Category: Miscellaneous

 

Rajendralala Mitra, The Sanskrit Buddhist Literature of Nepal, [Calcutta: The Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1882]

Gautam Buddha, also known as the Shakyamuni, was born in the Western foothill of Nepal 563 before the beginning of the Christian era. Even though there is some dispute as to the exact year on which Gautam Buddha was born, his birth place, Lumbini, is already an established fact. Buddha founded Buddhism – which is one of the great indigenous religions of the South Asian sub-continent.

The accounts of Buddha’s life, discourses, and monastic rules are available in different languages. They are believed to have been written after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to Buddha were passed down by oral tradition, and first committed to writing about 400 years later. They were written in Sanskrit as well.

There are enormous amount of Buddhist literature in Nepal. Some of them were composed in Sanskrit at different points of time. There must have been many such literatures in India as well. But they disappeared after the Muslim conquests in the twelfth century. Right after the Buddha’s Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Maha-sutra (also called the Nirvana Sutra), which mentions some of the well-known episodes of the final months of the Buddha’s life, different such literatures came to be written or compiled in Nepal and India continuing up to the 12th century AD.

Out of this vast literature, comprising several thousand texts, only a portion was translated into Tibetan between the 7th and 15th centuries and into Chinese between the 2nd and 11th centuries. Of later composition in Nepal are various Parajika texts, demonstrating what is known as a Hindu-Buddhist syncretism in the country. Some large compositions such as the Avadanasataka and Mahavastu also repeat materials familiar from Indic sources. Svayambhu-purana, Bhadrakalpavadana, Vicitrakarn ikkvadana, and the Gunakaran ḍavyuha are just a few examples. The Svayambhu-purana in particular describes the Buddhist mythology of Nepal.

Rajendralala Mitra’s The Sanskrit Buddhist Literature of Nepal (Calcutta: The Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1882) is one of the major works on Nepalese Buddhism. Mitra was the first modern Indian Indologist, who also served as librarian of the Calcutta based Asiatic Society for many years. His work was based on the Sanskrit Buddhist manuscripts that were discovered and collected in Nepal by Brian Hodgson [1800-1894], the British resident in Kathmandu, making the literature known to the modern world for the first time. The Europeans of that time had no knowledge of these Nepalese literatures. It is thus natural that his discovery of these literatures “entirely revolutionized the history of Buddhism.” Mitra is not sure how many such documents were discovered by Brian Hodgson. They may go up to two hundred if carefully arranged and indexed. However, he reveals that “copies of these works to the total number of 381 bundles [were] distributed so as to render them accessible to European scholars.”

The book starts with extracts of Buddhist literature named Abhidhanottara and ends with Vratavadanamala. It also shows the manuscript (MSS) number, according to which they are arranged in the Asiatic Society’s Library. Asoka Avadana gives the account of the early life of King Asoka Maurya (304–232 BCE) who is said to have visited Lumbini. It also talks about his conversion to Buddhism, and tales and anecdotes related to him by a Yati named Upa Gupta, with a view to illustrate the morality of the Buddhism. Similarly, the Dvavinsha Avadana is a collection of twenty-two stories illustrating the merits of devotion to Buddhism and to the duties enjoined by it.

In one of the stories given, “a troop of Brahmans, having made their obeisance to Buddha, expressed their desire to enter Pra-vrajya or itinerancy. Instantly all were, by miracle, shaved and their clothes transformed into rags, except one who remained as he was. The Lord said, the cause of this exception was, that the person was full of Brahmanic pride. On his solicitations, the Lord changed his clothes into rags, but these rags were all dirty. Being asked the cause of this, the Lord said, ‘that Brahman, in one of his former existence, did not make his obeisance to Buddha Padmottara, disdaining to bow to a Sramana.” In Ganapati Hridaya, another piece, there are mantras in praise of Ganapati, “the proof it affords of the Buddhists having adopted the adoration of Ganesha, a purely Hindu deity.” In Divyavadana-Mala, there is a story of Rupavati or Rupavatyavadana. “Once when the Lord was at the Jetavana monastery his disciples remarked, how wonderful it was that beggars should be the most favoured of all persons to the Lord. The Lord replied, it was even so in his former existences.”

Nobody can underscore the importance of these literatures. Hodgson not only discovered them, but also explained about their importance. Mitra notes: “To reproduce them in their entirety would require not one, but many, volumes, and I had therefore to satisfy myself with their bare outlines- their skeletons- omitting all flesh and blood which give them their vividness and interest for the faithful. But reduced and attenuated as they are in the following pages, they will, I believe, prove useful in elucidating Buddhist traditions and sculpture, and in conveying a fair idea of the nature and contents of the newly discovered literature.”

In the preface of his book, Mitra explains the objective behind producing this work: “The total number of MSS, presented by Mr Hodgson to the Asiatic Society of Bengal was 86 bundles, including 170 separate works on various subjects. They vary in extent from a few slokas to a hundred and twenty thousand stanzas. The great bulk of the works refers to the history, philosophy, morality, and rituals of the religion of Buddha; a few are devoted to miscellaneous subjects. To classify them according to the scheme of the Nepalese Buddhists as described by Mr Hodgson in his essays, I find, is impracticable.”

As to the Sanskrit manuscripts, their age and authority, some are new and some are very old. Nevertheless, each of the literature which has been described is of historical importance. In principle, Buddha’s teachings deny the authority of the Vedas. Buddhism is generally viewed as a nastika (“it is not so”) school of Hinduism. However, Hindus view Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu. This view is based on many Hindu texts including Bhagavata Purana, Bhavishya Purana and Narasimha Purana. The Buddhist Dasharatha Jataka (Jataka Atthakatha) represents Lord Rama as a previous incarnation of the Buddha and as a Bodhisattva and supreme Dharma King of great wisdom. The Buddhist stories included in the book of Mitra resemble the Hindu Puranas in both their content and style. They eulogize the Buddha the way Hindu Puranas eulogize various deities, primarily the divine Trimurti God through divine stories

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Professor Ralph Lilley Turner’s A Comparative and Etymological Dictionary of the Nepali Language (London: Kegan Paul, Trench and Trubner Co Ltd. 1931)

Professor Ralph Lilley Turner’s A Comparative and Etymological Dictionary of the Nepali Language (London: Kegan Paul, Trench and Trubner Co Ltd. 1931) was a colossal exertion in Nepali lexicography. It was the first modern Nepali-English dictionary.

The identity that Turner’s dictionary gave to Nepal and the Nepali language was a remarkable event in the history of nation-building in Nepal. The readers of the Nepali language, or what has often been described as the Khas-kura, Parbate, or the Gorkhali language, had received not only etymological notes, but its vocabulary, orthography, and the note in the form of conjunct letters were also explained.  Attempts were made to explain its relation with other Indo-Aryan languages. The dictionary also indisputably stated that the nearest relative of Nepali is a group of dialects known as Kumaoni spoken in the British Indian District of Kumaon. 

Turner was not the first person who worked on Nepali grammars, dictionaries, and vocabularies. There were many others. J. A. Ayton’s Grammar of the Nepalese Language (1820), A. Turnbull’s Nepali Grammer and Vocabulary (1887), Hemraj Guru’s undated Gorkha-bhasa-vyakaran-Candrika, Somraj Sarma’s Maddhya Candrika (1920), and R. Kilgour, H.C. Duncan and G. P. Pradhan’s English Nepali Dictionary (1923) provided strong background to Turner. He also noted Gangadhar Sastri Dravid, M. E. Dopping-Heppenstal, SubadarKushalsing Burathoki, G.W.P. Money and F. Dewar’s works. There is also an anonymous writer’s Short Khaskura Phrases published by Thacker Spink and Company.

Colonel Kirkpatrick compiled many Nepali vocabularies in his book of 1811. Like him, many other writers who wrote introductory references on Nepal also worked on Nepali words and phrases. Apart from them, Turner was also able to read many important Nepali texts that were available, like Prime Minister Chandra Shamsher’s speech on the liberation of slaves in 1925, [Poet Laureate] Bhanu Bhakta’s Badhu–Siksa, or the famous but undated folk story Sunkesri Rani ko Katha. Turner left no stone unturned in his research to compile the dictionary as he wanted. His voluminous work which consists of 26,000 words is still considered the first real dictionary worth its name in Nepali. No doubt, it has remained a lasting source of information and knowledge for Nepali lexicographers.

The quality work that Turner produced was unmatched by any other lexicographers. His background as an English-Indian languages philologist was very helpful in his job. He was not only conversant in the Romani language, but also had deep knowledge of the Indo-Aryan languages. He also had the experience of working with the second and third Queen Alexandra’s own Gurkha Rifles. He learnt quite a lot during the period from1920 to 1922 as the professor of Indian Linguistics at Benares Hindu University. He also had the background as the Professor of Sanskrit at the School of Oriental Studies at the University of London. He counts his friend Pandit Dharanidhar Koirala of Darjeeling as his constant counsellor and collaborator. Koirala has been credited for examining every one of the 26,000 entries in the dictionary. Bodh Bikram Adhikari of Kathmandu has been acknowledged equally, as it was him “through whose hands also almost every slip passed, and who added a very considerable number of words and meanings on his own account.” Turner owes to Dr H. Jorgensen for the identifications in Newari and Professor F. W. Thomas and Dr L. D. Bennett for Tibetan. It is Ms Turner who has been credited for preparing the indexes which enable “the book to be used in some measure as a comparative etymological vocabulary of all the main Indo-Aryan languages.” These indexes contain about 48,000 entries.

The Dictionary is rich in the identification of the words in use among common Nepalese folk. Words like kachmach (odds and ends), kandara (cavern) and kapakap (the noise made while swallowing) and, for that matter, rajkhani (a goat’s testicles), loso (anything eaten with something else, especially food eaten when drinking raksi), and haise-hoste (exclamations used by men engaged together on a task of lifting or pulling something heavy) are just a few examples. Many words in this dictionary like chutto-putto (divided up, separated), thakuwa (a cow or buffalo which has just ceased giving milk on becoming pregnant), dhasaro (a small landslip), bhanro (a coarse kind of sack cloth made from the fibre of nettles) are not much in use now. Numerous words from the other indigenous dialects in Nepal that are used in Nepali are also meticulously included in the dictionary.

According to William Brook Northey, who wrote a book on Nepal about six year after the publication of this dictionary, “with the exception of certain tribes, nearly all Gurkhas are bilingual, speaking both  their tribal language which belong to the Tibeto-Burman group, and the lingua franca of the country, Nepali, though their proficiency in the latter varies greatly. Certain tribes for instance like the Gurungs, who inhabit the more inaccessible parts of the country, have a very imperfect knowledge of it.”

The last paragraph of Ralph Lilley Turner’s 1930 preface to the Dictionary deals with the Gurkhas, rather than Nepali lexicography: “As I write these last words, my thoughts return to you who were my comrades, the stubborn and indomitable peasants of Nepal. Once more I hear the laughter with which you greeted every hardship. Once more I see you in your bivouacs or about your fires, on forced march or in the trenches, now shivering with wet and cold, now scorched by a pitiless and burning sun. Uncomplaining you endure hunger and thirst and wounds; and at the last your unwavering lines disappear into the smoke and wrath of battle. Bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had country of more faithful friends than you.” This is the paragraph which was recounted at the British memorial to the Gurkhas which was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II on December 3, 1997, in London.

The person who produced this great dictionary of Nepali language never had any opportunity to set his foot in the Kingdom of Nepal. He was familiar with the territory both East and West of Nepal, but not Nepal itself. But that did not prevent him to work on this dictionary.

Perceval Landon, Nepal Vol. I & II (New Delhi: Rupa & Co, 2007) (Originally published in 1928)

Father Giuseppe de Rovato’s “An Account of the Kingdom of Nepal” was the first article written by any European on King Prithvi Narayan Shah – the founder of modern Nepal. It was written in 1786. The article was translated and published in English by Sir John Shore. It was published in the second volume of the Asiatic Researches (Calcutta) in 1790. It dealt with the consolidation of power by King Prithvi Narayan within the Kathmandu Valley between 1767-77.

A number of books were written on Nepal and its rulers after this publication. Perceval Landon’s book Nepal has come into existence after almost 138 years. Landon (1868-1927) was an English writer. He was also a journalist, now best remembered for his classic and much reprinted Ghost Story “Thurnley Abbey.” But for the people of Nepal, Landon is remembered for his two volume work on Nepal with several illustrations and maps.

Vol I of Landon treats the inward and outward politics of Nepal from the time it grew into a national entity. Many of the history that he has dealt with till the advent of Jung Bahadur and his visit to England is dealt by others as well. He examines Nepal in the political, religious and historical context vis-a-vis the reality of the twentieth century. In Landon’s point of view, this country is full of antiquities and relics of the past – is unique because it has never suffered the repercussions of the Christian or the Moslem expansion. This is a great complement of course. But the second volume goes beyond.

In second volume, Perceval Landon has remarkably explained Prime Minister Chandra Shamsher and his efforts in nation building. There are details about his early life, his personality, the Lhasa Mission of 1904, his visit to England, and his role in concluding the Treaty of 1923 with British India following the World War I. Landon has applauded Chandra’s judicial and social reforms and his commitment for the Nepalese Army, public works, roads and bridges, and land reform. “The work of the Prime Minister in gradually introducing reforms into Nepal has been hard indeed; but it has been carried out with resolution, steadiness and tact.” Here, Landon also concentrates on the people and politics of the land. The towns, rulers, races and architecture of Nepal also find space here. He also examines the role of Buddhism in Nepal. According to the author, “Buddhism and Hinduism have carried on relations partly of hostility and partly of sympathy which are almost unparalleled in the history of comparative religion.” This is his distinctive finding.

Landon has dealt with races of Nepal as well. He describes the Newars are as the most important of the quasi-aboriginal races in the country. At first sight, Landon writes, “it would seem certain that Thakuris and Khas are in fact due to an emigration from India caused by the ravages of Mohammedan conquerors. It is only right, however, to notice that the existence in Nepal of a pure Hindu race called Khas is mentioned in ancient chronicles as early as the Year AD 1000.” It is possible that the Gurungs and Magars came to Nepal during one or more of the historical Mongolian migrations to the west in search of food, peace, and what is called nowadays a place in the sun. Landon finds that the Magars, another important community of Nepal, originally occupied the Tarai and lower mountain districts near Butwal and Palpa. In the east of Nepal by far the most important group is that of the Kirantis. As to the Limbus, Landon says they are among the oldest recorded populations of the country and their features indicate that they are descendants of early Tibetan settlers in Nepal. Of other tribes, he also mentions Sunwars and Murmis. There is a brief note that respect for caste regulations is everywhere on the increase rather than the decline in Nepal.

The Appendices in Volume I and II are no less significant. Volume I includes armorial bearings and flags, regalia, anthems and titles, role of succession to hereditary prime ministership of Nepal, the law of royal descent, decorations, weights and measures, census returns, the arsenal museum, pillar inscriptions in Nepal, and some of the more important books and articles on Nepal (in order of date). Appendices in Volume II include notes on Buddhism in Nepal, Nepalese races, the records of the invasion of Nepal by the Chinese in 1792, and Treaty of Peace between Nepal and Tibet in 1856. Landon has given an interesting list of Europeans who visited Nepal during 1881-1925. It shows that in the course of forty-four years about 153 persons visited Nepal. Out of this, 55 Europeans were the guests of the Prime Minister. This figure excluded British diplomatic corpse based in Kathmandu.

Hinting on the relationship between England and Nepal, Landon notes: “There was no treaty obligation, no contract, not even an understanding between the two peoples, but the Gurkhas came down in their thousands to stand once more beside the Indians [read British] in a day of trial. Nothing could better express the relations between Nepal and India [read Britain] than the answer of a high authority in Simla to me when I asked what the policy of the Indian [read British] government towards Nepal was. ‘We have no policy. We have only friendship.’ It is a great phrase, and it deserves to be remembered in Whitehall as well as in Simla and Kathmandu.”

“[T]he great days of Nepal are before her, not behind her. I have no wish to celebrate the international significance of this keen and united state of mountain soldiers, wholly independent of Indian [read British] political life; free from the disintegrating and troublesome rivalries of India [read Britain] upon which she looks down from her hill fastnesses; in a military sense more highly trained than any other race in Asia; rich with traditions gilded by great and recent glory; and dowered also with an ambition which knows few limits.”

The book also focuses on the Chinese invasion of Nepal and the tussle between the two regarding Tibet. The keynote of the book, however, is the emphasis of Perceval Landon on the absorbing patriotism of the Nepalese rulers to secure their beautiful kingdom from foreign threat whatsoever.

Munshi Shew Shunker Singh & Pandit Shri Gunanand, Nepal: History of the Country and the People (New Delhi: Cosmo Publications, 1983) (Originally London: Cambridge University Press, 1877) (Edited by Daniel Wright)

Originally published in 1877, the book Nepal: History of the Country and People, translated by Munshi Shew Shunker Singh and Pandit Shri Gunanand, is one of the earliest accounts of the country. The book is the translation of Vansavali or Genealogical History of Nepal.

The original manuscript of the book, according to editor Daniel Wright, was written in Parbate with an admixture of Sanskrit and Newari and was in the possession of Professor Cowell, a scholar of Sanskrit, at Cambridge. Wright also mentions about another draft, “or at all events a similar work, recognized by the Gorkhas and the Hindu races of the country, and its copies were in the British Museum and the University Library of Cambridge.”

The history of Nepal, as covered by the book, is basically the history of the valley of Kathmandu. It is a mix of myths, stories handed down from the past, and some truths and realities. Beginning with the mythological period of the history and extending through the Satya, Treta and Dwapar ages, the book contains numerous curious legends regarding the temples, towns, and holy places of the country.

Editor Daniel Wright, who had the opportunity to spend ten years in Kathmandu Valley, has topped up the book with his Introductory Sketch. In its preface, he has pointed out that the translator Shew Shunker Singh, who was the Mir Munshi attached to the British Residency in Kathmandu at that time, had lived in Nepal for nearly thirty years. The Munshi was assisted, when necessary, by Pandit Shri Gunanand, a native of Nepal, residing at Patan, and whose ancestors, for many generations, according to Daniel Wright, have been compilers of this history. Wright has admitted that he himself was not an oriental scholar and had nothing to do with the translation beyond revisiting it for publication and adding a few notes regarding the customs and places mentioned. According to him, the illustrations in the book are copies of drawings. These drawings were made for him by a native and the portraits photographs taken by a friend.

The book makes an interesting read. It states that even though the country is small in its size, it possess a great variety of races in its population, the principals being Gorkhas, decidedly the best-dressed part of the population, Newars, Magars, Gurungs, Limbus, Kirats, Bhotelis and Lepchas. The Khas and Magar castes have been described as those who came to the Valley with King Mukunda Sen, a brave and powerful monarch. They introduced ‘sinki’ and ‘hakuwa’ rice in the valley. All Nepalese, according to the book, consume a large quantity of tea, which is imported from Tibet, as much as possible. Hinting at absence of educational provisions, it has been pointed out that the subject of schools and colleges may be treated in Nepal as briefly as that of “snakes in Ireland.” Commenting on the sanitary situation, Daniel Wright speaks aloud: “Kathmandu may be said to be built on a dunghill in the middle of latrines.”

This is probably the only book based on Nepal that explains why Nepal has been traditionally described as the country cursed by a ‘sati.’ As the story is given, King Laxmi Narsinha Malla of Kantipur was served by a Kaji named Bhima Malla, who was his great well-wisher. He established thirty-two shops in the city and also sent Nepalese traders to Bhot. He visited Lhasa and sent back to Kantipur a large quantity of gold and silver. He also negotiated with Lhasa authority to return the property of Nepalese subjects dying there to the Nepalese government. Kaji Bhim Malla also brought Kuti, a Tibetan village, under the jurisdiction of Nepal. His services to the King were thus immense. He was even desirous of extending the rule of Laxmi Narsinha Malla, the 16th century King who is attributed of building the Kasthmandap (Maru Sattal) in 1595, over the whole country. However, some people behind the scene persuaded the King that Bhima Malla was aiming at making himself King, and hence, the King put him to death. His wife became a sati and uttered the curse, “May there never be ‘bibeka’ (sound judgment) in this durbar.” The authors of this 1877 book quickly acknowledge in the foot note below: “And her curse seems to have stuck to the country to the present time.” The year 1877 was also the year when Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana, who has been frequently referred to in the book, died, creating another wave of instabilities in the country.

Daniel Wright points out in the Introductory Sketch that Nepalese lawyers are not held in much estimation in the country. As the chief justice got a very meager salary of some two hundred rupees a month, the inducements for bribery and corruption were great. As a point of solace, Wright mentions that making an appeal to the Council, which practically means Sir Jung Bahadur, “justice is on the whole pretty fairly administered.” To Jung Bahadur’s credit, Wright clarifies that the old savage code of punishments, which involved mutilations and stripes among other methods, was abolished. 

“Though the poor, people in general are contented [in Nepal] they have few taxes to pay, and their customs and prejudices are not interfered with. Justice is fairly administered, and the ‘law’s delays’ are by no means so great as in more civilized regions. There are no legal harpies to foment litigation, no municipal corporations, no road-funds, no educational taxes, nor any of the thousand and one innovations that so exasperate the subjects of British India …In extradition cases, unless the Nepalese are utterly indifferent in the matter, it is almost impossible to obtain the arrest of a criminal.”

In the Appendix, Daniel Wright has pulled together the list of his great collection of Sanskrit manuscripts bought through the Pandits residing at Bhatgaon and Kathmandu. Some of them are believed to be among the oldest, if not the very oldest, Sanskrit manuscripts in Europe. The book has immense historical value. In the end, the worth of the book must be judged by what it has captured from the mythological or the real history of Nepal.

Lok Raj Baral, Nepal – Nation-State in the Wilderness: Managing State, Democracy and Geopolitics (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2012)

Nepal is at very crucial stage of its history as a “nation state.” While every state by definition is a political and a geographical unit; the nation is a composite cultural and/or ethnic creature. This creature can be defined as group of people who are bound together into a single entity, through history, customs, value, language, culture, tradition, art and religion.

On the contrary, a state is just a patch of land with a sovereign government. As a politico-judicial entity, which is identified by its sovereign rights, a political state constrains the intrusion of outsiders in its internal affairs. When ‘nation’ and ‘state’ coincide, they form a “nation state” which not only assumes a collective political existence of the people living together with an official language(s), a system of law, a currency system, and a bureaucracy to order elements of society, but also presupposes the diversity of unified national identity.

As a nation state, Nepal has its own realities. The new book of Professor Lok Raj Baral Nepal: Nation-State in the Wilderness is a comprehensive attempt to explore these realities in the background of its history and the efforts towards democratic consolidation. Several weeks of mass protests in April 2006 followed by several months of peace negotiations between the underground Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists), the crisis government dealing with the so called ‘people’s war’ and Indian agencies, often acting behind the scene, overturned the evolutionary process of change in Nepal. It also set aside the course of the policy of national reconciliation – the basis of Nepal’s political development so far. This is a significant aspect of recent political change in Nepal. Baral has tried to explain this change on the basis of his characteristic vantage point.

The new process culminated in (a) a November 2006 peace accord, (b) the promulgation of an interim constitution and (c) the elections to the constituent assembly. The assembly elected to draft and adopt a new constitution for the country was expected to chart out a new democratic vision for Nepal and its system of government. Baral explores the contours of the nation state in the wilderness covering a wide spectrum of important issues around these changes, their antecedents, future course and beyond.

There are six chapters in the book. As an introductory chapter, Chapter I is devoted to trace out the parameters of Nepali politics: the thrust of Nepalese people for liberal democracy, ambiguities in the change process, political disjuncture or break with the tradition and the 2006 mass movement. Here, he also describes what he considers the rediscovery of a nation state, values of secularism, the role of fractured parties, and external influence in the politics of Nepal. Chapter II is a precise effort to revisit Nepali state. Baral explains the wars Nepal fought in the history, the treaties it signed and signposts of Nepal’s diplomacy in Chapter III. Then follow a sizable chapter on the issues of democracy, peace and development. In Chapter V, Baral explains Nepal vis a vis the modern world, focusing on the geopolitics. Here, Baral discusses Nepal in the context of its immediate neighborhood. The last chapter is an analysis for the future.

In his preface to the book, Baral maintains that the work is the product of his “long observation and study of Nepali state, politics, political elites, and their orientation.” He has described the finding of his research as the “sum and substance of [his] long academic career.” Although he does not clearly specify the objective of the book, he has unmistakably “tried to make a unified theme by knitting together the origin, growth and limitations of the modern Nepali state, people’s role that came by way of their desire for democracy and the active geo-politics.” The author acknowledges that the book “does not provide any definite clue to the future of Nepali state and democracy. Yet it gives a perspective on the unfolding scenario and their consequences.”

Mapping the overall situation of Nepal, and its future challenges, the concluding paragraph of Baral’s last chapter has the following direction: “Paradoxically the state [in Nepal] has not reached the terminal point [despite the vicissitudes that he has explained]; neither has it given us any promising picture for the future. Democracy is in peril, so is the vitality of the state. Prolonged transition and polarized and uncertain politics may be more alarming when foreign powers start showing their active presence than ever before and when the political and other elites become too weak to manage them. Political parties that take position for and against any country themselves would make these powers active and interventionist as the recent developments have demonstrated.” The reference apparently hints at India, and responses of Nepal’s major political parties on its ghastly meddling in Nepal, its internal affairs and external relations.

What has not been covered in the book of Baral is the sad reality that all these efforts in the post 2006 scenario and the actors who led the process failed. Had Baral waited by any chance for another couple of months to publish his work, he would have been able to cover the 27 May 2012 demise of the constituent assembly without accomplishing its task, and the nature of disaster that the country is to manage in the upcoming months. By all these machinations, India has established itself in Nepal, setting aside the factors of stability and sustainable political development. This is the factor that will continue to trigger off quiet responses from other quarters as well.

If this particular perspective is not ignored, many of Baral’s arguments on monarchy, the process of national unification and evolution of Nepal’s politics, the challenges of national reconciliation and nation building, and the role of neighboring countries might entail alternative explanations. As Nepal moves into the second decade of the 21st century, a new power rivalry is taking shape between India and China. It does not seem to be possible to explain the “nation-state in the wilderness” without giving credence to the fact that Nepal is in the range of high-tech geopolitics. The context of the collapse of distance brought about by the advance of military technology must not be minimized. For an average Nepalese, what ails more is Nepal’s national security. The treatment given by Professor Baral to this aspect of his theme is not adequate.

Yet the book Nepal – Nation-State in the Wilderness is a significant addition in the library of political science of contemporary Nepal. It is a ‘must read” book for the political analysts of Nepal and abroad who want to pursue his themes more.

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. 

 

Ludwig F. Stiller, S. J., Nepal: Growth of a Nation (Kathmandu: Human Resources Development Center, 1993)

Ludwig F. Stiller, S. J. is not a new name in Nepal. He was a famous American Nepalese historian who produced a couple of distinguished books on Nepal’s history. The theme of the present work, Nepal: Growth of a Nation, published in 1993, is broad and challenging. It talks about the land and people of Nepal, the vision of the country and its leadership, the politics for profit, control and centralization, and the new awakening. The author covers these themes through the last two hundred years of Nepalese history.

In the opening paragraph of the book, the author states that “the Nepalese nation was born against improbable odds. In the most difficult terrain imaginable, the Nepalese achieved unity and then withstood the British threat to rule South Asia. Today, landlocked and hedged in by great powers, the Nepalese still proudly assert their independence in the family of nations. At home, their chief concern is development. Internationally, though Nepalese troops are everywhere respected, the Nepalese stand for nonalignment and peace. In fact, few have attained the peace the Nepalese enjoy.” Here, the author is speaking his mind about the country as it was in 1993.

The book has fourteen small chapters. Chapter I deals with the land of Nepal and its people. It is based mainly on chapters 1, 2 and 3 of the author’s 1973 book, entitled The Rise of the House of Gorkha. Chapter II deals with the Founder of modern Nepal, King Prithvi Narayan Shah, who unified the smaller principalities in Nepal to form a strong country. The unifier, Stiller mentions, “respected and worked with the regional, cultural, social and fiscal administrations he found, no matter how disparate they seemed.” Forty years later, after the unifier’s death in 1775, Stiller points out, Nepal suffered its greatest single military set back at Almora in Kumaon in Anglo-Nepal War (1814-16). This is the background with which Chapter III deals with the spoils of the war.

Chapter IV is a narrative of the country’s painful growth. When King Rana Bahadur dismissed Bahadur Shah, the regent of Nepal from 1785 to 1794, and began to rule the country directly, he was only nineteen years of age. As the court was deeply divided by factions, the situation demanded an experienced leader to govern the country. However, King Rana Bahadur was still young and inexperienced. The reforms Bahadur Shah, his uncle, proposed in 1793 suggested that he had finally come to grips with the financial problems that the newly-unified country faced, but those reforms were never implemented. Here, Stiller notes that “nothing more was heard of them once the new king took control of the state.”

Chapter V is about the Anglo-Nepal War, as noted above, and its handling by Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa. Unlike the other great leaders in Nepal, Stiller states Bhimsen Thapa was “neither a man of vision nor gifted with a sense of history.” Chapter VI analyzes postwar stagnation in the country while Chapter VII explains the power politics in the new context. Stiller makes it clear at this point that by ordering the death of Prime Minister Mathbar Singh Thapa, Rajendra Bikram Shah, the King at the time, “destroyed the last vestige of trust the people placed in him.”

Chapter VIII is the account of the Mutiny and the rise of Jung Bahadur – the founder of Ranarchy or the system of hereditary prime ministers in Nepal. The next chapter covers Jung Bahadur’s last few years. Despite Jung’s autocratic rule, Stiller makes a point that “his reforms did indeed strengthen the nation.” Chapter X deals with Ranoddip and Bir Shamsher, the next Rana rulers. Chapter XI and XII are about Prime Minister Chandra Shamsher, who in Stiller’s opinion, greatly stabilized Nepal during his time. Similarly, despite several problems, Chandra bequeathed to succeeding Prime Ministers a growing Nepalese nationalist movement. Chapter XIII covers the subsequent political awakening in the country. Building on this, Chapter XIV, entitled “In the End is the Beginning,” deals with the author’s last few remarks.

Written in a very lucid manner, Stiller’s book highlights Nepal’s growth after its unification by King Prithvi Narayan Shah until the dawn of democracy in 1950-51. Many of his themes, as listed in the beginning, build on what the author has already worked on: The Silent Cry: the People of Nepal 1816-1839 (1976), Planning for People: A Study of Nepal’s Planning Experience (1979) (co-authored with Ram Prakash Yadav), Letters from Kathmandu: the Kot Massacre (1981) and The Rise of the House of Gorkha (1995).

In the context of what happened in 1950-51, the year of revolution, some of the analysis in the book is very illuminating. The effort to explain how Jawahar Lal Nehru, India’s Prime Minister at the time, was able to manipulate Nepal’s situation to India’s advantage makes Chapter XIV interesting to any reader.

The posthumous 2001 publication of the ‘Atmabritanta’ of Late B. P. Koirala, the leader of 1950-51 revolution, has already given history students the perspective of manipulation straight through the horse’s mouth. It is so enlightening that Stiller was able to explain this situation with such accuracy so many years ago. At the climax of movement, Nepali Congress planned for the abduction of King Tribhuvan, who would be taken from Kathmandu to Western Nepal, presumably Palpa. They thought of establishing a constitutional government under the King from Palpa itself. There was a plan to revolt against the Rana government by sections of the Nepal army. The abduction of King Tribhuvan was to take place in September, during the week-long Indra Jatra festival, and the revolt in the army was to be sparked by several ‘C’ class Ranas and Shah family officers. The Indians in Kathmandu were clever enough to outbid the Congress and write a new course for the revolution.

As Stiller has clarified, “after King Tribhuvan and his family left Kathmandu on November 10, 1950, the battle for control of Nepal began in earnest. That very afternoon, a Nepali Congress plane airdropped leaflets over Kathmandu to announce the Congress revolution and appeal for popular support. The following day, the Congress liberation army raided Birganj and ‘liberated’ government offices there. On November 12th, the Congress airdropped leaflets over other major town in Nepal. Nehru put an end to this. On November 15th, before the Congress could carry out a major attack, the Uttar Pradesh government in India banned the use of Indian railways for paramilitary action against Nepal. The following day, air flights from Indian territory over Nepal were banned. King Tribhuvan was Nehru’s guest, and Nehru intended to use his presence in Delhi to force the Prime Minister, and if necessary the Nepali Congress, to negotiate a peaceful settlement.”

As the story goes, “Nehru’s proposal was the Delhi compromise. Despite the Government of India’s restrictions on their activities, the Nepali Congress liberation army launched successful attacks in both East and West Nepal. By the time the Congress had these victories to report, Mohun Shamsher had already accepted the Delhi compromise. The Congress case was further weakened by the fact that there had been no mass uprising in support of the congress revolution. Although the Delhi compromise denied the Congress the total victory Congress leaders felt necessary to bring about real change in Nepal, they were obliged to accept the Delhi compromise or be left completely out of the final solution.”

Stiller reminds, “In the meanwhile, Nehru used to India’s advantage Mohun’s assurance that Nepal would stand by the new government of India as it had the old. On July 1, 1948, Nehru asked him officially for the services of ten battalions of the Nepal army for garrison duty in India. The Indian Ambassador explained that this would free the Indian army for duty in Kashmir (and in Hyderabad, as it later turned out). When Mohun discussed Nehru’s request with the British ambassador, the Ambassador warned him that compliance with this request might impede Nepal’s application for membership in the United Nations. … Reluctantly, Mohan signed the agreement on July 18th. BY August 5th the troops were their way to India, where they served from August 1948 until April 1949. During that time, India settled both the Kashmir and Hyderabad issues to its own satisfaction. In 1949, Nepal’s application for admission to the U.N. was vetoed. Not until 1955 did Nepal sign admission to this world body.”

The story goes on: “Nehru continued to press the Nepalese Prime Minister. The Nepal India ‘standstill agreement of 1947 had implied that Nepal and India would eventually sign a treaty defining their relationship more accurately. When Mohun visited Delhi in February, 1950, he learned that Nehru had prepared just such a treaty. In their discussions, Mohun and Nehru covered the whole range of Nepal-India relations. When Mohun returned to Kathmandu, he carried the text of two treaties: one, a Treaty of Peace and Friendship, the other, a Treaty of Trade and Commerce. Along with the treaties, Mohun had carried Nehru’s firm reminder that he would have to introduce political reforms.” The Treaty of Trade and Commerce was calculated to “prevent Nepal from developing into a little Hong Kong, serving as an entrepot between the international market and India.” As far as the second treaty was concerned, the secret letters of exchange accompanying the treaty contained a modern version of the traditional clause, “your enemies will be our enemies, and our enemies will be your enemies.” “The Nepalese had shied away from their principle in all their dealings with the British, and the whole weight of Nepalese history was against accepting it now.” Mohun had set out to prove to Nehru that friendly relations between Nepal and India required no political change in Nepal. With this treaty, Nehru was clearly asking to prove it. “Almost unchanged, the treaties were signed in Kathmandu on July 31, 1950.”

In his Epilogue, Stiller notes that the end of the Rana rule in 1950 was incidental in a way. “The real challenge to the Nepalese people was the democratic era.” On this, Stiller explains that the post 1950 political developments have been frustrating for the growth of the nation. “King Mahendra indicated his intense dissatisfaction with the direction the political debate had taken by his intervention of December, 1969. In his constitution of 1962, King Mahendra introduced Panchayat democracy in a serious effort to strengthen the voice of the people. Three major amendments to that constitution underlined the difficulty of opening the political debate to the people in a country with such poor communications.” The state bureaucracy during the Panchayat system, notes Stiller, was also reluctance to yield power to the people. The good thing, however, was “the large turnover of elected officials in later Panchayat elections suggest[ing] that the people had begun to take their future into their own hands.”

Stiller further adds: “The popular movement of 1989 that led to a complete change of government and the restoration of parliamentary democracy was a clear sign that the will of the people was not heeded by those then in power. Whether or not the government swept into power by that popular movement will function according to the will of the people remains to be seen. It seems certain, however, that the people, under the guidance of their King, will prevail over the hesitancy of the elite to accept the constraints of a democratic system.”

Reading again, after 18 years of its publication, the book Nepal: Growth of a Nation is still a concise but a very thoughtful analysis of Nepal’s experience with its nation-building challenges. Stiller has both the heart and mind to explain the vicissitudes Nepal had to face over the two hundred years of its unstable history. No doubt, the book is a great piece of work.

 

Ludwig F. stiller, S.J., The Silent Cry: The People of Nepal: 1816 -1839 (Kathmandu: Sahayogi Prakashan, 1976)

The Silent Cry is the story of the People of unified Nepal during a trying period of adjustment and searching of goals. This story begins with the Treaty of Sugauli signed in 1816 and continues through to the death of Prime Minister Bhim Sen Thapa in 1839.

In this book, Ludwig F. Stiller, a leading Nepalese historian, has described the Treaty of Sugauli as “a beginning rather than an end to Nepal’s time of troubles.” The Treaty was signed on December 2, 1815 and ratified by March 4, 1816, between the British East India Company and Nepal ending the Anglo-Nepalese War (1814–1816).

The Treaty of Sugauli called for – territorial concessions in which parts of the unified Nepal were given to British India, the establishment of a British representative in Kathmandu, and allowing Britain to recruit Gurkhas from Nepal for their military service. By virtue of this Treaty, Nepal also lost the right to deploy any British, American or European employee in its service without British approval. Earlier several French commanders had been deployed in Nepal to train the Nepali army.

Under the Treaty, about one-third of Nepalese territory was lost, including Sikkim (whose Chogyals supported Britain in the War); territory to the west of the Mahakali River like Kumaon and Garhawal (present Indian state of Uttarakhand); some territories to the west of the Sutlej River like Kangra (present day Himanchal Pradesh); and much of the Tarai region. A part of the Tarai Region was restored to Nepal under a revision of the treaty and more territory was returned in 1865 to thank Nepal for helping the British to suppress the Indian rebellion of 1857.

The Silent Cry is a book that describes Nepal’s people and their polity in the next twenty-three years after the ratification of the Treaty of Sugauli. It is the period that has been largely ignored in the modern history of Nepal.

The book is divided into four parts. The first three chapters provide an analysis of the situation prevailing in Nepal at the time. This analysis covers the seeds of conflict with the British India, the trauma of defeat of the war, the details of village Nepal at that time and government constraints in the post-war perspective.

In the fourth, fifth and sixth chapters, the author covers the movements of Nepal towards greater internal unity at the regional and village level as well as the obstacles that hindered that growth. Here the author deals with Bhim Sen Thapa’s authority, the Nepal China affair, the restoration of Tarai, the intrigue in Kathmandu, army discontent, and Nepal’s involvement with Sindhia. His analysis of the growth of unity and revenue collection policies in the post-war perspective comes next. After this, the author talks about the ‘Sanskritization’ process as well.

Chapters seven, eight and nine explore the dialogue that took place between the central administration of the unified Nepal in Kathmandu and its villages and explain the administration’s failure to respond to the needs of the peasantry. Here the author discusses insecurity and unrest that emerged in the context of the ceiling on Jagirs, the struggle for security, the emergence of a pressure group, the restless army, the conflict between Bhim Sen Thapa and the Residency, and the events leading to his downfall.

In the last chapter, the author has restated the major themes of The Silent Cry and tried to explain the nuances of this title.

According to Stiller, the silent years – ‘the years of unheard cry’ were the cry of the common Nepalis in the postwar perspective. The cry went up from rural Nepal. It was a cry of pain and a cry of protest against official indifference to their plight. It was the cry of the system calling for change. At the root of the problem was the newly set up administration, the tax and revenue system, justice process, and lack of protection to the common people. The cry went unheard. Although he achieved a great deal for Nepal when he succeeded in gaining a restoration of more of the Tarai land than the British governor general had first envisioned when he made his proposal in 1816. But people wanted more efficient administration, some regular and accepted channels of communications, relief from the burden of taxes, and so on. It appeared in the silent years that Thapa was concerned primarily about his own position in society. He remained a strong promoter of his family interests. The essential failure of the Bhim Sen Thapa’s administration was simply a lack of vision as to how to run the newly unified country. Stiller points out:

Bhim Sen Thapa lost touch with the people of Nepal because he lacked vision; and the people of Nepal failed to move towards a greater unity and a true sense of Nepali nationhood because he lacked vision. He saw no greater goals to strive for. His administration and his own actions were all bound up in maintaining the status quo. He was satisfied with what the state had and with what he had, an attitude no serious politician can afford or accept.

The unified Nepal, according to Stiller, was not able to keep up with three basic ideas that King Prithvi Narayan Shah had bequeathed to the nation. He links this conclusion with Prithvi Narayan Shah’s belief that the nation walked on two legs, the farmers of ‘village Nepal’ as well as the military rank and file; that a rich peasantry made a rich country; and that good government depended on nobility of service. Stiller points out: “somewhere on the road to conquest, amid the crash of guns and the sweat of battle, these ideals were lost.”

The Silent Cry that Nepal was living with was not without result. “From 1839 until 1846 Kathmandu would know nothing but alarms, changes in ministries, increasing tension, and finally the explosive night of the Kot Massacre, the fourteenth of September 1846.” The author reminds of the close connection between the events and policies of the silent years and the emergence of Jung Bahadur. The silent years ended with such violence largely because the cry of rural Nepal and the Nepali nation had gone unheeded. The author, who released the book in 1976, remarks that the modalities of the cry have changed now and there is change in the content as well. But he argues “the cry is still there.” The question is “will it be heard any more closely than it was during the silent years?.”

 

For a student of law, Stiller’s analysis of the problem of ‘Sanskritization’ and its results is interesting. He has tried to explain ethnic diversity and customary law in the newly unified state, the ideal of Hindu law and unity, and the beginning of the process of ‘Sanskritization.’ Here, the author banks much on references on Hindu law, as practiced elsewhere, rather than legal rules produced in the new state. His use of the term ‘Sanskritization’ in the contents that he has been reflecting on seems over generalized, or a little too much. One must however agree with his finding that “not only was the legal dialogue of the silent years building up a record of legally sanctioned differences in custom and practice, it was also building up a record of differences in treatment meted out to citizens of different ethnic and caste backgrounds.”

Finally, it must be pointed out that in his preface, the author gives an important note of caution: “The reader will be well aware that my conclusions are far from a final statement of the events of the ‘silent years’. I hope he will be equally aware that ‘the silent cry’ chronicled in these pages is not the dying echo of the distant past but a challenge to all of us today to realize that we are in truth our brother’s and sister’s keeper.” This is an impressive book which must be read by anybody who wants to link up contemporary Nepal to its history.

 

 

 

 

 

Laurence Oliphant, A Journey to Katmandu (London: John Murray, 1852)

Jung Bahdur Rana (1816 – 1877) has been one of the most talked about figures in the history of Nepal. The founder of the Rana dynasty, he has been remembered as a tyrant, a Maharaja, a Kazi (Prime Minister), a diplomat, a nationalist, and a brave man. Depending on one’s focus, several authors have tried to explore Jung Bahadur in terms of his vibrant personality, power, and clout in the Nepal that he lived in. One among such authors was Laurence Oliphant.

I n 1951, Oliphant, a British author and the son of the chief justice of Ceylon, had the opportunity to accompany Jung Bahadur from Colombo to Nepal, when he was on his way back to the country from his state visit to England. Oliphant was thirteen years younger than Jung. As a co-traveler, smart and curious, he got a very precious opportunity to know Jung Bahadur and spend sometime in Kathmandu, experiencing it very closely. The book, A Journey to Katmandu [London: John Murray, 1852], was his first one. It is a treasure of information not just on Jung, who had already succeeded to become Kaji Major General by that time, but on everything that Oliphant came across and had the opportunity to observe.

The book starts with the arrival of Jung Bahadur and his entourage in Ceylon. From there, they take on ‘Atlanta,’ one of the oldest steam frigates in the British Indian navy, to sail to Calcutta, the nearest sea port from Nepal, and then by some elephants to Benares. Jung had a short but elegant stay in Benares. “If he had been a lion in London,” notes Oliphant, “he was not less an object of interest at Benares.” Jung was always crowded with visitors of high degree during his short stay there. These visitors were both Indian and European. An old native king in particular was frequently seen visiting Jung. The reason behind these frequent consultations was his willingness to offer Jung the second daughter of the ex-king of Coorg (which was by then already taken away by the British) in marriage. So Jung did not disappoint him and married the ex-princess.

At Benares, a regiment of Nepal army was already waiting to escort him to Nepal. He favoured the inhabitants of Benares, and the English in particular, to review the Nepalese regiment. The platoon exercise they performed was exciting for many. Oliphant notes that the exercise was done with the “utmost precision at different notes of the music” without anybody commanding the platoon. Jung mentioned that his wife wanted that some other means be invented to put the men through their exercises than by “hoarse shouts, which grated upon her ear.”

The author tries to give a detailed sketch of Jung Bahadur’s career in the book. Apart from this, Oliphant has also described Jung’s shooting camp at Jaunpore, the area being close to Benares, his mode of dispatching an alligator, a Nepalese dinner, a picnic on the frontier, the Nepal Terai and its resources, the great elephant exhibition of 1851, and the scenes of war of 1814-16. As all western visitors who visited the valley of Kathmandu before him, Oliphant also tries to explain what he observed there including the distinguished features of the people of Nepal, their temples and architectures, and the resources and capabilities of the country. Of course, the author does not forget to mention the magnificent view of the Himalayas from the summit of ‘Sheopoori’ and the view of the Kathmandu Valley from the summit of the Chandragiri Pass. Based on his interactions, he also praises Jung Bahadur’s popularity with the Nepalese peasantry and the army.

At one place, Oliphant cautions: “It is worthwhile to make a trip to Nepaul, not only for the delight of viewing the romantic beauty of its scenery, of wondering at the stupendous height of the mountains, of roaming amidst its ancient cities, ruined palaces, and glittering pagodas, but in order to take a lesson in human nature, for we are not at liberty to suppose that the princes and nobles of this country are a more depraved class than any other body of men, the fact being that a Nepaulese follows his natural impulses, unflattered by the restraints of our standard of civilization and morality, and the results are apparent.”

Going ahead, Oliphant offers retrospection: “Is not the more civilized inhabitant of western lands actuated by the same feelings, and would he not behave in the same manner as his swarthy brother in the East, had he been brought up in the same code of morality, and were he as fearless of the consequences of his following the bent of his own inclination? But, if so, then the visitor to Nepal simply sees the game of human life played openly and unconstrainedly, and in no way hampered by the rules which prevail in more civilised countries; and the unsophisticated tyro has only to come here and learn in a month what would cost him a lifetime of anxious study in a country enjoying the blessings of civilization.”

The book has many such interesting opinions. Jung Bahadur was born almost at the end of the Anglo-Nepalese War of 2014-16. His feeling as regards to a war with the British, as Oliphant has noted, was not graceful when Jung said to him: “If a cat is pushed into a corner it will fly at an elephant, but it will always try to keep out of the corner as long as possible.” Of course, Jung had a policy in the matter of war and peace as well. The book is an interesting reading even after 160 years of its publication.