposed to the principles of Prithvi Narayan Shah later surrounded him.

Prithvi Narayan Shah could not detach Pratap Singh Shah, who was obsessed by the group’s activities, from tantrism. In his Divya Upadesh, Prithvi Narayan Shah writes, "This three-cited Nepal is a cold stone. It is only in intrigue with one who drinks water from cisterns, there is no wisdom, nor is there courage. There is only intrigue. My wish is to build my capital at Dehachok. And I will build around me houses of leaders and the priests of my people, my family, my courts."

B.R. Bajracharya says Prithvi Narayan Shah was right. No sooner had he declared Kathmandu as the capital of modern Nepal, than court intrigues came into scene. However, it was not the Newars, but the khasas and the Brahmins from the east and west who played the dirty games. They set aside the Gorkha court tradition and misused the power."

An old Nepali adage says, "If you want justice you better go to Gorkha." This was the tradition the forefathers of Prithvi Narayan Shah had set.

Moreover, in his Divya Upadesh, Prithvi Narayan Shah tries to warn his people against the intrigues of the courtiers: "The Chhetris and the Brahmins of the east and the west should not be permitted into the affairs of the court. Why? I will tell you the outsiders do not obey the court traditions. Keep the command of the king firmly."

Prithvi Narayan Shah’s advice firmly indicated the king’s power to check misuse and the weak character of Pratap Singh Shah as an enthusiastic politician. It was a natural phenomenon for the old courtiers of Nuwakot to get interested in Bahadur Shah, a promising prince.

The courtiers once made an approach to Prithvi Narayan Shah through his youngest brother Dalit Shah to make Bahadur Shah his heir apparent, suggests one historian.

When Prithvi Narayan Shah died in January 1775 Bahadur Shah was 17 and the court was divided into two factions, one supporting Pratap Singh Shah and the other Bahadur Shah. The couriers surrounding Pratap Singh Shah saw a threat that Bahadur Shah would become the Chautaria (the equivalent of prime minister) and began the first intrigues in Kathmandu by isolating Bahadur Shah.

Pratap Singh Shah’s ears were filled with rumors of a possibility of a coup from Bahadur Shah who had a strong hold over the old courtiers and the army stationed at Nuwakot.

Moreover, as Fr Stiller writes on the imprisonment of Bahadur Shah, "Why was a lad of 17 in tears almost before his father’s ashes were cold No one knows. There is no documentary evidence to show that he was guilty of any crime. In the absence of such evidence, historians have regularly fallen back on speculations, and this unfortunately has not been unbiased."

Hence, the first episode of the drama staged by the courtiers in the Kathmandu Durbar was to convict Bahadur Shah and Dalmardan Shah of a coup attempt. Bahadur Shah went on to live his life in exile in Tanahun and went on to Betiya.

After Pratap Singh Shah’s death on November 17, 1777, two-and-half-year-old Rana Bahadur Shah was crowned king. On November 22, 1777 Bahadur Shah was recalled to Kathmandu and arrived in the capital around December.

Although checked by the conspiratorial court politics on his return to Kathmandu at the age of 20, Bahadur Shah saw the advent of his political career.

"The Indo-Tibetan war with in 1788-89 brought a challenge to Bahadur Shah’s previously unrivalled influence at the Nepali Durbar," Rose writes. "The party opposed to the regent’s (Bahadur Shah) rule was not enough to bring his downfall immediately, for he still received support from the various factions in Nepal whose interest was closely tied to his own. In the regent’s family there were certain elements of the royal family including Bam Shah and the half brothers of Rana Bahadur, who had regal ambitions of their own; the kala (black) Pandey faction led by Damodar Pandey, and a Brahmin faction led by Gujraj Mishra; the Palpa royal family which had matrimonial ties with Bahadur Shah — whose position as a semiautonomous vassal of the Gorkha Dynasty held an important figure in Nepal."

"Cipher as the Raja has been and still seems to be," Brian Hogson writes of the blind support of the courtiers to the crown, "omnipotent as the prime minister has been and still seems to be, no one here doubts that if the former willed the death of the latter, the minister’s head would be as speedily off as that of Damodar (the Bhimsen Thapa of his day) in 1802."

However, Rana Bahadur Shah forgot the valuable services of Bahadur Shah without which he would not have come to power. Bahadur Shah was charged with innumerable false crimes. Thus, the courtiers simply entertained themselves by the fall of Bahadur Shah, who faded into history unsung.