Prithvi Narayan Shah

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Prithvi Narayan Shah, King of Nepal (1723 - 1775 A.D.; Nepali: पृथ्वी नारायण शाह), with whom we move into the modern period of Nepal's history, was the ninth generation descendant of Dravya Shah (1559 - 1570 A.D.) , the founder of the ruling house of Gorkha. Prithvi Narayan Shah succeeded his father King Nara Bhupal Shah to the throne of Gorkha in 1743 A.D. Sagacious and far-sighted, King Prithvi Narayan Shah was quite aware of the political situation of the valley kingdoms as well as of the Baisi and Chaubisi principalities. He foresaw the need for unifying the small principalities as an urgent condition for survival in the future and set himself to the task accordingly. His assessment of the situation among the hill principalities was correct, and the principalities were brought under control. King Prithvi Narayan Shah's successful entry began with the union of Nuwakot, which lies between Kathmandu and Gorkha, in 1744 A.D. After Nuwakot, he took possession of strategic points in the hills surrounding the Kathmandu Valley. The Valley's communications with the outside world were thus cut off. The occupation of the Kuti Pass in about 1756 A.D. stopped the valley's trade with Tibet.

Finally, King Prithvi Narayan Shah entered the Valley, after glorious unification of Kirtipur. Consequently Jaya Prakash Malla of Kathmandu managed to escape with his life and took asylum in Patan. When the unification was extended to Patan a few weeks later both Jaya Prakash Malla and the King of Patan, Tej Narsingh Malla, took refuge in Bhaktapur, which was also unified after some time. Thus King Prithvi Narayan Shah unified the Kathmandu Valley and Kathmandu became the capital of the modern Nepal by 1769 A.D. Once the foundation of the Kingdom of Nepal was thus laid, King Prithvi Narayan Shah, turned his attention towards the east. The Sena Kingdom of Choudandi was united by 1773 A.D. and Vijaypur, another Sena Kingdom was annexed shortly after.

Legend has it that Prithvi Narayan Shah was inspired by an old lady to use this strategic approach to conquering his targets. His priliminary attacks on the Kathmandu valley were futile, because the cousins ruling each of the principalities in the valley would unite against the Shah king. In one fierce battle against the Mallas of the valley, Shah's forces were brutally defeated, and the king survived only because a Malla soldier refused to kill the king because he was just "an ordinary soldier and ordinary soldiers should not kill kings"^[1] Prithvi Narayan Shah made a narrow escape and stayed over at an old lady's house. She gave him rice (traditional Nepalese food) to eat and Prithvi jumped right into the center of it and tried eating it. Unfortunately, since rice is hotter in the center, he was burnt. The lady laughed and unknowingly mocked him saying "Why did you do that like Prithivi Narayan Shah? Everyone knows that you should conquer the outside states first, paralyzing the land-locked state, and then proudly walk over to the throne." Prithivi Narayan Shah carefully took the advice to heart and moved on to his next campaigns leading him into victory.

King Prithvi Narayan Shah died in January, 1775 A.D. at the age of 52. The Kingdom of Nepal, which he founded, extended to the Marsyangdi river in the west and to the Mechi and Kankai rivers in the east and comprised more than one third of the present territory of the Kingdom of Nepal. King Prithvi Narayan Shah, The Great, by his tireless efforts was successful in bringing together diverse religio-ethnic groups under one national banner and inculcating in them a sense of national pride and belonging. He was a true nationalist in his outlook and was in favour of adopting a closed-door policy with regard to the British. Not only his social and economic views guided the country's socio-economic course for a long time, his use of the imagery, "a yam between two boulders" in Nepal's geo-political context, formed the principal guideline of the country's foreign policy for future centuries. King Prithvi Narayan Shah was indeed "The Founder of the Nation," who had a vision not only for individual tryst with destiny but also for the national goal of peace and prosperity.

Although known as a warrior-king, he adopted a strategy of the minimum use of military force. His contributions in the social sector are also significant, e.g. he introduced a policy of gradually eradicating slavery from the nation at a time when it was widely practiced all over the world. He was also a very practical person. The invaluable advice of King Prithvi Narayan Shah the Great, popularly known as [[[Divyopadesh]]http://samudaya.org/articles/archives/2005/07/dibyopadesh.php] or divine counsel, which he passed on to his closest aides before he died in 1775 in Nuwakot, speaks amply for of his farsightedness and sagacity. The moral, social, legal and political instructions expressed by King Prithivi Narayan Shah to his courteous in his old age, especially from Nuwakot palace in known as divine counsel.

Legend has it that when the king was young, he was playing in the field and ran into the great sage Gorakhnath. Gorakhnath wanted the young prince to have some of the yogurt he was eating, and the prince refused. Prithvi pushed the yogurt aside and it fell on his foot. Gorakhnath revealed that had young Prithvi eaten the yogurt, he would have conqured the world, but since he had not, he would be able to conquer all the lands he has stepped on--the blessing which strangely came true to some extent, since almost all the lands Shah went to were conquered in his lifetime.

Preceded by: Nara Bhupal Shah

King of Nepal 1769 – 1775

Succeeded by: Pratap Singh Shah