Category: Must Read Books on Nepal

 

Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) was the first renowned European who reached Central Asia and India between 343-323 BC. The British exploration, which began about the end of the 18th century triggered by the East India Company, is quite new.

Cornélius Wessels’ Early Jesuit Travelers in Central Asia: 1603-1721 [The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1924] gives an insight into the often forgotten pioneering travel and discovery by Jesuit missionaries in Central Asia, especially Tibet. The book is not on Nepal as such. However, some stories included in the book also have some interesting references about this country.

Written by Cornélius Wessels, who was a Dutch Jesuit, it is an anthology of geographical, historical and cultural information collected by the Jesuit visitors during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The book is also a valuable source of information for anyone interested in the early exploration of the Himalayan region. The great Himalaya trail is one of the longest and highest walking trails in the world. Winding beneath the world’s highest peaks and visiting some of the most remote communities on earth, it passes through lush green valleys, arid high plateaus and incredible landscapes. When the book was first published in 1924, it was said to be notable and was read with interest by all concerned. Even now, for whom the history matters, the book offers interesting insights.

Wessels analyses the travel accounts of Bento De Goes (1602-1607) who is mainly remembered as the first known European to travel overland from India to China, via Afghanistan and the Pamirs. The account of Antonio De Andrade (1624) who was the first known European to have crossed the Himalayas and reach Tibet, establishing the first Catholic mission on Tibetan soil, is another story in the book. There is an other interesting account of the Tsaparang Mission (1625-1640). At the time of the Mission, it was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Guje in the Garuda Valley, through which the upper Sutlej River flows, in Ngari Prefecture (Western Tibet) near the border of Ladakh. The Khasas of Nepal had ruled the country for a long time.

The book also has additional accounts of Francisco De Azevedo (1631-1632), Stephen Cecilla and John Cabral (1626-1632), John Gruber and Albert D’orville (1661-1664) and Hippolyte Desideri (1714-1722). The most interesting journeys are those of Stephen Cacella and John Cabral who visited Gyantse and Shigatse, John Grueber and Albert d’Orville (1661-64) who travelled from China through eastern Tibet to Lhasa to Kathmandu and then went on to India, and of Hippolyte Desideri (1714-22) who travelled from Kashmir along the Tsangpo to Lhasa. Desideri was in Lhasa during1716-1721. The book also includes a comprehensive map of such travels by Dutch cartographer C. Craandijk.

John Cabral was the first European to traverse Nepal. He left Shigatse (now the second largest city in Tibet) in 1628 and traveled through Nepal on his way back to the Jesuit mission at Hugli on the Ganges Delta. “It [the object] was, in the first place, to discover this new route through the Kingdom of Nepal, in order that the mission might be continued through it, as the road through Cocho [Cooch Behar in the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas] is so dangerous and uncertain. I have also come [to Hugli] to settle some affairs in connection with this mission, which I think may become one of the most glorious of the Society of Jesus; it is the gate to the whole of Tartary, China and many other pagan countries.”

“The road to these countries is not through Cocho but through Nepal, which borders on Mogor [Mughal empire]. In Patana [Patna] and Rajmol [Raimahal] the road is perfectly safe and is used by many traders. The king gave me a captain to conduct me to Nepal. The latter carried letters and presents for the king of Nepal requesting him to help me in whatever I might need, as he esteemed me highly. This was done by the King of Nepal and very kindly he directed me to Patana.”

Some seventy pages are devoted to Hippolyte Desideri alone in the book of Wessels. He travelled by the Kuti road to Nepal, reaching Kathmandu from Tibet in December 1721. It was a little before the Gurkha conquest of the Kathmandu Valley. After a brief stay in the Valley the journey continued to Patna and onwards through India to Madras. The description of Nepal, which is one of the earliest yet discovered, is unfortunately brief.

Nepal has been mentioned here and there. The three cities of Nepal – Kathmandu, Patan and Bhatgaon - is set forth with the customary fullness, while the character, religion, language and dress of the people are likewise passed in review. Desideri points out that the country became closed to the foreigners after the Newar dynasty was overthrown by Gorkha ruler. Nevertheless, it has been mentioned that one Pandit Hariram, Explorer No. 9 of Montgomerie (Journey to Shigatse) managed in 1871 to cross the Thung La, and left a dramatic description of the sufferings he endeared on the mountain, which he attributed to emanations from the soul. At one place, further down in the plains of Nepal, he also mentions about deadly Ol [Aulo in Nepali], which he describes as a sort of influenza active during summer, which takes many lives every year.

At times, Desideri seems to be opinionated as well. He relies on many hearsay information. He describes about the wandering Lamas or mendicant monks, and others who profess magic and make money in the Himalayan region. There is a reference on the free use they make of implements formed from human bones, such as trumpets, drums, cups and rosaries. He also gives a reference of the corpse of a Nepalese who was rescued from the water. The person had died at Kuti and had been thrown into the river, by some Tibetans, with the object of stealing the skull and turning it into a goblet. About Newars, he says, “all have deceit written on their faces. … They are cowardly, mean and vagarious, spend little on their food, and are dirty in their habits.” However, he states that the people of Nepal owed no allegiance to any foreign power.

Cornelius  Wessels’ Early Jesuit Travelers in Central Asia is a must read book . It is clear these travelers were writing about people who were pagans in their eyes. Nevertheless, it has wealth of information to help us understand the Himalayas and the people living there, as well as the point of view of these missionaries travelling abroad to preach in the name of Jesus.

Cecil Bendal, A Journey of Literary and Archaeological Research in Nepal and Northern India During the Winter of 1884-85 (New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 1991) (Originally published by Cambridge in 1886)

The book A Journey of Literary and Archaeological Research in Nepal and Northern India is a window on some very important aspects of the region’s rich cultural heritage. To a Nepalese reader, the study of inscriptions and colophons in this book is as much important as the study of several such historical objects by Daniel Wright, Bhagwanlal Indraji, Harapada Das Chattopadhyay, Sylvain Levi or K. P. Jayaswal in the past. It is a little yet remarkable piece of work.

Written by Cecil Bendall, a senior assistant at the University of Cambridge in the department of Oriental MSS from 1882 to 1893, the book is based on many Sanskrit manuscripts collected by the author for the University Library from north India, Nepal and Bombay with a grant from the Worts Fund in 1884–5. Before Bendall, in the 1870s, Daniel Wright, surgeon to the British Residency at Kathmandu Nepal, had collected a large number of Sanskrit manuscripts from Nepal. The new book of Bendall goes forward in this pursuit.

Bendall arrived in Kathmandu on November 9th of 1884. Before reaching Nepal, in India, he had consultations with Pandit Dr Bhagwanlal Indraji, whose researches in Indian antiquities, chiefly published in the Indian Antiquary, were well known both in India and Europe. In his prefatory statement, Bendall cautions that his study will seem “very partial and meager, if compared, for instance, with the admirable accounts and extracts given in the reports of Professors [Peter] Peterson and Ramakrishna Bhandarkar.” His visit to Kathmandu was short. Time was an important factor in the study. However, the book deals with classified lists of MSS personally collected by the author, tough list of MSS from Bombay, notes on particular MSS acquired, and notes on MSS in private possession. They bring many new facts about Nepal to light.

In Kathmandu, the author occupied the travelers’ bungalow belonging to the Government of India. He was first acquainted by the Resident with the Durbar explaining the purposes of archaeological search. His conversation with Pandit Indranand, the son of the late Pandit Gunanand, who helped Dr Daniel Wright to compile the History of Nepal was very helpful during his stay in Kathmandu. He helped Bendall with necessary guidance in his pursuit, especially in visiting several of the more distant localities of archaeological interest. He also profited much by the cordially rendered assistance of the Residency Mir Munshi Durga Sharan Mishra – an Indian native. Bendall was able to study numerous historical inscriptions and Nepalese literatures. He was also able to acquire several MSS in the valley.

The author was favoured with an interview with the Prime Minister Runoodeep Singh as well. In his preface to the book, Bendall remembers him, even though he was already slain during the disturbances in Kathmandu in November 1885. His remark that “whoever may be the new rulers, I trust they will be no less ready than the late Premier to afford a courteous reception to scholars” – shows that the Premier had been supportive to the research undertaken by him. He also sent him a number of coins to examine.

It is interesting to find from the book of Bendall that the Prime Minister of Nepal had a wonderful library. Bendall says: “I did not, however, enter the room in which the books are usually kept, but the whole collection, consisting of many thousands of MSS, was brought for me from the palace to the Durbar school building. So much trouble having been taken for my convenience, I made no enquiries as to the library room itself. Possibly the books are usually stored in one of those small rooms in which some of the best Indian collections of manuscripts (e.g. that in the splendid palace at Oodeypore) are even not kept and which contrast so curiously with European ideas of a commodious library. If this be the case, we must hope that educational progress, now, we trust, commencing in Nepal, will extend to the affording of still greater and more regular facilities for the study of the unique literature of the country preserved in this collection of MSS, in many respects, as we shall see, the finest in India.”

“As to the obliging library staff, I will only say that, however, the books are kept, they are found with a quickness that many a European library cannot equal.” Referring to Daniel Wright’s 1875 comment that the subject of schools and college in Nepal may be treated as briefly as that of snakes in Ireland, Bendall makes a point: “now we have at least one building in which both English and Sanskrit, and, as I have every reason to believe, well taught.”

At one point when he was visiting a temple of Narayan in ‘Khaumar-tol” in Bhadgaon, Bendall comments, “I regret that the crowd of idle followers who pursued me into the quiet little courtyard where the inscription, with some others of later date, was fixed, so disturbed the tenants of the ‘Math’ that, on returning to take a copy, I found the door closed against me. I generally found, I may observe, that, in Nepal, where Tibetans and Chinamen attract no notice, the mere dress of a European is sufficient to draw a train of 30 or 40 idlers, which would soon be doubled if an object like a photographic camera were produced.”

At another point he noted that his success in searching MSS was greater than I expected, but his negotiations were, he feared, interfered with by the officiousness of the Nepalese ‘Mukhiya’, or guard in attendance on him. As a general rule he noted he had nothing to complain of in the demeanour of these men; on the contrary, on several occasions, so far from acting as spies or standing in the way of his investigation, they were of great use in overcoming the stupid prejudices against strangers manifested especially by the Buddhists of this country.

In a footnote, Bendall points out that the people of Nepal seem stronger and far more active than most of the inhabitants of India. Appendix I of the book has a table of inscription with the original text and translation in English. Appendix II includes the revised chronological tables of the Kings of Nepal. The index of the book chiefly deals either the names of persons and places visited. The titles of MMS (not the name of their authors) are included, and printed in italics, in case where some special notice  or citation is given in the text. They all make the book very useful to the studentd of Nepalese studies.

William J. Kirkpatrick, An Account of the Kingdom of Nepaul [New Delhi: Manjusri Publication House, 1969] [First published in 1811]

The Account of the Kingdom of Nepaul : being the substance of observations made during a mission to that country in the year 1793; illustrated with a map, and other engravings by Colonel William J. Kirkpatrick is the first book on Nepal’s history and its people in English.

Given its time-space context, the book is an outstanding piece of work. No Englishman before Major Kirkpatrick had passed beyond the range of lofty mountains which separated the secluded valley of ‘Nepaul’ from the north-eastern parts of Bengal – the seat of the East India Company. In 1792, when Kirkpatrick had the opportunity to reach ‘Khathmandu’ – the oldest capital in the South Asia, there were very few vague and unsatisfactory reports about the country. These casual reports were made by missionaries and itinerant traders who passed by ‘Khatmandu.’ The country was still terra incognita or an unknown place. Kirkpatrick visited the place with a mission. He was not alone. He was accompanied by Samuel Scott as his deputy, a few army majors, two companies of ‘Sepoys’ and ‘Moulavee’ Abdul Kadir Khan, an employee of the Company government in Bengal, who had resided in ‘Khathmandu’ for sometime before.

The period of Kirkpatrick’s residence in ‘Khathmandu’ was only seven weeks. By the time the book was published he was already a colonel. He came here as the representative of Lord Cornwallis, the Governor General of the Company, to mediate in the dispute between China and Nepal in the context of Sino-Nepalese War (1788-1792). The period of his stay was too short for the job that he had undertaken. Besides, it commenced “under circumstances peculiarly unfavourable to that free kind of research which alone can lead to accurate information.” However, by the time Kirkpatrick reached ‘Khathmandu’, the country had already concluded a treaty with the Chinese which entirely superseded the necessity of the proposed meditation. Nepal no longer needed the Company to fight out Tibetans and Chinese.

The treaty alluded to was never formally communicated to the British Government. In any case, Kirkpatrick made a point in his notes that the treaty just signed was not honourable to the rulers of Nepal. The Nepalese were eventually compelled to become a sort of protected state of China. It was his finding that a little more firmness on the part of the ‘Khatmandu’ government would speedily have compelled the Chinese to solicit the accommodation they needed, as they had suffered greatly during the war from sickness and scarcity, and were not less impatient to quit Nepal, than the ‘Nepaulians’ were to get rid of them.

Along with this critical message to modern readers, Kirkpatrick tried to furnish a complete account of Nepal in the book: the form of the government in existence in ‘Khatmandu’; its revenue and military establishments, its civil and religious institutions, the customs and manners of the natives of their population, their arts and manufactures, their commerce, their learning and languages; and finally, the political and natural history of the country, and so on. Describing Nepal as the only ‘Hindoo’ country which had never been disturbed, far less subdued, by any ‘Mussulman’ power, Kirkpatrick has noted that –

“In one essential particular, nevertheless, these mountaineers appear to me to be very prominently discriminated, and that is by simplicity of character universally observable amongst them. I am aware that this is a feature, which, with a few exceptions, more or less strikingly marks the ‘Hindoo’ character throughout India, but whether it be owing to the secluded situation of ‘Nepaul’, or to some cause still more operative, the simplicity which distinguishes the inhabitants of this rugged region is manifested no less in the superior than the lower ranks of people, appears in all their modes of life, whether public or domestic, little of ostentation or parade ever entering into either, and is very generally accompanied by an ‘innocency’ and suavity of deportment, by an ease and frankness in conversation, and I am disposed to think too, by an integrity of conduct not so commonly to be met with among their more polished or opulent brethren.”

Kirkpatrick admits that on some of his statements he could not but be extremely vague and defective, and that his opinions on others would necessarily be no less liable to error. In fact, there are several such errors in his book. As an example, it is mainly Kirkpatrick who erroneously set the tone of history that princes ruling Nepal for many centuries were ‘Rajepoot’ (and therefore not the Khas people) and the various classes of ‘Hindoos’ appeared in Nepal in all periods to compose a great proportion of its population (and therefore they were not natives to the land). He does not cite any piece of evidence to support his finding, but instead acknowledges that he failed to find a general resemblance in manners and customs between this part of its inhabitants, and the kindred sects in the plains of India. He also notes that “the characteristics which separate them, whether in point of manners, usages, or dress, [with those of the other ‘Hindoos’ in the plains] are so faint as to be scarcely discernible in a single instance…” Apparently, Kirkpatrick honestly believed what the local informants said to him. He had no time to look into the matter with some gravity.

In his account of Nepal, Kirkpatrick describes the route from ‘Munniary’ to ‘Hettowra’, from ‘Segouly’ to ‘Hettowra’, ‘Hettowra’ to ‘Khatmandu’, ‘Doona’ to ‘Khatmandu.’ His descriptions about the valley of ‘Nepaul’ with cities of ‘Khatmandu’, Patan, ‘Bhatgong’ and ‘Kirthipoor’, the temple of ‘Sumbhoonath’, the surrounding mountains around ‘Khatmandu’, and the ‘Bhamutty’ and ‘Bishnumutty’ Rivers are first such accounts in the history of Nepal in the perspective of a visiting alien soldier. He also tries to explain name, climate, season, soil and general face of the country. His sketch of historical ‘Nepaul’ and its boundaries, extent and several divisions must have been of significant importance to the rulers of the British India at that point of time. Here and there, Kirkpatrick has emphasized the diversity among the people among the people of Nepal, and the apparent differences that he could see among them and the ruling elite during his stay in ‘Khathmandu.’

The book comes with a rich appendix of thirteen historical documents. It contains official papers and letters relating to major Kirkpatrik’s mission. It also includes the account of the invasion of ‘Nepaul’ by king Prithivi Narayan Shah. This account has been extracted from Father Giusceppe’s Account of Nepal published in the second volume of the Asiatic Researches. They all are extremely important to modern readers of Nepal’s history.

 

 

Hodgson also writes about speedy disposal of court cases in Nepal. However, if his finding is related with the grievance of Poet Laureate Bhanubhakta Acharya [1814-1871], who had a civil case at Kumarichok Court in Kathmandu, the finding may have been too polite. 

The two volume Miscellaneous Essays relating to Indian Subjects by Brian Houghton Hodgson [London, Brian Trubner and Co., 1880] is a rare collection of essays relating to Nepal, India and Tibet. These essays were published in Bengal Journal and also in other sources on different dates. Most of these essays were his original contribution little benefited by the materials published earlier.

Hodgson [1800-1894] was a great researcher. Apart from the essays in this collection, he published numerous notes on the ethnology and natural history, especially in the Journal of the Asiatic Society. Several collections of his essays and notes were also independently published like the 1874 essays on the languages, literature and religion of Nepal and Tibet, the 1847 study on the Kocch, Bódo and Dhimál tribes, and the 1841 illustrations of the literature and religion of the Buddhists. Hodgson had the opportunity to serve as an assistant to the British Resident in Nepal since 1820. In January 1833 he was appointed the third British Resident himself. He served there until 1843 but was also linked with Nepal and its former territories for many years in different capacities before and after his assignment in Kathmandu. Being fluent in Nepali and Newari, the resources that Hodgson produced on Nepal are numerous. A 2004 book edited by David M. Waterhouse explains his contribution to the Himalayan studies with all seriousness that it deserves. He was of course a pioneer in this area.

The collection Miscellaneous Essays covers a diverse range of topics in different sections. Volume I focuses on the Kooch, Bódo and Dhimál tribes, their vocabulary, grammar, origin, location, numbers, creed, custom, character, and a condition with a general description of the climate they dwell in. It also describes the Himalayan ethnology. This covers comparative vocabulary of the languages of the broken tribes of Nepal, vocabulary of the dialects of the Kiranti language, grammatical analysis of the Vayu language including its grammar. There is an analysis of the Bahing dialect of the Kiranti language including the Bahing grammar. Hodgson has also given the profile of the Hayu and Kiranti tribe of what he describes as belonging to the central Himalayas.

Volume II deals with many diverse topics, mostly unrelated with each other. Examples include the descriptions on the Indo-Chinese borderers and their connection with Himalayas and Tibetans, the Mongolian affinities with the Caucasians, and the comparison and analysis of Caucasian and Mongolian words. There is an effort to describe the route of Nepalese mission to Pekin with remarks of the watershed and plateau of Tibet route from Kathmandu, which is in central Nepal, to Darjeeling now in India. Hodgson also deals with the seven coins of Nepal and the native method of making paper.

Brian Hodgson is the first scholar writing about the administration of justice in Nepal. Volume II of the Miscellaneous Essays gives some accounts of the system of law and police as recognized in the state of Nepal at that time. There are two sub-sections under this title on the law and police, and the law and legal practice of Nepal as regards familiar intercourse between a Hindu and an outcast. The work on the legal system was to help British India and its traders to deal with the status of the rule of law in Nepal. It was intended to enable them to secure justice in cases which the British residency had to settle conjointly with the Nepalese courts. These facts were collected based on the questionnaire that Hodgson framed to receive answers from different respondents knowledgeable about the justice system of Nepal. Some Indian Brahmins at the British Resident’s Office were used to work on them. It was a secret process. Nepal’s pundits who were judged most capable of replying were consulted for information. These two papers (before their inclusion in this book) were submitted by Hudgson to the Asiatic Society and subsequently reprinted in Volume XXVII of the selections from the Records of the government of Bengal.

Referring to the system of ordeal being practised in Nepal to settle disputes, Hodgson writes: “The names of the respective parties are inscribed on two pieces of paper, which are rolled up into balls, and then have Puja offered them. From each party, a fine or fee of one rupee is taken. The balls are then affixed to staffs of reed, and two more are taken from each party. The reeds are then entrusted to two of the Havildars (beadles) of the court to have to the Queen’s Tank; and with Havildars, an examining officer of the court, a Brahman, and the parties proceed thither, as also two men of the Chamakhalak Caste. On arriving at the Tank the examining officer again exhorts the parties to avoid the ordeal by adopting some other mode of setting the business, the merits of which are only known to themselves. If they continue to insist on the ordeal each Havildars each holding one of the reeds, go, one to the east and the other west side of the tank, entering the water about knee-deep. The Brahman, the parties, and the Chamakhalaks, all at this moment enter the water a little away, and the Brahman performs worship to Varuna in the name of the parties, and repeats a secret text, the meaning of which is that mankind knows not what possess in the minds of each other, but that all inward thoughts and past acts are known to the gods Surya, Chandra, Varuna and Yama and that they will do justice between the parties in this cause.”

“When the Puja is over, the Brahman gives the Tilak to the two Chamakhalaks, and says to them, “Let the champion of truth win and let the false one’s champion lose.” This being said, the Brahman of the parties come out of the water and the Chamakhalaks separate, one going to each place where the reed is erected. They then enter the deep water, and at the signal given, both immerse themselves in the water at the same instant. Whichever of them first rises from the water, the reed nearest to him is instantly destroyed, together with the scroll attached to it. The other reed is carried to the court, where the ball of paper is opened, and the name read. If the scroll bears the plaintiff’s name, he wins the cause; if it be that of the defendant, the later is victorious.”

Hodgson also writes about speedy disposal of court cases in Nepal. However, if his finding is related with the grievance of Poet Laureate Bhanubhakta Acharya [1814-1871], who had a civil case at Kumarichok Court in Kathmandu, the finding may have been too polite. The Poet Laureate complained by way of a poem that the court officials continued to detain him saying “tomorrow, …tomorrow and tomorrow” – delaying the final hearing on the petty charge against him. He pleaded that this was very unjust, and that justice delayed was justice denied.

The Miscellaneous Essay is a wonderful collection. It has a wealth of information. Hadgson has obliged the Nepalese legal scholars much by providing information on what may be described as the classical legal system of Nepal. The system was revised only after the promulgation of a new civil code in Nepal in 1854.