The Nepal Weekly 
January 16, 2024
In honour of Prithvi Narayan Shah, ancestor of the Shah kings of Nepal was remembered on his 302nd birthday on January 12. The Federal Government had declared the day as a public holiday.The day was also observed as National Unity Day.
Prithvi Narayan Shah became king of Gorkha in 1742 after demise of his father Nara Bhupal Shah. Inhis ruling duration, Prithvi Narayan Shah conquered many participates. In 1769, he had conquered three kingdoms of the Kathmandu Valley – Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhaktapur. He consolidated them to found the modern state of Nepal utilising Kathmandu as the capital of the extended state.
After conquering thethree Kathmandu Valley kingdoms, he turned his attention to the eastern and western kingdoms. He had successfully extended his territory to Darjeeling, now in India.
His health was worsened and died at the age of 56.
Although he gave most of his time to the expansion of his territory, he also laid out the guidelines for governance, nationalism and foreign policy in his Divya Upadesh (Thoughtful Advices). He also had recognised the ethnic mosaic of the country saying it as a garden of four castes and 36 sub-castes.
Prithvi Narayan Shah was born on 7 January 1723 as the first child of Nara Bhupal Shah and Kaushalya Devi in the Gorkha Palace.
Before Prithvi Narayan Shah’s unification movement, there were a total of 54 states in Nepal. In the South-Eastern Terai, there were three Sen states: Makawanpur, Bijayapur, and Chaudandi. In the West, from Gorkha to Gandaki Province, there were 24 states. In the province of Karnali, there were 22 states with Kalyan, Samaal, Shahi and Chand dynasties. Along with Gorkha and Mustang, Bhaktapur, Kantipur and Lalitpur made up the remaining five states.
When Prithvi Narayan Shah ascended to the throne of Gorkha on 3 April 1743 A.D., it was still a small state. He then started to contemplate the methods for turning Gorkha into a huge and strong state. He went to Varanasi to gain first-hand knowledge about the neighbouring states and about India to the south. During those days, Varanasi was one of the largest trade centres in India where people from different places gathered. He met with different types of people and gained valuable understandings regarding the Political and Social conditions of the Indian Sub-Continent. In Varanasi, his father-in-law Abhiman Singh, a Rajput Chief, procured for him some firearms and a quantity of ammunition.
His first attempt at invasion of Nuwakot in 1743 CE failed and his reign began with an immediate military defeat. Conquering Nuwakot was essential for the unification, as it lay between Kathmandu and the Gorkha District, making it a vital trading route to Tibet. On his return to Gorkha from Varanasi, Prithvi Narayan Shah first took steps to defeat Nuwakot in the diplomatic field. He entered into friendly alliance with the chiefs of Lamjung, Tanahun and Palpa. This done, Prithvi Narayan Shah sent an army against Nuwakot from three directions. The Chief of Nuwakot knowing that Gorkha is going to attack them in near future had gone to take help from Jaya Prakash Malla, the king of Kantipur. Thus his son Jayanta Rana commanded the Nuwakot army representing his father. The Nuwakot army was defeated in 1744 CE and his country passed into the hands of Prithvi Narayan Shah’s Gorkhas.
