Category: Books

 

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.

William Brook Northey, The Land of the Gurkhas or The Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal [Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons Ltd, 1937]

William Brook Northey’s The Land of the Gurkhas or The Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal [Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons Ltd, 1937] was published 14 years before the political changeover of 1950-51. The book begins with a general survey of Nepal by Brigadier General C. G. Bruce.

Like many other books which were published on Nepal before, Northey’s book starts with the introduction of the Nepalese land, the early history of Nepal, the rise of the Gurkhas and Prime Minister Jung Bahadur, who emerged following Anglo-Nepal War, and the turbulent years that followed. With this background, Northey generalizes the Gurkhas as they are, their customs and characteristics, and sports and diversions. Kathmandu, the capital of the Gurkhas, has been described well along with the temples and shrines, followed by the town of Patan, Bhatgaon and Nawakot. The central part of Nepal finds special mention in the book. Both the eastern and western borders of the country are discussed along with Darjeeling, which was lost to Britain after the Treaty of Sugauli, and its surroundings.

Unlike many of his predecessors, William Brook Northey also writes about the Western border of Nepal and the society around there. He points it out very categorically that the Nepalese people inhabiting the extreme western districts of Nepal – Doti, Baitadi, Jumla, Bajhang, and so on “are often not classified as Gurkhas.” There is a remarkable difference between the appearance of these people, he says, and those in the eastern part of Nepal. Be they from the Chetri tribe, the Dotials or Bajhangis, they “looked much rougher and more uncouth than any Gurkhas with whom I had ever been brought into contact before, giving the impression that existence in these extreme western districts was a good deal harder than that known elsewhere.”

Northey notes that the communities in the far Western Nepal bear little resemblance to their sturdier neighbours in Central and Eastern Nepal. Rather they look similar to the Kumaonis people inhabiting the hills west of the Mahakali river. Their customs, appearance, and even language look similar. The striking difference that Northey finds is that “just as the farther one goes eastwards in Nepal the races become more and more influenced by Mongolian ideas in the matter of customs and religion, so as one progresses in a westerly direction they become more and more disposed to Hinduism, until they eventually lose every trace of the Mongolian influence, and become as Hindu in culture as the Aryan speaking tribes that are found in the adjacent districts of British India.”

Northey also tries to explain who the Gurkhas are. The communities he adds in this group are the Thakuri, Chetri or Khas, Newars, Gurung, Magar, Rai, Limbu, Sunwar and Tamang, and so on. He also includes Brahmins in the group. He thinks that Thakuris, even though they owe Rajput ancestry, sometime resemble Chetris in certain cases. A majority of them are, however, hardly distinguishable from the Mongolian-looking Magars or Gurungs. He does not explain what the reasons must be behind these similarities. “Nonetheless, speaking generally, the Gurkhas as a race are decidedly Mongolian in appearance, possessing the high cheek-bones and almond-shaped eyes peculiar to that race.”

There are several other interesting insights in Northey’s about the Gurkha people. He writes about homespun Nepalese cap, chaubandi-surubal,and Khukuri that Gurkhas wear. He notes that “to be tall in Nepal brings no special admiration.” Nepalese are of small height for sure. Strangely, however, he quips that there is one regiment in the Nepalese army, the rifle regiment, in which the men are all six feet and more. Similarly, he finds that “a well-bred Gurkha is almost invariably fair skinned.” There are very few dark-complexioned Gurkhas, who will, in such case, be invariably nick-named as ‘Blackie.’ Adding further on the peculiarities, he refers to tribal regiments of the soldiers in Nepal. Examples given are that of the same tribe like Kali Bahadur Regiment composed solely of Gurung and the Purano Gorakh, of men of the Magar tribe.

Northey makes a point that the shoes that Nepalis wear are gradually being discarded in favour of European shoes in recent years. He also points out that Nepalese have started wearing a tweed coat of European pattern over the chaubandi that men wear with surubal. As far as money is concerned, Gurkhas love to earn and spend and might therefore be described, according to Northey, as Anglo-Saxon in their orientation. A Gurkha regards money “as something that should be spent. In this he differs greatly from the Indian of the plains, who loves to hoard his pice [paisa] as carefully as a Frenchman does his sous.” The author also gives some space to Gurkha songs. He thinks many of them are very primitive. But there are certainly some songs full of emotions. The example given is –

“In the heavens above are more than nine lakhs of stars.
I cannot count them.
Thus the words of my heart surge up into my mouth.
But I cannot utter them.”

Comparing the caste system in Nepal with that in the Darjeeling hills, Northey writes of its more liberal nature in Darjeeling. “Men of the highest caste are to be found in quite lowly occupations or doing work that they could never perform in their own country. Thus the syce (groom) of the pony that you hire on the Mall may as likely as not be a Chetri or even a Brahman, while the fact that a man of good caste marries a woman of low caste, or vice versa, seems no matter very little if at all here.” 

There is some reference about Nepal’s urban centres as well. “Outside the valley there are but few towns in Nepal that can be called important centres. Some like Ilam, Dhankuta, Jumla and Salyana, enjoy a certain amount of local prestige as chief towns and civil headquarters of districts, as others, like Silgarhi, Daelekh and Baitadi, do in virtue of their being military stations, while the shrines at Riri and Muktinath attract large numbers of pilgrims from India and Tibet; but that is all that can be said. In fact, of the provincial towns, perhaps only Butwal, Palpa, Tansing and Pokhara can with any justice be called important.”

Referring to Singh Durbar, or the home of the Prime Minister, Northey says “there is nothing of Nepalese architecture in this imposing building.” There is an interesting revelation that “of the roads in the hills, the greatest and most important is the one which traverses the entire length of the country from east to west leading from Darjeeling to Pithoragarh in Kumaon, a distance of more than five hundred miles.” There must be many men of letters in Nepal even now who may not have ever read or heard of this road, which does not even exist in the form of a remnant.

Northey mentions that while much of Terai is still very unhealthy during certain times of the year, “the Nepalese government has in recent years made great efforts to make at any rate certain parts of it more habitable, particularly in the Morang, where large stretches have been cleared and made suitable for human habitation.”  In the town of Batauli [Butwal], which he visited in 1920, unlike Kassauli, the far side of the Tindo Khola, he also observes some dark-skinned Biharis and Marwaris.

The author had almost two decades of experience in a Gurkha regiment. He served Nepalese Escort in Kathmandu not only as a trainer, but also worked with the Nepalese contingent on the Indian frontier  during the first World War, also serving thereafter as Gurkha recruitment officer for five years in Nepal. He was allowed by Prime Minister Chandra Shamsher to go around some parts of Nepal and have some first-hand experience in understanding this country. His insights on Nepal were also influenced by the authors who wrote of Nepal before him, like Sylvain Levy, Perceval Landon, and Percy Brown. 

This is not William Brook Northey’s sole book on Nepal. He also co-authored another book on the Gurkhas, their manners, customs, and their country. This 1928 book deals with the people and their language, religion and festivals, government and administration, and Nepal’s war effort, to mention a few. There is also a chapter in the book on the slavery and the labour problem.

The present book contains a good bibliography and index. It also has many important illustrations attracting attention of any reader. The author points out in the preface to the book that the map of Nepal that appears here is drawn from the most recent survey of Nepal. This is an interesting old book giving new insights. As Samuel Butler, an iconoclastic Victorian-era English author, remarked, “the oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lieutenant Colonel George Hart Desmond Gimlette’s Nepal and the Nepalese (London: H. F. & G. Witherbyn, 1927) was published at a time when the Prime Minister of Nepal was Chandra Shamsher JBR.

The book came into its present shape after sixteen years of the visit of the British King George V and six years after the visit of Prince of Wales—the  future Edward VIII. It was just four years before the signing of the Anglo-Nepalese Treaty of Friendship, and a year before the abolition of slavery in Nepal. Gimlette was yet another surgeon working at British residency in Kathmandu – the other famous notable surgeons who served there being Daniel Wright and H. A. Oldfield. Even though the book was published in 1927, many of the facts and figures referred in it were mostly from his experience in Nepal four decade earlier. Gimlette lived in Nepal from November 1883 to June 9, 1887. 

The book starts with a brief geographical sketch of Nepal, its towns and villages. This is followed by description of the various races that live here. The third chapter highlights the religious festivals, temples, etc. It is here that the author asserts that “the form of Hinduism almost universally followed [in Nepal] is Shaivism, the temples dedicated to and worshippers of Vishnu being very few.” The next chapter deals with the economy of Nepal (agriculture, trade and revenue) – agriculture being generally followed by all classes, “except, of course, traders and soldiers actually serving in the army.” The book attempts to deal with constitution and laws of Nepal also. Discussion about the history of what the author describes as the Rajput dynasties of Nepal valley has been lumped in the sixth chapter. The seventh chapter deals with the origin and history of the Khas race and the House of Gorkha. The eighth chapter explains the history of the Rana family. This follows the author’s personal recollections of some of the events that transpired at the time when he was in Kathmandu.

George Hart Desmond Gimlette writes about many things that his predecessors writing on Nepal did not mention or elaborate. He describes the 22 November, 1885, coup of Bir Shamsher and his brothers against their uncle Ranauddip Singh, who was the prime minister of Nepal at that time. But he refers to the coup as a revolution and does not explain the circumstances leading to it. He notes the Newar merchant population in Lhasa to be three thousand, “but it was probably less.” “The bulk of such articles of European manufacture as reach Thibet from India, passes from Nepal. And attempts to divert this trade to the Darjeeling route have hitherto met with but scanty success.” He mentions Taklakar or Yari, Mestang, Kerong, Kuti, Hatia and Wallang as principal passes in the Himalayas. “But only Kerong and Kuti passes are the nearest to Lhasa and hence the most frequented.” However, the Kuti pass has been described as the principal trade route from where the most of the interstate traffic has been carried on.

The author describes Nepal as a country rich in iron and copper. In his description about Nepalese agriculture, he refers to two kinds of local rice: viz, the Gaya or upland rice, and the Puya or lowland rice. The transplantation of the lowland rice takes place in June and upland rice in the middle of May. The other Nepalese products are Indian corn, the red and yellow pepper, wheat, and potatoes, radishes and other vegetables. “Besides the celebrated pepper, another Nepal specialty is the large cardamom, which is gown in extensive gardens in different parts of the valley, near the foot of the hills, in shady, well-watered corners.”

Gimlette states that King Ran Bahadur Shah had made large offerings at shrines of Devi for the long life of his Brahmini queen to whom he was greatly attached. Unfortunately, when the lady died, the King was so upset that “he revenged himself by desecrating the temples and images of the goddess. Talleju, some small temples near Simbunath, and others near Pashpati, were defiled and worship in them forbidden.”  Prime Minister Bhim Shamsher has been described in the book as having suffered from phthisis (the disease causing the wasting of the body, especially pulmonary tuberculosis). Correcting the existing misconception, he clarifies that the Khas tribe of Nepal is not always the people who have fallen from their existing caste, as the offspring of the union of high caste Hindus (father) and lower caste (mother), but also that “it was a tribe [that existed in Nepal] since days yore.” He mentions the system of the “Mana Chawal” in Nepal. This has been described as “the piece of land given by the government to the nearest relative of an extinct Raja family.” The system allowed the heir to enjoy the produce of the land as long as he lived. “There is a life pension on the jagir system. No tax is paid to government. After the death of the holder the land lapses to Government.”

There is also an account of the horror of cholera epidemic that erupted in Kathmandu and the adjoining districts in 1985. It started in the month of June and continued till the end of August claiming many lives every day. There is a reference that it spread to Hanuman Dhoka palace as well, where 23 people, most of them Ketis, died. “As soon as the symptoms had declared themselves, the sufferer was hurried off to the ghats on the banks of the Baghmati, and laid in some Pati (veranah), often on the ground with no bedding or covering of any kind; his friends generally sat by him, sleeping, cooking, and caring their food until death appeared near, when the moribund would be taken to the edge of the water, and his legs to the knees, placed in the stream.”

At times, the watchers left these sick people to die. The author says: “I frequently saw people still breathing who had been lying thus partly immersed for perhaps an hour. In one case, which had promised well, the patient was found to have been placed in the water and was taken out of it by my hospital assistant; she lived for three days afterwards, but eventually died from the effects of the exposure.” He also refers to a pathetic situation when the dead people were burned in the ghats in full view of the sick lying there. Many corpses, thrown out in the river without burning them, were brought back to the banks by dogs and jackals. “The register [of Gimlette’s hospital] shows a total of nine hundred nine persons treated, or to whom medicines were sent from the dispensary; but superstition, ignorance and indifference, were all combined against the sick.”

This sad story apart, there are other interesting events mentioned in the book. Gimlette writes about an exhibition that he observed, with some other Nepalese generals, some very good-looking girls. “Though perfectly demure and proper in their behaviour, [they] did not seem in the least to disapprove of the admiration their appearance evoked from those on our elephant. The two generals thought it no end of a joke, every now and then giving me a nudge and nearly choking with laughter. I asked who the young ladies were, rather a useless question, as I knew perfectly well they were not real ladies. [General] Ranbir Jang said, with another laugh and a sly dog expression that they were “Maids of Honour,” this is the euphemism generally employed to describe court slave girls.”   

There are some errors and inconsistencies in the book, which have been clearly indicated by T. R. Vaidya in his 1993 introduction to the book. In 1927, Gimlette also published A Postscript to the Records of the Indian Mutiny: An Attempt to Trace the Subsequent Careers and Fate of the Rebel Bengal Regiments, 1857-1858. That is another interesting book to the credit of this important writer.