Category: Book Reviews

 

W. W. Hunter, Life of Brian Houghton Hodgson (London: John Murray, 1896)

Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of state in the interest of one’s own country. Brian H. Hodgson [1801-1894], who served in Nepal as British resident for many years, was probably the most renowned among all the foreign diplomats, who served Nepal hitherto with utmost dignity. However, Hodgson was not just a high caliber diplomat. 

There was more to him than just diplomacy in the post Anglo Nepal War [1814-16]. The book Life of Brian Houghton Hodgson (London: John Murray, 1896) by W. W. Hunter, which was published after two years of his death, is an effort to trace him out in his entirety. It also gives analysis of his references on Nepal ever since he got the opportunity to go to Kumaun during 1819-1820 as a British Indian civil servant.Hunter studied the life and achievement of Hodgson dividing his early years in Nepal during 1820-1824, his further stay here as an assistant resident during 1825-1833, the stay in the capacity of resident during 1833-1839, and the last four years of his residenceship in 1839-1843. The book also explains his recluse in Darjilung following his return from Nepal.

The range of topics included in the book makes it clear that Hodgson was not only a diplomat, but also a scholar of diverse taste. His study on hill races of Nepal and the Himalayas, his advocacy for vernacular education in India and his contribution as a naturalist of the highlands have been separately identified and discussed in this book. He researched on numerous species of birds and mammals of Nepal and the Himalayas. Some of the species and genera of mammals and birds already bear his name. In the botanical context, he is remembered by the genus Hodgsonia heteroclita and by the beautiful rhododendron which Joseph Hooker dedicated to him. His writings on Buddhism, linguistics and religion have also been highlighted in the book. It provides a coherent analysis of the issues covered.

There is no doubt that Hodgson was the first foreigner in Nepal who assembled and studied local sources to write about the country in many key areas. He was not writing as a tourist or a short term visitor to Kathmandu. The book of Hunter lists many unpublished Sanskrit manuscripts and Tibetan printed books which Hodgson had collected, the unpublished manuscripts on Nepal, the list of his Buddhist, ethnological, and miscellaneous writings and books, his zoological writings and drawings with list of new genera and species first described by him. A large number of Nepalese materials, manuscripts and zoological specimens and drawings were sent by him to the libraries and museums of England and the European continent. Suffice it to say, some of the history of Nepal could not have been written without his references. Almost all historians who wrote on Nepal after him have relied on his materials and line of interpretation in the analysis of Nepal’s history. Even the illustrations of the sketch of Nepal residency and Prime Minister Bhim Sen Thapa are copied by many others after Hodgson.

Hunter’s book has many references of Hodgson’s views on Gurkhas. In his opinion, subsequent to their invasion of the Kumaun hills in 1790, Gurkhas were not taken well in Kumaun because of their style of governance, confiscation and squeezes. Hodgson who visited Kumaun before he got some experience in Nepal describes the 24 years of Nepal rule on Kumaun as oppressive. Describing this situation later, he notes that “no sooner had the British forces entered the hills (in 1815) than the inhabitants began to join our camp, and bring in supplies of provisions for the troops.” According to him, “their [Nepalese] tyranny has passed into a proverb, and at the present time, when a native of these hills wishes to protest in the strongest language in his power against some oppression to which he has been subjected, he exclaims that for him the Company’s rule has ceased, and that of the Gurkhas has been restored.” Once the British took over, changes were introduced but for a time indeed it seemed that, under Gurkha rule, the only alternative for the Kumaun hill-men lay between flight to the jungles and the sale of themselves and their women and children into slavery on the Indian plains.

As the book notes, based on Hodgson’s writings, the Gurkha administration in Kumaun squeezed the last drop out of the local people. It is stated that the exactions of the revenue officials and soldiers in the Garhwal district were “so heavy that even the Gurkha military chiefs found it impossible to enforce them.” The local cultivators “who remained [following depopulation] were responsible for making good the whole revenue.” But the depopulation under the Gurkha oppressions had rendered it impossible for the taskmasters to wring the full demand out of the remaining inhabitants. However, according to Hodgson, fiscal brutalities and depopulation kept pace together and the revenue balances under the Gurkhas annually increased compounding the misery of the local habitants. Some exaggeration in Hodgson’s descriptions could be sensed at this stage.

It is clear to Hodgson that both Britain and Nepal were watching each other, making no progress in bilateral relationship. They appeared “equally incapable as an opponent and as an ally” in the first twenty-five years of their intercourse. The treaty signed between these two countries in 1792 remained a dead instrument. It is stated that “the Nepalese encroached on our frontier, and a new treaty in 1801 ended in our further discomfiture.” Captain Knox who was appointed as a British representative in Kathmandu was compelled to withdraw in 1803. There was a break in the diplomatic tie. It was accepted that the British involved themselves in domestic disputes of the reigning family in Nepal.

Further, Prime Minister Bhim Sen Thapa was not an easy person to deal with. The 1914-1816 war was a big lesson to him in the opinion of Hodgson. It convinced him, “once and for ever, as to the reality of the British power – “a power that crushed thrones like potsherds.” Following this, the terms of peace were negotiated. However, Lord Hastings, who understood the situation, insisted that Nepal give up Terai as the price of truce. It was his thinking that this alone can effectually curb Nepal which had developed expansionist attitude. Terai meant the riches of the country. It also “furnished it with the sinews of war, was the lush, unhealthy borderland at the foot of the hills.” Moreover, “It was precisely because Lord Hastings knew that the loss of the Tarai would disable Nepal for further aggressions that he determined to have it.” notes Hodgson.

The truce was indeed aweful for Nepal. However, what is more interesting is the guile demonstrated by the then Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa. It is noted that Bhimsen “first, by skilful diplomacy, obtained a retrocession of part of the eastern Tarai as a special favour from Lord Hastings to the young Raja [of Nepal], and in return for relieving us of certain pecuniary obligations. He then, by even more skilful obstructions, endeavoured to render nugatory our demarcation of the frontier. By 1819 these delays amounted to a contumacious disregard of the treaty, and nearly led to chastisement by a British force. Bhim Sen next changed his tactics from open obstruction to covert frustration. Boundary pillars were erected, but unsurveyed gaps were left for future encroachments, and for endless annoyance to the British officers. The rugged hills and dense jungles, in the absence of a scientific survey, favoured uncertainty. Dr. Oldfield states that the boundary between Nepal and Oudh was not finally adjusted until 1830, and that between Nepal and the British territories not for some years later.”

The improving relationship between Nepal and the British government owed much to the effort of Brian H. Hodgson. Living in Kathmandu for many years, he established himself “as a man of ascetic life, deeply versed in divine things.” His knowledge on Buddhism, the friendship with Tibetan Grand Lama, search for Sanskrit manuscripts and his transcriptions of Hindu texts, etc made him popular. Following some illness, he even adopted Brahmanic food and drink habits – saying no to meats or wines, “the Hermit of the Himalayas.” They all had influence on the locals. All this helped in building relations.

Hodgson wanted to complete the collection of materials to write a book on the history of Nepal. In 1857, he wrote to his wife, asking her to “speak most despondently of my father’s state [who was not in good health in England], and of the ardent hopes he has of my speedy presence. So I must cast away my long-cherished ambition of writing that History of Nepal for which 1 have been collecting materials during half my life, and hasten to do my duty to those most dear to me. I shall hardly have a month at Darjiling, and must then hurry down to Calcutta to prepare for my voyage.”

As Hunter shows, Hodgson lived as a remarkable diplomat. He lived for 95 years. His contribution to the Himalayan studies have been pioneering. In fact, the 2004 book of David M. Waterhouse, which was published after 110 years of Hodgson’s death, explains so well what his contribution means in the modern context. It is no doubt great.
The first paragraph of W. W. Hunter in Chapter I of his book aptly states: “Had [Hodgson] died seventy years previously, he would have been mourned as the most brilliant young scholar whom the [British] Indian Civil Service has produced. Had he died in middle life, he would have been remembered as the masterly diplomatist who held quiet the kingdom of Nepal and the warlike Himalayan races throughout the disasters of the Afghan war. Had he died at three-score years of age, he would have been honoured as the munificent Englishman who enriched the museums of Europe with his collections, enlarged the old boundaries of more than one science, and opened up a new field of original research.” In this regard, Hunter’s introduction is not exaggerated at all.

Jogesh Chunder Dutt, Kings of Kashmira: Being a translation of the Sanskrita work Rajataranggini (London: Trubner & Co, 1879)

The Rajataranggini, a twelfth century book, which explains the history of Kashmir, has many important references about the Khas people. Written in Sanskrit by a Kashmiri Brahman named Pandita Kahlana, the book describes the history of Kashmir and its monarchs in a way that nobody had ever worked before his time.

The author, who seems to be a court staff at the royal palace, chronicles in the book the rulers of the Kashmir valley from earliest times, from the epic period of the Mahabharata to the reign of King Sangrama Deva (c.1006 CE), before the start of the Muslim era in the sub-continent. Kahlana draws a long list of kings which dates back to the 19th century BCE. His list is comprehensive, although there are many details in the book, which give the impression that the book is not just historical, as he has claimed, but it also ventilates his personal point of view and prevailing legends. With 7826 verses, which are divided into eight folios, the book begins with the legendary reign of King Gonarda. He is described as contemporary toYudhisthira of the Mahābhārata epic. The real history, however, begins from the period of the Mauryas – the Iron Age historical power in this region.

PanditaKahlana was the son of Champakprabhu. He was surprisingly well read and had good understanding of the Kashmira valley, and surrounding hills and mountains. His father served as a Minister of Kashmira. The book, in its make up looks likeGopalarajavanshavali of Nepal, or similar chronicles of medieval Europe and of the Muhammadan East.

Jogesh Chunder Dutt, who translated the Rajataranggini in English for the first time, also contributed a preface to the book, explaining its overall context. In this preface, referring to the Himalayan region from Kashmir to Nepal, and the overall significance of the book, Dutt points out: “[W]ithin this vast continent lived from the remotest antiquity a portion of the Aryan race who developed among themselves a degree of civilization unattained by any other nature of antiquity. This people, though originating from the same stock, speaking the dialectics of the same language, and following the dialectics of the same religion, had only divided themselves into different tribes according to the physical nature of the portion of the country which they each came to occupy. The Kashmirians and the Nepalese who in-habited the mountainous region of the Himalayas were different from those who dwell in the valleys of the Indus or the Ganges or occupied the deserts of Rajputana or the tableland of Maharashtra. Nor did the division cease there.” Referring to Houen Sang, the Chinese pilgrim, who visited this region in the 7th century, Dutta speaks of 138 such principalities, of which 110 were personally visited by Houen Sang. The internal diversity between them was therefore bound to exist.

The Rajataranggini mentions about the Khas people in different context. Although no specific chapter is devoted to them in the book, they find space here and there. From the details provided, it is clear that Kashmir and the adjoining principalities had significant presence of Khas communities. They came from different realms and wielded different social identity, wealth and power. They had their own kingdoms (or lorddoms) in several places. They differed vastly with the Kashmiri kings and their people. It is clear that the wordKashmira itself seems to be related with the Khas [Khas-mira] people; however, Kahlana does not explain this connection. It is very likely that Khasas came to be settled there long before others came to join. This seems to be the basis of animosity that Khasas had against others including the Kashmiri kings. This is probably the reason Khasas posed challenge in the existing power relationship.

According to Kahlana, King Jayapira, who was a great patron of learning, ascended the throne of Kashmir in 745. He used to invite men of genius to his court. He also employed learned men in collecting the work of Patanjali, Katyana and Panini – the three ancient scholars before this time. He was brave and engaged in expansion of the kingdom continuously. Once when he set out for conquest of the Kingdom of Bhimsena, which appears to be a Khas kingdom, and again in Nepal, “he was beaten and imprisoned, but on both occasions he managed to escape and to triumph, over his enemies in the end.”  Kahlana also writes that in early 10th century, in the short reign of Kashmiri King Gopalavarma, Minister Prabhakara (who was a favorite of the queen mother Sugandha), defeated the reigning Shahi, another Khas dynasty that existed at that time, because he had disobeyed his orders to build a town in Shahirajya. This seems to have been some petty dependent or tributary king. A place called Dinnagrania is also said to have been inhabited by the Khasas. Kahlana also mentions about how the Kashmiri King tried to conquest King Aramuri [Arimundi] of Nepal, and was imprisoned in deplorable condition at the bank of Kali-gandaki river. King Aramuri has been referred to by Kahlana as “the learned and wily king of Nepal” who wished to engage himself in war with Jayapira.

Further, another King, Sussala, has been mentioned in another context. His armies are said to have entered a town of the Khashas. Sussala is credited for “attacking and chastising” them. He is said to have fortunately returned to Lohara, his place, in time, passing through roads difficult to traverse on account of fall of snow. He faced death at every step but his period of life was not yet ended, and he lived and thought of the means of obtainingKashmira.

Even though the Khashas wielded powers, they are not named with respect anywhere in Kahlana’s book. In one place Kahlana writes: “The powerful lord of Khasha had, through indulgence in wine and in gross vices, become an object of pity, like a vulgar beast, and lost his senses. His courtiers acted properly or improperly without any restriction.” At another place, Kahlana states how the Khashas were difficult to be managed with, and how they were manipulated by interlocutors by making them drink. They were made to drink, and the fact was intimated to Bhoja, the puppet of a local king. The king was informed without reserve, by Bhoja, of what was ‘going on, “but that wise sovereign whose senses were not bewildered, felt doubtful about the conclusion of the peace and uncertain about the success of the negotiation without making an impression on the heart of the enemy.” The King then sent queen Samanyato Taramulaka for further negotiation. Still in another reference, Damshaka, a lord of Kampana, is said to have incurred the king’s anger because ‘he was enjoying prosperity; he fled to “Vishalaya and was kitted by the Khashas.” Another lord, Udaya, crossed over theSankata in the month of Vaishakha and fought a battle with Bhikshu who was attended by the Khasha. All these accounts give a poor impression of the Khas people.

As it appears, the country of the Khasas is said to have also comprised the valleys lying to the west of Pira-Pantsala-range between the middle course of Vitasta river in the west, which is believed to be one of the seven Sapta Sindhu rivers mentioned so many times in the Rigveda (now called Jhelum) and the Kastavata in the east. The country of Rajauri, which was ruled by the Kambojas in epic times, was ruled by the Khasas in the later times.

The Rajataranggini is still a valuable work. The scholars writing on the Khasas may find it extremely important even now.

Lieutenant General George Fletcher MacMunn,  The Martial Races of India (London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co Ltd, 1933) 

Lieutenant General George Fletcher MacMunn (1869-1952) who started his military career in 1888 and retired in 1925, authored many books and papers on the armies of India and the issues of strategic interests of the British empire.

The book The Martial Races of India (London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co Ltd, 1933) is one of them. The Martial Race Theory states that there are some races which are brave and well built for fighting, while there are others who are coward or generally unfit for battles. This theory takes it for granted that the qualities that make a useful soldier are inherited and that most Indians, with the exception of the specified groups, did not have the requisite traits that would make them warriors. This classification between ‘martial’ and ‘non-martial’ race came on the fore after the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Any race that they thought lived with inactive life styles were not supposed to be good warriors. Normally, the people who were considered educated, and therefore intelligent, and capable of showing their differences with the British Raj, were not recruited by the British Raj, even if they demonstrated martial qualities and exceptional valour. For example, the patriotism shown by the Indian Brahmins during the 1857 Rebellion became a factor not to recruit them in the post mutiny period as in the immediate past. The Gurkhas of Nepal, were considered martial race because they were not only considered strong, mountain built and non-sedentary, but also because they were assessed as hating Indians. The others on the group were Pashtuns, Punjabis, Kumaonis and Garhwalis. Initially, they resisted the British, but once good will was created on both sides, they remained loyal. They fought on the side of the British Raj. Frederick Sleigh Roberts defined this thinking in general as “pseudo-ethnological” construction.

George Fletcher MacMunn’s book is not only informative as to the British military psychology, but also interesting for contemporary security issues. In his bid to describe the martial races, he defines the meaning of the martial race including the early warriors of this region like the Kshattriyas during the conquest of Alexander the Great, the Rajpoot warriors, the warriors and the people of Islam, the Sacca of Chittoor, the Maharatta story, and the Sikh warriors. Thereafter, MacMunn spends some pages on the narratives of the early European settlements, the British and the French in Madras, the British in Bengal, Plassey and Buxar, Warren Hastings, the Regulating Act, the Mysore Wars, the Early Sepoy Armies of Madras, the Third and Fourth Mysore Wars, the Second and Third Mahratta Wars and the Fourth Mahratta War. He then describes armies of John Company and elaborates on how the Punjab became British and the Bengal army was mutinied. Furthermore, the situation of the Indian army between 1860 to 1914 has been described separately. When dealing with the martial class in the north, MacMunn describes Pathans who served the British Crown and the Punjabi Muhammadan, Jammu and Kashmir, the Dogra, and the Sikhs at that time. The martial races of the East and West have also been pointed out and described. His analysis of the Brahmin as a soldier also finds a place in the book. There is a comprehensive chapter on the Indian army’s role in the first World War. Finally, the author also charts out the future of the Indian army and martial races.

Chapter X of The Martial Races of Indiadealing with the Gurkha as martial race certainly deserves a special mention. The Khasas, Magars and Gurungs are mentioned by the author as true Gurkhas. Khasas are described as semi-Aryan race. Magars and gurungs are described as slightly Hinduized tartars. They are said to exhibit close touch with Buddhism. The list of Gurkhas extends to “the more aboriginal Newar, and Sunwar, and the races of Eastern Nepal, generally known by their main group names as Limbus and Rais. Both Lama and Brahmin are summoned indifferently to officiate at family feasts in Eastern Nepal. Except the Khasas, these Gurkhas are short, thickset men, and in accordance with the “rifle spirit.”

MacMunn states: “Speaking generally it may be said that the bulk of the Gurkha tribes are in no great sympathy with the races of India, and in the Army would far rather associate with the European soldier than with other Indian troops. This especially dates from intimate association of the 6oth Rifles and the Sirmoor Battalion, now the 2nd Gurkhas, during the siege of Delhi in 1857, a connection which has been very close ever since. But it was equally in evidence at the siege of Bhurtpur in 1826, when the 59th Foot and they were close friends.”

Referring to the problem of Mine boy among Gurkhas, he states: “One interesting feature of the Gurkha Corps is the problem of the Mine boy/ the boy born and bred in the lines and in the colonies. If born of a Gurkha mother he has for one generation at least most of the warlike traits of his father. Sucking in the regiment tradition he makes an extremely smart soldier. Opinion rather goes in cycles as to the wisdom of encouraging him, or of going back fresh to the Tartar matrix. The Governmental policy of encouraging Gurkha colonies near the regimental stations does to a certain extent postulate their employment. With the cuteness of the line life may also come undesirable petty villainy. They are certainly most valuable as signallers, and technicians as well as in the quarter-master’s branch. Sir Charles Reid who commanded the 2nd at Delhi always said that out of the twenty-five Orders of Merit gained by the regiment twelve were gained by line boys, i.e. men brought up in the regiment, and at Aliwal and Sobraon in the Sutlej campaign five out of seven were gained by such.”

It is the assertion of the author that Nine-tenths of the people of Garhwal, now in India, belong to the “mysterious Khas race.” He describes Garhwal as the true Khas desk, or Khas country. According to the author, the geographical traces of these Khas people are found in many a place-name like Kashgarhas, Kashmir and the like. It is difficult to locate them in “the Aryan cosmos.” The question he poses thus is – “were they a separate and advance wave of Aryan, or were they earlier folk, whiter than Dravidian, who mingled with Aryans? No man knoweth. We see the same folk also in Nepal and along the Himalayan foothills towards Assam as Khasas, amid the Khasya Hills. However that may be the Khas have now Rajput Aryan status sufficient for the purposes of modern Hinduism.” MacMunn describes the remaining tenth of the Garhwal people as the Tibetan Bhotyas, the Nagas, also the remnant of some lost race, and certain immigrants as well as the universal black servitors of India, the Doms. It is clear that he was describing the Khasas of the semi-Aryan stock only, and not the Khasas with clear Aryan heritage, yet without being immigrants of the plains. He mentions however that “as you get into that bit of the Himalaya between Nepal and the Simla Hills Rajputdom is a more important matter, for you are in the Garhwal Hills where Kshattriya and the ancient race call Khas, of whom so little is known, have combined to produce a race to which the reformed stamp, ‘Rajput’ was well and truly given. How and what they have been in recent British times shall, in due course, be shown, with the crash of the German shell as chorus and the swish of the Flanders rain as accompaniment.”

Chapter X also discusses about the rise of the dynasty of Gurkha, the Gurkha invasions of British India, the first assembling of the British Army, the second campaign, and the signing in of the peace treaty. It is here that MacMunn describes the races of Nepal and the contemporary Gurkha Regiments. There are not much new angles in the analysis, but there is some new information in the book.

Finally, George Fletcher MacMunn, a British officer speaks aloud about the British Raj when he says: ” The ineffective outlook of the Ghandi mind would but throw the country back, would get rid of the West and its millions of miles of life-giving water, its thousands of miles of rail that prevent famine, and would bring it where it was, like China with her bandits and war-lords.

“Scored with the brand of the burning heat,

And the wrath divine and the sins of man

And the fateful tramp of the conqueror’s feet,

It has suffered all since the world began.”

The true intent behind this obviously does not need any elaboration.

Lt. Colonel Laurence Austine Waddell, Among the Himalayas (London:  Archibald Constable & Company, 1899)

It was Lt. Colonel Laurence Austine Waddell (1854–1938), a British military surgeon, who ventured to publish this book after traveling around a decade and a half exploring these beautiful yet, dangerous regions. They included Sikhim and areas on the borders of Nepal and Tibet. The book talks about the soaring peaks of the greatest mountain range on earth and the “primitive tribes” who live around them. It also talks about their lifestyle, religion and culture including Tibetan Buddhist religious practices he observed there.

Highlighting the challenges of traveling in the region, Waddell takes the readers on visits to Nepalese and Tibetan tea gardens, journeys to monasteries in the mountains, palaces, and temples, and much more. There are stunning photos and drawings in the book complementing his exciting and gripping Himalayan experiences. He adds on: “To render the narrative more complete, I have added in respect to some glaciers and peaks, which were not reached by [Joseph] Hooker or myself, a summary of the descriptions of these by Sherwill, Graham, White, and Hoffman, and also some geological notes by V. T. Blanford, mostly from reports that are buried away in more or less inaccessible journals.”

Laurence Austine Waddell was the cultural consultant on the 1903-1904 British invasion of Tibet led by Colonel Francis Edward Younghusband, and was considered alongside Charles Bell as one of the foremost authorities on Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. He also estimates the commercial potential of Tibet, including its gold mine, talks about the imminent disintegration of China:  “And with an English protectorate over Tibet, replacing the shadowy Chinese suzerainty over that country, and the rich valley of the Yangtse up to the border of Eastern Tibet secured within the English ‘sphere of interest.’ England would not only prevent a possible Russian wedge being interposed between her Indian, Burmese and Chinese possessions, but she would consolidate her position from the Indian Ocean to the Northern Pacific, and gain thereby the paramount position throughout Asia.”

Weddell describes Everest as the king of all mountains. He further mentions about several peaks over 20,000 ft. There are amazing details about these peaks and the feelings that they generate in the author and the passers by in the lower mountains. In praise of the mighty Kanchenjunga, most clearly seen and observed from his route to Darjeeling, with its 13,000 feet of everlasting snow, the author recites: “Whose head in wintry grandeur towers, And whitens with eternal sleet; While summer in a vale of flowers Is sleeping rosy at his feet.” The whole Himalayan region in the vicinity finds splendid mention in the book along with the rivers, streams and everpresent mountainous sceneries.

The controversy that has been mentioned by Waddell as to the name of the highest peak in the Himalayas, and the rest of the world, might be of some interest to modern readers. According to the author, the Surveyor-General of that day had proposed to the Royal Geographical Society of London to give this giant mountain the surname of his predecessor in office, Sir George Everest, to whom the great merit belonged of organising the Survey of India on a scientific basis, between the years 1823-43. It is amazing to read that Brian Hodgson, already a leading Nepalogist by that time, protested this on the ground that the vernacular Nepalese name “Deva-dhunga” (God’s Seat) already existed, and there was no need to give any new name. Some also said the highest peak were called “Bhairava Langur” or ” The Terrible Pass”. It was later argued that these names did not apply to this particular mountain at all. The name ‘Everest’ therefore was finally given, shutting all doors for further exploration. The local Nepalese names, whether they were correct or not, have now disappeared from the history.

The book is a wonderful description of the picturesque Himalayan region. “The vastness of this view, vast beyond that of any other spot of earth perhaps, is almost oppressive.” It was not only beautiful, but also a healthy region. This explains why the British took over the Darjeeling hills from the Sikhimese King as a sanitarium for their troops. The context of the Nepalese in this majestic land is quite important here. Nepalese people existed in the region, albeit in limited numbers, long before the British came to settle in. However, Waddell describes Nepalese as the people who came to settle in the Darjeeling hills, affecting the dense virgin forest, only after the Europeans moved in there, and subsequently the tea gardens were introduced as an enormous industry.

Dr. A. Campbell of the Indian Medical Service, who had been the British political Resident at the Court of Nepal, has been mentioned as the person who [further?] encouraged the Nepalese to settle in their thousands subsequent to his appointment as the Superintendent of Darjeeling. The hills prospered like anything significantly raising the local standard of living. He gives one example as an effect: “The bright-eyed Nepalese women, gaily parading their holiday attire, are neatly dressed in bright colours, many of them in English broad-cloths, and they complete their toilet with a gaudy handkerchief of European manufacture thrown gracefully over their heads, in Italian style.”

At one place, writing about Sikhim, Waddell names the Nepalese as colonists: He notes these colonists felling and burning the virgin forest in their new settlement “in accordance with our new policy of developing the resources of the country, and raising revenue for improvements, by leasing out the land on easy terms to the Hindooized Nepalese.” He finds Nepalese as excellent peasantry, when compared with the easy-going Lepchas and Bhotiyas. To his surprise, the latter are “neither good cultivators, nor do they pay any revenue worth mentioning in cash.” He talks about the need for preserving these aboriginal Lepchas andBhotiyas from being swept away altogether.  He mentions however that the Nepalese are “at present restricted to the lower and most fertile part of native Sikhim, adjoining the district of Darjeeling. In the unreserved portion, the racial distribution corresponds to some extent with the geological formations; for the Lepchas down in the hot valley coincide generally with the limestones and schist rocks, while the Bhotiyas occupy the massive gneiss and granite.”

The author spares many pages to write about Nepalese, Sikhimese and Tibetan tribes. As he mentions, at one place, Limboos (or Ts’ong-pa or merchants’) are still the chief cattle-traders and butchers in Sikhim. They import cattle used to be the chief import from the plains. It is not clear for him why they are called Yak-tamba(Yak-herds?) or Ek-tambo. The difference that he finds between Limboos and Lepchas is that while Limboos have more Mongolian flatter faces, the Lepchas have less. He mentions what he was told by one Achoomthat the Limboos are “proverbially stingy and inhospitable.” As far as Kiranti tribe is concerned, the author mentions that they are “semi-aboriginal” and Limboos intermarry with them. Nepalese are ‘hardy’ people. They have adopted the dress and externals of Hindooism, like most of the other Nepalese tribes because “their ruling tribe – the Goorkhas – have set them this example.” His opinion is that “[T]hough small in stature, these Nepalese have big hearts; and in many ways resemble the bright joyous temperament of the Japanese, though lacking altogether the refinement of the latter.” However, all Nepalese are similar in the one respect, “that personal cleanliness is rather at a discount amongst them.”

Waddel talks about the personal titles of the Nepalese. He finds it peculiar. Nepalese hardly use the proper personal name. Even close friends avoid this. “This is not done, apparently, because it is deemed unlucky. As all men are brothers, they are usually addressed simply as “elder brother” [dajti), and the women are called “elder sister”; or they may be called by one or other of certain titles, all of which are considered to be more polite than the proper name of the individual. These tribes do not appear to have any totems, or beasts specially sacred to the clans, like the mountaineers of Central India, as found by V. Ball and others.”

There are some references on the semi-aboriginal tribe Kooch, who inhabit the Dooars and the adjoining plains of the Brahma-pootra. He is sure that they must have come from Tibet, and are certainly not Dravidians or Negro aboriginals. “They have become so muchHindooized by contact with Bengalees, that they have lost not only their own language, but even their tribal name, and are now known by the Bengalee epithet of Koch, or “the Terai” (people), just as their kinsmen across the Brahma-pootra are called Kochari or Cachari, an identical term.” By now they prefer to be called Rajbansi or “the Royal Race.”

The book has wealth of contemporary information. The area covered is of course Tibet, Eastern Nepal and the Darjeeling’s hills and Terai adjacent to it. He has written everything credible in the area incredibly well. It is the opinion of Weddell that the easiest route to Lhasa would, of course, be up the Tsang-po or Dihing river from Assam. He also makes a point that the Nepalese levy heavier duty on their Tibetan frontier. He notes that Silver is strictly forbidden to be imported from Tibet into Nepal. One must read the book to observe Laurence Austine Waddell at the midst of the Himalayas.

 

Percy Brown, Picturesque Nepal [London: Adam & Charles Black, 1912]

There are many authors who have worked on Nepal’s aesthetic and cultural heritages. The book of Percy Brown, Picturesque Nepal (London: Adam & Charles Black, 1912) certainly deserves a special mention.

Much alike many other British authors writing on Nepal, Brown too was one of the civil servants of British India. However, he was not just writing a memoir following his visit to Kathmandu. In fact, it was a serious explorative work. Brown followed his interest in art and architecture even in later years. They dealt with India. The two-volume: Indian Architecture, dealing with arts in Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic period in 1940s, and Indian Painting (1918) speak about his commitment aloud. The precision in which Brown has drawn his conclusion on many important aspects on aesthetic and cultural strands of Nepal shows the depth of his understanding in the subject.

In his preface to Picturesque Nepal, Brown explains why he has chosen to write about “the little-known state of Nepal, where the wonderful natural scenery and the creative genius of man have combined to make a powerful appeal to all lovers of the picturesque and of the imaginative in art.” He is disturbed by the fact that the Nepalese heritage is “falling rapidly into decay.” The book is an effort to produce a brief photographic survey so that some of the main features of these arts and architectures are preserved for the posterity. The valley of Nepal being “a veritable art museum of a particularly interesting character,” deserved this attempt.

In his bid to describe Nepal, he has hardly left anything outstanding. He describes the cities in the valley with full fondness. Not just the hills, mountain and the rivers around, but also the monuments like the Bhim Sen’s Tower, the Durbar Square of Bhatgaon, the Golden Gate – Nyatpola Deval or the Temple of the Five Stages, the Taumari Tol, the principal buildings of Patan and Kirtipur, and the Pashpati (the Burning-Ghat) in Kathmandu. His descriptions of the temple of Changu Narayan, its magnificent art and architecture, and the pilgrims’s ritual are splendid. All the major festivals of Nepal are described with their characteristic features. He describes Newari arts, which he finds influenced by artistic heritage of India and China. The Water-Garden of Balaji with the Fishponds and Fountains, and the submerged Narain have also been dealt with. Lamaism has been identified and explained. The Unko Vihar also finds important place in the book.

Percy Brown mentions about the visit of Gautam Buddha to the Nepal Vallley in the fifth century before the birth of Christ as the first incident of importance in its history. It was during the reign of Kiranti King Jitedasti, in which he states, “the Hindu religion, administered by the Brahmans, was the cult of the people.” He also states, based on the mythical sources, that Buddha was able to proselytize more than one thousand Brahman and Kchetrya people to Buddhism during his brief visit. Some of these converts made big names for themselves in later years as the disciples of Buddha. Brown further mentions the encounter that led to the demise of King Jitedasti. He outlines the incident where King Jitedasti “answered the call to arms to fight against the common enemy – the Kauravas” – and was killed in the Mahabharata war after advancing as far as Panipat in the Punjab region.

Percy Brown mentions about the struggle between Brahmanism and Buddhism in Nepal as many others have described when dealing with the history of religion in India. He is not clear what he means by Brahmanism, but in the context that he deals with this issue, it is clear that he means it to be the Hindu religion of the vedic period (1500 bc to 500 bc). During the third century, it is his claim that Buddhism was able to win over Brahmanism. The reason is attributed not to any internal incident, but to the visit of King Ashoka to Nepal, who ruled over the entire Indian empire proclaiming Buddhism as the national religion. Its effect on Nepal was enormous.

This effect that Brown describes with much confidence is the “Brahmo-Buddhism” effect. He observes: “India commenced with Brahmanism and then became Buddhist. It reverted to Brahmanism, and then was forced into Mohammedanism. Nepal began in the same way, being first Brahmanistic, and was subsequently gathered, with India, into the fold of Buddhism. At this point the analogy ceases. India eventually rejected Buddhism, and would have none of it. Nepal compromised, combined the two cults, and in the broad sense Brahmo-Buddhism is the religion of the State to the present day. But the most striking difference between the two countries is that whereas the one was overwhelmed by the great wave of Mohammedanism which swept the peninsula from end to end in the twelfth and following centuries, Nepal was never affected by this great political cataclysm. The storm, raging in the plains of India, was spent before it reached the natural ramparts of Nepal, and only distant echoes of the Islamic turmoil reached the seclusion of the valley.”

The seclusion of Nepal gave both the religions: Buddhism and Brahmanism to flourish here uninterrupted with religious tolerance. In the process, the great Licchavi dynasty came to an end, giving the way to the Thakuris who established themselves in the eleventh century. They ruled the country until towards the middle of the fourteenth century. The installation of what Brown calls Ajodhya dynasty, and the ultimate emergence of the Malla kings, before the Shah dynasty, explained the country’s political history. The subsequent Hindu rulers of Nepal were crucial for this tolerant tradition. Brown mentions that the main temples and monasteries of Nepal not only exist together but are wealthy and well supported. This leads Brown to claim that the country of Nepal of fifteen hundred years ago bore in many respects a striking resemblance to the Nepal of the present day.

Besides the state of Brahmo-Buddhism, Brown highlights another significant façade of Nepal’s religious history. According to him, “Nepal illustrates, as approximately as time and ordinary circumstances permit, the state of India before Islam had imprinted its inedible mark on almost every aspect of its life. The manners and customs of the people, their religion, arts and industries, the towns and the country, are practically the same as they were ten centuries ago. Unaffected by any foreign influences, undisturbed by the transitions which have taken place in the outer world, Nepal, protected by its natural position, presents an ideal picture of the Middle Ages – the Middle Ages of the East.”

Percy Brown explains Newars – the original inhabitants of the valley with much respect and indebtedness. Almost everywhere in the book, where he describes Nepalese art and architecture, Brown flags the aesthetic temperament of Newars with all his appreciation. Making a comparison between the Gurkhas, who conquered the country in 1768, and the urbanized Newars, the locals, he however, states: “For a sound and sympathetic administration and an ideal system of military organization the methods of the latter must be studied, but for the arts and industries, the architecture of the houses and temples, for all that is picturesque and historic in the valley, the present generation is indebted to the Newars.”

A reader is enlightened by every piece of information in the Picturesque Nepal. Brown maintains that Vikramaditya, after whom the Bikram Sambat has been established in Nepal, is to the Hindus what Alfred the Great (849-899), the King of the Anglo-Saxons, is to the English people. He describes pagoda-roofed durbar palace as the most attractive building in Katmandu. However, he thinks its design is a “confused labyrinth of quadrangles, passages, and chambers.” He further mentions the Tantric element of Nepali Buddhism which has linkages with what he calls Sivaism.

Percy Brown is amused by Gurkhas in one important sense. He cannot find why Gurkhas do not have athletic desires other than for ‘shikar.’ “Katmandu boasts a magnificent maidan, which in almost any other part of the world would, on every occasion, be freely utilized for either indigenous or exotic athletics, but it is usually deserted, except during the times of parades.” He thinks like every British that Gurkha excels, but only in – “war, that mad game the world so loves to play.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Henry Ballantine,On India’s Frontier or, Nepal: The Gurkhas’ Mysterious Land [New York: J. Selwin Tait and Sons, 1895]

The book On India’s Frontier or, Nepal: The Gurkhas’ Mysterious Land (New York: J. Selwin Tait and Sons, 1895) is yet another earlier piece of work on Nepal providing exciting details to the foreigners about this forbidden territory.

Written by Henry Ballantine, who served in Bombay as a foreign consul from 1891-1896, the book captures many important facts and prejudices about Nepal. What is so distinct about this book is that the foreign consul is not a British, but an American. The approach certainly leaves its mark on the book.

The book of Henry Ballantine does not have a table of contents as such. It starts straight with an introduction to the book, which then gives way for the chapterization. The author introduces Nepal as a mostly unknown ‘buffer’ territory where different tribes who are more or less hostile to each other live. According to him, the people in this zealously and jealously maintained Himalayan belt are furnished with arms and ammunition, often by the British Indian government. They are allowed to maintain their independence, continue to practice deeds of darkness, misrule and cherish any internecine course of action they like. They are “left to act as they please, so long as they do not meddle with British territory [on the southern side].”

The author highlights this strange situation further when he says that the land is used “as a breakwater against the ever-threatening flood of Russian invasion from the far north.” These tribes are encouraged within their borders by bribery or self interest to maintain the land intact. “Any apparent encroachment upon this boundary is tantamount to a casus belli.” This way the British guarded their Indian colony from any possible Russian aggression from the north. The author does not give the slightest hint that China is in any way a threat which can cross over Nepal to fight out the British in India. However, the fear of Russian aggression has been emphasized more than once.

In the same vein, the forbidden neutral land of Nepal was not allowed to be violated from the British Indian side. “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further” may be said to be the dictum of the British Foreign office, written and expressed all along the northern boundary of India’s frontier, and further emphasized by the phrase “he may run that readeth it.” The traveler must abide by this ruling, especially if he was a ‘Feringhi’, or white man, anywhere within the borders of British India, whether he be English, American, German, French, or of any other foreign extraction, contemplating the passage of this boundary with a motive ever so peaceful, friendly, or disinterested. “He who would overstep this political demarcation from any point on the Hindustan side, is at once seized, brought back into India, and ordered to return whence he came.”

Ballantine describes Nepal as “nominally subservient to China” as it used to pay its tribute to China – the Celestial Empire, quintennially. He also quickly adds that this country virtually recognizes the direct supremacy of Great Britain. In his understanding, application must be made to the British authorities “for any permission to enter this country’s borders, declaring in detail the plan and object of the applicant’s projected trip, with all particulars concerning himself, and, even then, his request is likely to be denied.”

As a stranger, the author describes almost everything notable that he happened to see or observe. Various races of Nepal’s inhabitants are discussed in the book. Parbatiya and Newari languages have been noted among the Nepali languages. Ballantine talks about distinct dresses of the Nepalese people in the streets. He takes note of the Hindoos (Gurkhas, Magars and Gurungs), the Bhuddists (the Newars, Bhuteas, Limbus, Keratis, and Lepchas), and the Mahomedans, composed of Cashmeri, Kabuli and Irani (Persian) traders, hardly numbering a thousand. He describes the Newars as “a mild, industrious, good-natured people, the owners of the soil, before the Gurkhas invaded their rights and dispossessed them, a full century ago.” There are references about Nepalese women who he finds enjoying more freedom than their northern India sisters. These women are allowed “to go in public without being closely veiled, though many wind a white sheet around them outside of their clothing, reaching from head to foot.”   

The author explains the existence of slavery in this country. Even though he accepts that the rich and powerful people have slaves in their house, he does not believe that their numbers are as high as 30,000. While some slaves are such by descent, their forefathers having been so for generations, there are others “who are brought into servitude as a punishment for misdeeds and political crimes.” These slaves are not imported from any other country. “Their ranks are augmented at times by fresh additions from free families.”

The author talks about filthy streets and rich architecture of Kathmandu valley. He is loud and clear when he writes: “The carvings of Khatmandu are certainly the most elaborate and profuse of any to be found in the world. Not only are the temples and palaces covered with carvings, but even private dwellings, including often the doorways of the meanest hovels are loaded with a degree of ornamentation that is simply overwhelming.” He expresses surprise on the obscene representation or gross exhibitions of indecency in some of these carvings. “The reason assigned for such gross exhibitions of indecency being some occult charm, or some mysterious, magical influence they have for warding off evil.”

The book mentions about exhaustive methods of agriculture in Nepal and its rudimentary cultivation system. Cattle destroyed by wild beasts also find their place in the book. The author talks about a disagreeable encounter with a Himalayan bear. He mentions of an incident with a Havildar on his way to Kathmandu, who stopped him and asked him to return home. “The Gurkha, unlike his brother of Indians plains – the mild, timid, rice-nurtured Hindoo – fights to the death against all odds, and deservedly scorns the appellation of coward.” In this case, however, the author was able to threat the Havildar finally, and get his way to Khatmandu.     

Ballantine talks in the book about people of Nepal who take tea brought from China via Thibet. It is being imported in pressed bricks, brought all the way by caravans. He writes about the lower classes drinking Rakshi, a liquor which they distill from rice. “The upper classes are forbidden this indulgence, on pain of losing caste. Notwithstanding all injunctions to the contrary, the traffic in imported spirits – English brandy, French wines and the like – pays well, showing that somebody takes kindly to intoxicating beverages, caste or no caste. It seems a thousand pities that the influence of the white man tends to increase the drinking habits of all natives with whom he comes in contact.”

Ballantine compares a family Brahmin priest with a private chaplain back home and the Raj Guru as the archbishop. He talks about thousands of this priestly profession “idling about the city attached to this or that deity, fed at the expense of the state and given free quarters.” In addition to the bona fide priests of different types, a number of others who have come from outside world as Bhikshus, etc., but they may be the people fleeing from impending justice.

Henry Ballantine also has some comments on the justice system of Nepal in this book. He believes that justice is fairly administered in Nepal. The system of severe forms of punishment has been abolished. The prime minister is virtually the Chief Justice and the head of the Nepal Court. The silver lining that Ballantine finds here is that “there is no undue waste of time over technicalities, no exasperating formalities, no expensive fees, no disagreeing juries, and no devouring lawyers. The case is stated, the decision given, the decree executed.” Crimes of murder, rebellion, treason and the like deserve capital punishment. Women and Brahmins escape this punishment because of religious taboos. They are degraded and imprisoned for life, “these being the extreme penalties of the law for them.”

The author is stunned by the stillness and beauty of the Himalayas that he observed while trading in Kathmandu. He is indeed overwhelmed. He mentions of Gosain Than, Yassa,Matsiputra and Diwalgiri that he identified. “What wonder that the Hindoo associates with each one of these tremendous peaks the abode of some of his deities, and thus has formed, clustered about him, a grander pantheon than the Greeks ever conceived of ! The Himalayas (or the “abode of snow “as the name signifies) might more fittingly be termed the “Abode of the Infinite.”

Edward C. Sachau, Alberuni’s India (Two Volumes) [London Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1910]

Edward C. Sachau’s two volume book Alberuni’s India [London Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1910], which was first published in 1888, is an outstanding work on Abu Rayhan Alberuni (also known as Abu Rayhan al-Biruni) and his writing about India and Hinduism. The book has only a couple of references on Nepal. However, these references are important in Nepalese historical context.

Alberuni was a famous medieval Islamic scholar. He is described as well versed in physics, mathematics, astronomy, and natural sciences. Alberuni also distinguished himself as a historian, chronologist and linguist. He accompanied Mahmud of Ghazni [971-1030], the ruler of the Ghaznavids empire, when he started to conquer kingdoms of Nagarkot, Thanesar, Kannauj, Gwalior and Ujjain in early 11th century. Alberuni spent about ten years in the South Asian subcontinent and widely travelled this area exploring its religion, history and culture.

According to Edward C. Sachau, even though Abu Rayhan Alberuni enters the sub-continent accompanied by Mahmud of Ghazni, there is little similarity in their tastes. Alberuni’s interest was deeply intellectual. However, Ghazni was a conqueror. He wanted either to convert the Hindus, the conquered subjects in this part of the world, or to kill them. Alberuni had nothing to do with this agenda. In fact, even when he was writing the book, the fight between Ghazni’s forces and the local subjects were going on. However, there is little in his book that discusses the ruthless war between Islam and the local kingdoms, “during which it had been prepared, and by which the possibility of writing such a book had first been given.”

Sachau also praises Alberuni for his independent analysis of what he saw in this sub-continent. His book is like a “magic island of quiet, impartial research in the midst of a world of clashing swords, burning towns, and plundered temples.” The object which the author had in view, and never for a moment lost sight of, was to afford the necessary information and training to ‘any one [in Islam] who wants to converse with the Hindus, and to discuss with them questions of religion, science or literature, on the very basis of their own civilization.’

Alberuni did not visit Nepal, or any place close to it. However, he mentioned about Kanoj, Nepal and Bhoteshar. Kanoj used to be a focal point for the three powerful dynasties, namely the Gurjara Pratiharas, Palas and Rashtrakutas, between the 8th and 10th centuries. It is not apparent what the modern name of Bhoteshar is. It is clear, however, that the word ‘Bhote’ in Nepali means people of the trans-Himalayan region. On the east of Kanoj, Alberuni mentioned of places called Badi, Dugum, and then the empire of Shilahat, and the town Bihat. None of these places exist now. He located Tilwat [Tirhut] farther on the right of these countries. He described the inhabitants of Tirhut as ‘Taru’ [Tharu], and as “people of very black colour and flat-nosed like the Turks.” Farther South of the Tirhut is the mountains of Kamru, which Alberuni described as stretching away as far as the sea. It is on the northern side of Tirhut, or the country on the left, is the “realm of Nepal.” Referring to a man who had travelled in those countries, Alberuni gave the following report:

“When in Tanwat [again misspelt for Tirhut], he left the easterly direction and turned to the left. He marched to Naipal, a distance of 20 farsakh [60 kilometer], most of which was ascending country. From Naipal he came to Bhoteshar in thirty days, a distance of nearly 80 farsakh, in which there is more ascending than descending country. And there is a water [course] which is several times crossed on bridges consisting of planks tied with cords to two canes, which stretch from rock to rock, and are fastened to milestones constructed on either side.”

“People carry the burdens on their shoulders over such a bridge, whilst below, at a depth of l00 yards, the water foams as white as snow, threatening to shatter the rocks. On the other side of the bridges, the burdens are transported on the back of goats. My reporter told me that he had there seen gazelles with four eyes; that this was not an accidental misformation of nature, but that the whole species was of this nature.” Alberuni describes Bhoteshar as the first frontier of Tibet. His informant informs him of a different language spoken there. The costumes and the anthropological character of the people are also not the same as in the southern slopes.

Alberuni mentioned about the Khas people, when he talks about the river Ganges, and the population it passes through. He wrote that the river flows through the Gandharva, the musicians, Kimnara, Yakshas, Eakshasa, Vidyadhara, Uraga, i.e. those who creep on their breasts, the serpents, Kalapagrama, i.e. the city of the most virtuous, Kimpurusha, Khas, the mountaineers, Kirata, Pulinda, the hunters in the plains, robbers, Kuru, Bharata, Pancala, Kaushaka, Matsya, Magadha, Brahmottara, and Tamalipta. “These are the good and bad beings through whose territories the Ganges flows. Afterwards it enters into branches of the mountain Vindhya, where the elephants live, and then it falls into the southern ocean.” He referred to Khas people again when he gave the names of the countries in the east.

Alberuni is the first foreigner to research on Hinduism. He is also credited as being a pioneer in the study of comparative religion. It is strange that there is no mention in his book about Buddhism being practiced in the mountains. It is another surprise that Alberuni had no comment on the Himalayas, separating the plains of the subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau.

Many early visitors of the sub-continent wrote about many new things that they observed here. Nepal certainly does not go unnoticed even though in parameters not much known today. Starting with Megasthenes (350 – 290 BCE), a Greek diplomat sent by the Hellenistc king Seleucus Nikator to the court of the Maurya king Chandragupta, then a Chinese pilgrim Fa-Hsien (337 – c. 422 CE), then Hiuen Tsang, another Chinese Buddhist monk who traveled to this continent in seventh century, had already visited the sub-continent before Alberuni came here from Central Asia. Some others of his stature like Marco Polo visited the region in the 13th century, Ibn Batutah, the Moroccan explorer of Berber descent, visited in fourteenth century, Athanasius Nikitin, a Russian merchant followed him in the fifteenth century. Then come English traveler Ralph Fitch and Carsten Niebuhr. A thorough research on what they had to say on Nepal of their time would have certainly been an interesting prospect.

Henry Thoby Prinsep, History of the Political and Military Transactions in India during the Administration of the Marques of Hastings 1813-1823 (Two Volumes) (London: Kingsbury, Parbury and Allen, 1825)

Many of the writings of Henry Thoby Prinsep (1792–1878), an English official of the Indian Civil Service, are credible. His writings on the origin of Sikh power in Punjáb (1834), the discoveries in Afghanistan (1844), social and political conditions of Tibet, Tartary, and Mongolia (1852) are a few of them.

To Nepalese readers, his book History of the Political and Military Transactions in India during the Administration of the Marques of Hastings 1813-1823 (Two Volumes) (London: Kingsbury, Parbury and Allen, 1825) is of special significance. This is the enlarged edition from the narrative published in quarto in 1820 under the administration of the Marques of Hastings. It gives one of the very early analyses of the Anglo-Nepal War (1814-1816), which ended with a peace treaty that established the sovereignty of East India Company over many territories under the Nepalese control. The book is generally considered by the British side to be a trustworthy narrative of the political and military events of that time in Nepal, Bhopal, Hyderabad, Poona, Nagpoor, Jypoor, Pindarees, and other places of importance in the central India. The preface to the book highlights “its utility as an authentic exposé of the events of the period not having been superseded by any of the publications which had since appeared.”

The author teats the Nepalese part of the history in this book as a special case: “The state of Nipal has purposely been reserved for separate mention, both because its situation and the circumstances which brought it into contact with the British government have no direct connection with the state and powers of central India and because the conduct of their nation, which made war inevitable, even before Lord Hastings had set foot in the country require more specific explanation than suited the cursory view of the condition of other powers taken in the proceeding chapter.”

The book is not set to find “any consistent relation of the means and gradations by which the Goorkhas had risen to power, in the mountainous tract stretching between the plains of Hindoostan and the highlands of Tartary and Tibet. Suffice it to say, that when Lord Hastings took charge of the supreme government [in 1813], he found their dominion to extend as far as the river Teesta to the east and westward to the Sutlej; so that this nation was then in actual possession of the whole of the strong country which skirts the northern frontier of Hindoostan.” 

The author, however, describes “[t]he hill rajas, whom [the Goorkhas] had successfully conquered and displaced, were more ignorant, selfish tyrants, on bad terms with their subjects and neighbours, but most of all, with their own relations. Thus, while there was amongst them no principle of combination for mutual defense against a common enemy, not one of the petty principalities was sufficiently strong or united within itself to be capable of substantial resistance.”

Henry Thoby Prinsep also gives his reflection on Prithee Nurayun Sah, the main architect of the Goorkha expansion. He states that Prithee has “the merit of establishing the system which raised this nation to power. Taught by the example of our early victories in Bengal, he armed and disciplined a body of troops after the English fashion; and after a struggle of more than ten years, finally subjugated the valley of Nipal by their means in 1768. The Moorshedabad Nuwab (Kasim Ulee Khan) attempted to interfere in 1762-3, but sustained a single defeat under the walls of Mukwanpoor; and the British government was not more successful in an effort made some years after …”. The later is a reference to Major Kinlock’s expedition undertaken at the recommendation of Mr Golding, the British commercial agent at Betia. He feared that “the success of the Goorkhas would ruin the trade he carried before with Nípal; it had been interrupted for three or four years in consequence of the subjugation of Mukwanpoor.”

The book begins with an analysis of the political economy of the overall military transactions in India. There is an impressive 54-page introduction in which Henry Thoby Prinsep describes relations of the British with native Indian powers, their alliances, subsidiary, and protective. He is very clear as to the natives’ disposition towards British and of states subject to their influence. This helps readers to understand the regional setting of the Anglo-Nepal War of 1814-16. Chapter II deals with the causes of the Nepal War more closely. The first campaign of 1814 is dealt with in Chapter III. Chapter IV builds on the first campaign and elaborates subsequent military strategies of both the countries. The second campaign, the extended war and its intensity, its overall effect, and the process of peace negotiation have been captured by the author in Chapter V. Here the author also describes Hastings’ terms of peace. The Nipalese side in particular refuse cession of Terai. This leads to break-off in negotiation and the initiation of fresh overtures. There is an effort to modify the terms of treaty mediating further concessions. However, Kathmandu refuses the ratification of the peace treaty. Following this development, General Octerlony, the English hero of the war, takes to the field.

Giving an account of Turanee border disputes, Prinsep deals with Sarun frontier and the Gourakhpoor and Bootwal cases. There are references on the proceedings of Sir G. Barlow and Lord Minto, and further aggressions of the Nìipalese. Included is the story of the Indian occupation of 22 villages of Sarun, appointment of a commission by the Governor General, and the resolution of the government on the result of its investigation. Goorkhascounter the occupation of Bootwal by the British. Thus begins the Nepal War and its first campaign. The book also deals effectively with the resolution of Governor General to attack Kumaon in the far west. Prinsep writes about the desperate attacks of Nepal’s hero, Bhugtee Thapa, on Dethoul, his defeat and death. The surrender of another hero, Umur Singh, is another painful event. Notwithstanding the glorious aspects of the Nepalese soldiers, the Anglo-Nepal war was lost to the British. 

The author is very clear when he says “the uniform success which had hitherto attended the Goorkhas produced, in January 1815, an effect on the public mind in the independent portion of India which is more easily imagined than described. Although jealous, naturally, of our preponderance, and suspicious to a degree of any relinquishment of the pacific policy, the native [Indian] powers had so little knowledge of the strength and resources of the Goorkhas, that the war at first excited little sensation.” The preparations of the British side, notes the author, “might have been assimilated to the measures taken in 1812 against the Rewa chief,” a small princely state at central India at that time.

The anticipation and cautiousness with which the British viewed Nepalese soldiers was made very clear. Referring to the Goorkhas, the author says: [t]hey were an experienced as well as a brave enemy: they had been continuously waging war in the mountains for more than fifty years, and knew well how to turn every thing to their best advantage. Caution and judgment were therefore more required against them than boldness of action or of decision; but most of all, that power of intelligence and discrimination which is never without a resource in circumstances the most unexpected.” It is clear from the book, and the account of the war given there, that the Goorkhas were very good warriors, but they were not very critical in the assessment of the enemy on the other side.

The war was a hasty decision. According to Prinsep, the Goorkhas were not clear as to what extent they wanted to go and how. While they decided to “hazard a breech with the British government,” they “never speculated on rousing it to such exertions as they witnessed in the first [military] campaign.” “Notwithstanding their early successes, therefore, they very soon repented of the rash measures by which they had brought themselves into so hopeless a contest. Even when at the height of their prosperity, the immensity of the preparations, and the perseverance of their enemy, convinced them their cause was desperate; and they would willingly have given up every object in dispute, could they by that means have brought the war to an honourable termination. They were prepared also for some sacrifices, if such should be required.”

A letter, which was sent to Kathmandu and intercepted by the British after the fall of Nalapanee, clearly mentioned that the Goorkha commander “was consulted as to the policy of giving up the Dehra Doon and the hilly tract west of the Jumna, in addition to the contested lands on the Saurn and Gourukpoor frontiers.” The person writing the letter was no other than Umur Singh Thapa, a proud commander of the Nepalese side. “That chief’s opinion was adverse to any cession of hill territory.”

The instability in the power spectrum of Nepal was foreseen by the author in very clear terms. Following the ratification of the peace treaty, the King of Nepal died of the small pox. He was a young king who was neither a crucial decision-maker in the war nor in the peace process. When he died on the 20th of November, 1816, he was succeeded by his infant son, Raj Indur Bikrum Sah. The author’s calculation is that “[t]his event contributed to fix more firmly the authority of the party of the General Bheem Sein, by giving him another lease of uncontrolled dominion, pending a second long minority [government].”

Goorkhas. At one point, the author notes, “[i]t is a saying of the Goorkhas that every tree is a mine of gold.” An important caution that must be maintained in reading the book, however, is that this is the perspective of a civil servant of an enemy state explaining how they slashed another fierce, indigenous power that had the tendency to know no bounds at the frontier. The rest is a very informative reading.

 

Clements R. Markham, Narratives of the Mission of George Bogle to Tibet, and of the Journey of Thomas Manning to Lhasa (London: Trubner & Co., 1876)

Clements R. Markham, the then president of the Royal Geographical Society of Britain, did a marvelous job when he started editing the largely unpublished accounts of the first British voyages to Tibet of George Bogle (1747–1781) and scholar Thomas Manning (1772–1840), who followed him.

In the preface to the book Narratives of the Mission of George Bogle to Tibet, and of the Journey of Thomas Manning to Lhasa(London: Trubner & Co., 1876), Markham clarifies: “In the long period that has intervened, since the first Governor-General [Warren Hastings] retired, no greater advances have been made towards the establishment of friendly commercial intercourse between [British] India and the countries on the northern side of the Himalaya than in the time of your Lordship [Northbrook]’s administration.” Markham decided to work on the book, because till that time, “no full account of this important mission [of George Bogle had] been given to the world.” This is what happened with the remarkable journey of Thomas Manning also. “These two gaps in the history of intercourse between [British] India and Tibet have now been filled up.” The book that Markham edited is based on these newly discovered information and knowledge.

George Bogle, a Scottish national, visited Tibet in 1774 as the leader of the first British diplomatic mission to Tibet, the country previously being generally unknown to the British. The objective of the visit was to establish friendly relations with Tibet and open trade links between the two countries. However, Thomas Manning, an adventurous traveler, who visited Tibet long after Bogle, was the first English national who ever entered the city of Lhasa. Manning also spoke with the then Dalai Lama in 1811. But it was Bogle who spent six months in Tibet, going around several places learning about Tibet, its culture, and politics. Bogle also established relation with Teshu [Panchen] Lama in Shigatse who was the ruler of Tibet at that time. This became a point of departure for the start of official relations between the Governments of British India and Tibet.

The Bogle’s mission was appointed by Governor Lord Warren Hastings following an appeal for help from the then king of Cooch Behar (the state on the north of West Bengal) whose territory had been invaded by Zhidar the Druk Desi of Bhutan in 1773. He agreed to help the Cooch king on the condition that Cooch Behar recognize British sovereignty in return. The king agreed and with the help of British troops, they pushed the Bhutanese out of the Duars and into the foothills in 1773. The British became more interested in the region following this incident. Consequently, the mission that Hastings constituted on the leadership of George Bogle was to undertake a diplomatic and fact-finding assignment to chart the unknown territory beyond the northern borders of Bengal and Cooch Behar. The main objective was to explore the prospect of commerce for the British and opening up of Tibet, and subsequently China’s Qing Empire. The mission was viewed as a success.

As an introduction to the book, Clements R. Markham provides a general account of the region including a more recent history of Tibet, Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan, with a view to put this region in perspective. Coupled with his introduction, Bogle’s comments on Nepal make the book interesting for Nepalese readers. Apart from the Himalayan system, as far as Nepal is concerned, the 558-page book deals with the Gorkha conquest of Nepal, the Chinese invasion, the Kirkpatrick’s mission to Kathmandu, and the present state of Nepalese affairs. There are also descriptions on river system of Nepal, Nepal’s tribes and international trade. This book has some references on Nepal’s Vakils (consular officials) based in Tibet. There are some points of reference to Edward Garden, Brian H. Hodgson, and Herbert Maddock – the three consecutive British residents in Kathmandu. There is very clear emphasis in the book on the importance of removing trade barriers in Nepal. The book also produces the available maps of Nepal at that time. In general, the book carries on what has been described as Brian H. Hodgson’s effort at making Nepal – “a concealed and dangerous enemy” – into a friend.       

In its overall make up, the contents in the book do not present the Gorkha King Prithi Narayan, who conquered most of the Nepal Himalayas and its southern slopes, positively in any context. The formidable presence of the Gorkhas in the Himalayas was not something that was an appreciable fact for the emerging British establishment in Calcutta. Prithi has been described as the ruler who circumscribed the trade between the plains of India and Tibet and also between the countries in this Himalayan region, in the post unification context. Going beyond Prithi Narayan, “in the time of the regency [of Prince Bahadur Shah], the Gorkhas conquered the whole of Nepal, and so persecuted the merchants by their enormous tolls and other exactions, that the once flourishing trade between Tibet and [British] India, by the Nepal passes, was almost annihilated. The misconduct of the Gorkha Rajah was a constant subject of complaint in the conversations of the Teshu [Panchen] Lama [of Shigatse] with Mr. Bogle.” The Lama also thought “Deb Judhur [the Bhutanese Chief] strove to form a coalition against the English, and the Rajahs of Nepal, Assam, and Sylhet promised to join him, and would certainly have done so if any success had attended his arms.”

The book mentions about the Sino-Nepal War, which Nepalese refer to as the second invasion. It states that the Nepali government suddenly decided to invade Tibet, tempted by stories of the great riches in the Teshu Lama’s palace, brought by a refugee Tibetan monk named Sumhur Lama. As the book notes, “the pretext of war was that the Tibetans insisted upon circulating base coin, and refused either to withdraw it or to establish a fair rate of exchange.” But Nepal had a bad performance in the war. The Quing Government of China came forward in defense of Tibet, demanding the restitution of all the plunder taken by the Nepal army at Teshu Lumbo, where the Teshu [Panchen] Lama traditionally lived in his monastery, and the surrender of Sumhur Lama. “The reply was an insolent defiance.” The Chinese fought well. They advanced gradually and made a final stand in a strong position, on the banks of the river Tadi, just above Nayakot, and only 20 miles from Kathmandu.

As the narrative goes, “at this point the two armies faced each other for some time, until the Chinese general, in a fury, turned his own guns on his own men from the rear, and drove them forward in a mass upon the Gorkhas, sweeping great numbers, and still more of the Gorkhas, into the roaring torrent. Thus a decisive victory was gained within one march of the enemy’s capital, in September, 1792. The Nepal Regency then sued for peace, which was granted on very humiliating conditions.”

The book emphasizes that despite possibilities of open trade with Bhutan, Nepal, and Lhasa, the jealousy of the nations however “prevents this being obtained on pacific terms, and the natural strength and situation of these countries render it extremely difficult, if not impracticable, to do it by force.” Going further, it maintains that although the wealth of Nepal “furnished the Gorkha King with the means by which he rose, he neglected to cherish the source from whence it flowed.” It was not acting wisely when the new establishment spent most of its riches to make itself formidable in terms of arms and armies.

“The ordinary revenue of countries where a standing army had hitherto been unknown, was unequal to these extraordinary expenses; and the Gorkha Rajah, among other expedients, had recourse to imposing high duties on trade in order to defray them.” The character of the powerful Gorkha king is described in the book as tyrannical and faithless. This was a cause of worry for the business-minded British in India.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hodgson’s Essays on the Language, Literature and Religion of Nepal and Tibet (London: Trubner & Company, 57 & 58 Ludgat Hill, 1874)

No other contemporary scholar than Brian Houghton Hodgson (1800 -1894) established himself as a pioneer naturalist and ethnologist in relation to Nepal and the Himalayan studies. His scholarly taste and also his position after 1833 as the British Resident in Kathmandu helped him get involved with and research on the Nepalese people, producing a number of remarkable thematic essays. Hodgson’s Essays on the Language, Literature and Religion of Nepal and Tibet (London: Trubner & Company, 57 & 58 Ludgat Hill, 1874) is an outstanding collection of some of these essays.

The book has two parts. Part 1 is on the language, literature, and religion. Part II is on geography, ethnology, and commerce. The first part starts with the notes on 13 distinct and strongly marked dialects being spoken in Nepal. They are referred to as Khas or Parbatia, the Magar, the Gurung, the Sunuwar, the Kachari, the Haiyu, the Chepang, the Kasunda, the Murmi, the Newari, the Kiranti, the Limbuan, and the Lapchan. Except the Khas dialect, which is Indo-European, Hodgson declares that all the remaining are of Trans-Himalayan stock and closely interlinked.

All these dialects “are all extremely rude, owing to the people who speak them having crossed the snows before learning had drowned upon Tibet, and to the physical features of their new home (huge mountain barriers on every hand) having tended to break up and enfeeble the common speech they brought with them.” Hodgson points out that these dialects are not mutually intelligible to their speakers now.  It is only the Newari and Lapchanlanguage that Hodgson points out “can boast a single book, or even a system of letters, original and borrowed.” About Khas language as well, Hodgson notes in his1828 essay that it has “no literature properly so called and very few and trivial books.”

The book covers a surprising range of themes on Nepalese and Tibetan Buddhism. In the sketch of Buddhism, derived from the Bauddha scriptures of Nepal (1828), Hodgson briefly deals with Buddhist literatures available here. There are answers to a set of questions that he posed to a Buddhist scholar in 1823: how and when was the world created? What was the origin of mankind? What is matter and what is spirit? Is matter an independent existence, or is it derived from God? What are the attributes of God? Is the pleasure of God derived from action or repose? Who is Buddha? Is he god or the creator or a prophet or saint; is he born of heaven or of woman?

In the answer to the last question here, the Buddhist scholar who responded to all the questions given by Hodgson states: “Buddha means in Sanskrit, ‘the wise;’ also, ‘that which is known by wisdom;’ and it is one of the names which we give to God, whom we also call Adi-Buddha, because he was before all, and is not erected, but is the creator … Sakya, and the rest of the seven human Buddhas are earth-born or human. These latter, by the worship of Buddha, arrived at the highest eminence, and attained Nirvana Pada (i.e. were absorbed into Adi-Buddha). We therefore call them all Buddhas.”

Hodgson includes in this collection quotations from original Sanskrit authorities in proof and illustration of the proceeding article (1836), European speculation in Buddhism(1834), remarks on M. Remusat’s review of Buddhism (1834), notes on the inscription from Sarnath (1835), notes on Adi-Buddha and of the seven mortal Buddha (1834), notes on the primary language of the Buddhist writings (1837), a disputation respecting caste by a Buddhist (1829), observations on the extreme resemblance that prevails between many of the symbols of Buddhism and Saivism (1828), and notes on the Pravrajya Vrats or initiatory rites of the Buddhists (Illustration).

In Part II, Brian Houghton Hodgson includes his earlier research on the physical geography of the Himalaya (1849), the aborigines of the Himalayan region (1848), origin and classification of the military tribes of Nepal (1833), the Chepang and Kusunda Tribes (1857), cursory notice of Nyakot and of the remarkable tribes inhabiting it (undated), the tribes of northern Tibet and Sifan (1853), the commerce of Nepal [Selections], and the colonization of the Himalaya by Europeans [Selection]. Hodgson describes the Himalayas as generally very well-calculated for the settlement of Europeans, and thus a good region for colonization.

The author is loud and clear in his opinion when he writes of the “duties of the [British] government” to colonialize the Himalayas “for the successful culture of various products suited to the wants of Europeans, for their own consumption or for profitable sale; and in this extra-ordinary gradation of heights, the high and the low are juxtaposed in a manner alike favourable to the labours of the healthful and to the relief of the ailing.” This fitness for Europeans apart, he thinks the colonization of the Himalayas is wise commercially as well.

Hodgson maintains that there is peace in Nepal, and it is paying dividend to the merchants of British India. In the Nepal Valley, he calculates about “fifty-two native and thirty-four Indian merchants engaged in foreign commerce, both with the south and the north, and that the trading capital of the former is considered to be not less than 50,18,000 nor that of the latter less than 23,05,000. A third of such of these merchants as are natives of the plains have come up subsequently to the establishment of the Residency in 1816, since which period, as is thought by the oldest merchants of Kathmandu, the trade has been tripled.”

An 1857 note in the book mentions a costly road that has been constructed recently over the Western Himalayas. However, Hodgson advises that a brisk trade between the Cis- and Trans-Himalayan countries would inevitably seek the route of the central or eastern part of the chain than this road. His finding is that “the Western Tibet is very much the poorest, most rugged, and least populous part of that country. Utsang, Kham, Sifan, and the proximate parts of China furnish all the materials, save shawl-wool, for a trade with us, as well as all the effective demand for our commodities” These findings lead him to conclude that Kathmandu, Darjeeling or Takyeul as the most expedient line of transit of the Himalaya.

As far as Kathmandu is concerned, Hodgson is quick to add that the Newar people have been maintaining an extensive commercial intercourse between the plains of India on the one hand and those of Tibet on the other for many centuries. “Nepal is now subject to a wise and orderly Native Government; that owing to the firm peace and alliance between the Government and the Honourable Company’s, the Indian merchants have full and free access to Nepal.”

The contributions that Brian H. Hodgson made to Nepalese studies were the first significant effort by anybody of his stature, which still has significance today. Some of his opinions are incorrect, and some misleading as well, like his descriptions on the Khas community of Nepal or the story of the Mussulman conquest and bigotry sweeping multitudes of the Brahmans of the plains into the proximate hills. Generally, it is untrue. His colonial mindset may have influenced his analysis at times. It is clear that he also depended on the local pundits, who fed Hodgson with information that provided some immediate benefit to them in the local caste relations.  

Hodgson’s mind was many-sided, and his work extended into many fields. Apart from this book, these other materials were also compiled and published in different dates in the name of Miscellaneous Essays relating to Indian Subjects (London: Trubner and Co., 1880), On the Kocch, Bódo and Dhimál tribes (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1847) and Illustrations of the literature and religion of the Buddhists (Serampore: Self-published. 1841). The 2004 book edited by David Waterhouse on the origins of Himalayan studies is the latest overview, which has been able assess Hodgson’s contributions in the views of several modern scholars. This overview was done long before by W. W. Hunter in Life of Brian Houghton Hodgsonpublished in London by John Murray and Co. in 1896.