In honour of Prithvi Narayan Shah (1723 – 1775), ancestor of the Shah kings of Nepal was remembered on his 303rd birthday on Saturday, January 11. The day was also observed as National Unity Day.The birth anniversary of King Prithvi Narayan Shah, who initiated the campaign for Nepal’s unification actions, was commemorated in the country by organizing various programmes.
On the occasion, President Ram Chandra Paudel laid the wreath at the statue of Prithvi Narayan Shah installed in front of the main gate to Singha Durbar.
In addition, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party organized a special gathering to honour the occasion.
The political party also has organized Tea Reception on the occasion. Prime Minister K. P. Oli, Former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and many other political figures participated in the event.
Prithvi Narayan Shah was born on 7 January 1723 as the first child of Nara Bhupal Shah and Kaushalya Devi in the Gorkha Palace.
He became king of Gorkha in 1742 after demise of his father Nara Bhupal Shah. In his 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 the three 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.
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.