Dr. Niranjan Man Singh Basnyat
Kathmandu, Nepal
First unsuccessful attack on Kirtipur:
This battle was fought on Saturday 28 May 1757 against the advice of several courtiers including Bangya Basnyat, Haribansa Upadhyaya, Astologer Kulananda Dhakal and Kazi Kalu Pandey. Bangya Basnyat was one of the prominent fighters among the troops who participated actively in the first attack on Kirtipur. Though Kirtipur belonged to Patan, the combined troops of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur had participated from the side of Malla kings in this attack, which was a strategically important place to block the advance of Gorkhalis into the valley. Overall leadership was entrusted to Kazi Kalu Pandey. Bangya Basnyat was commanding the troops from the Paanga side to attack Kirtipur. There was a fierce fighting in Balkhu area. Kazi Kalu Pandey, Jeevan Thapa, Chamu Sayela, Laata Khatri, Pasram Rana, Sothya Danuwar and other 400 Gorkha troops lost their lives in this battle. Kalu Pandey was hit by an arrow on the head coming from the enemy side in Tyangla Phaant. He died instantly.
King Prithvi Narayan Shah was in the battlefield in a wooden palanquin (Palki) supervising the attack. He left immediately to Dahachowk and from there to Nuwakot. One of the enemy soldiers wanted to kill Prithvi Narayan Shah when they came face to face with one another but another enemy soldier stopped him, stating that no soldier should kill the king in a battle. A king can only be killed by another king. According to a historian, one Gorkhali fighter named Jayakrishna Thapa had saved him with a quick move forward while those enemy soldiers were debating. Then the king of Gorkha escaped from there and ordered the retreat of the troops. All the Gorkhalis returned to Dahachowk military camp. It was a huge defeat of Gorkhali forces in which King Prithvi Narayan Shah’s principal Kazi and aide Kalu Pandey and several other fighters perished.
Later the king realised and repented that the decision to go to the battle was wrong because Gorkha was fighting single handedly against the combined forces of three states. Prior to the battle, Kazi Kalu Pandey had also suggested that it was the wrong time to go to battle against especially as the odds were against Gorkha. But King Prithvi Narayan Shah persisted and prevailed stubbornly on his decision and he had even accused Kalu Pandey of being afraid of death in leading Gorkhali forces in the battle.
Victory over Shivapuri and Kakani:
On Sunday 1st July 1759, Gorkhalis captured Shivapuri and Kakani. The hilltop of Shivapuri
was considered to be one of the seven best places for constructing a strong fort around Kathmandu Valley. It is a strategic place for the security of the valley. This was mentioned by King Prithvi Narayan Shah in his ‘Counsel’. This was an important victory after a huge loss in Kirtipur. The route to enter from the north to the valley could be blocked from this point.
Victory over Kavrepalanchowk:
In January 1760, Bagh Bhim Singh Thapa sacrificed his life during the capture of
Kavrepalanchowk. He was the father of Amar Singh Thapa (later Bada Kazi). He was a resident of Siranchowk of Gorkha. During the battle of Kirtipur in 1758, he had shown his outstanding bravery which King Prithvi Narayan Shah was fully aware of. So Prithvi Narayan Shah gave him the nickname Bagh (Tiger). In this battle of Palanchowk near the Palanchowk Bhagabati temple, he had killed ten to twelve people before he died with his sword as he was surrounded by the enemies.
Subsequently Sardar Ram Krishna Kunwar took up the charge of the battle and Palanchowk was finally won by the Gorkhalis. Kunwar also conquered Kavre Gadhi situated nearby after some days and remained as Chief in Palanchowk for 15 years for its protection. On Wednesday 26 November 1760, Gorkhali forces conquered Sunthan, Fulbari, and Nammuda also.
Difficult Victory over Chaukot:
In 1761, Bangya Basnyat was made military commander (Senapati) and Gorkhali troops were sent under his command to attack Chaukot. It was necessary to capture Chaukot before mounting an attack on densely populated areas of Dhulikhel, Banepa, Khadpu, Panauti, and other similar towns.
According to an account, the battle continued for fifteen days. Bangya Basnyat asked his troops to besiege the hill of Chaukot from all directions. Two brothers Mahendra Singh Rai and Naam Singh Rai, representing the Chaukot troops fought bravely against the Gorkhalis. Naam Singh asked his brother to surrender but Mahendra Singh refused to do so. He was killed in the battle. Naam Singh was injured in his belly but tied it with a traditional white cotton belt (patuka) and fled to Pyuthan through the Bansdol route. Chaukot troops set fire in their village and fled so that enemy troops would have difficulty to entering. Though it was a small place in a hilltop, it was very hard to capture due to the difficult terrain. The leadership of Bangya Basnyat was exceptional in this battle. On Monday 8 June 1761, Chaukot fort was finally captured.
Regarding the Chaukot battle, there is a detailed account published in a history magazine. According to it, Gorkhalis lost a total of 332 troops in fifteen days battle in Chaukot. First, a fierce fight ensued and Gorkhalis lost 131 troops. Gorkhalis retreated for some time. Again the battle started after two weeks and 201 Gorkhali troops lost their lives. One of the commanders of Gorkha Jaskarna Khatri was killed. Kazis and other leaders were worried about the huge loss of troops in a battle to capture a small hill. They were surprised by the bravery of the people of Chaukot. At last Gorkha won the battle. The next morning, King Prithvi Narayan Shah himself inspected the place and gave some relief to the families of Mahendra Singh Rai of Chaukot honouring him for his bravery, though he was from enemy forces. Thus, we can imagine how difficult it was for Bangya Basnyat to be successful and prove his leadership in the ultimate victory of Chaukot.
Later, after more than two years, Kazi Daljit Shah and his troops captured remaining areas under Chaukot and Panauti on Monday 24 October 1763.
Victory over Makwanpur:
In mid-August 1762, King Prithvi Narayan Shah ordered his forces to attack Makwanpur.
Under the command of Mohaddamkirti Shah, Bansaraj Pandey and Kehar Singh, 1100 troops were sent to Makwanpur from Dahachowk military base camp on 17 August 1762 and they reached Makwanpur on 20 August. Likewise, Sardar Ramkrishna Kunwar left Palanchowk for Makwanpur with 500 troops after he got the order from King Prithvi Narayan Shah.
It is mentioned in the historical documents that the king sent Muhaddamkirti Shah, Dalmar-
dan Shah, Daljit Shah, Shoorpratap Shah, Bansaraj Pandey, Kulanada Jaisi, Nahar Singh Basnyat, Kehar Singh Basnyat, Abhiman Singh Basnyat, Nandu Sardar and Jethabudha, Najiki, Dwarya, Tharghar, Umarao and many others for this major battle of Gorkha. King Prithvi Narayan Shah himself wanted to lead the attack and he even came up to a place called Thingan in Makwanpur but courtiers and military leaders stopped him there due to the possible danger to his personal safety and security. He then supervised and conducted the battle from Thingan itself.
They established a temporary military camp (Tharpu) in Makawanpur on Friday 20 August
1762. These troops captured Makwanpur the next day on Saturday 21 August. Gorkha lost only 60 troops. Makwanpur lost about 400 soldiers. King Hemkarna Sen, father-in-law of King Prithvinarayan Shah, had died in 1759 at the age of 54 and his son Digbandhan Sen was King of Makwanpur. King Digbandhan Sen, his family and his Minister Kanak Singh Baniya fled to Hariharpur Gadhi.
When Chautaria Mohaddamkirti Shah got the news of victory of Sindhuli Gadhi by Gorkhalis on 2 October, he and other leaders attacked Hariharpur Gadhi and captured it on 4 October 1762.
In this battle, a Kirati Sardar named Changwang Hang who came to fight against Gorkhali forces on behalf of Makwanpur was killed and all the Kirati troops fled.
Battle against Mir Qasim’s Forces:
When Hariharpur Gadhi was taken over, King Digbandhan Sen and Minister Kanak Singh Baniya escaped to Khundaghat, situated at the Indian border but the queen and the infant son were detained by the Gorkhalis. The king was in a rush to escape and he could not give attention to his queen and his infant son. Minister Kanak Singh Baniya met with Mir Qasim when he was on an inspection visit to Bettiah and asked for military assistance to oppose the attacking forces of Gorkha. Mir Qasim sent 3500 troops to fight against Gorkhalis under the command of Gurgin Khan, a commander of Turkish Armenian origin, expecting that he would be able to loot the treasures of Nepal and would have a lot of ornaments and gold, because they had heard about the glory of Nepal. Mir Qasim was the son-in-law of Mir Jafar who had supported the East India Company earlier but later was sidelined by them. They favoured Mir Qasim.
In one of the descriptions in the historical documents, it is mentioned that King Prithvi
Narayan Shah ordered his same troops under major military leaders Mohaddamkirti Shah, Bansaraj Pandey and Kehar Singh Basnyat to fight against advancing forces of Bengal led by Gurgin Khan.
These Mir Qasim’s forces came from Murshidabad, India and arrived at Harnamadi plains, south east of Hetauda.
On Thursday 20 January 1763, Gorkhali troops had a fierce fight against the 3500 troops of Mir Qasim. Gorkhalis succeeded in completely wiping out the Gurgin Khan’s forces even though the number of Gorkhalis were quite less and they were less than one-third in comparison to Muslim forces. The leadership qualities of the leaders and guerrilla tactics successfully adopted by Gorkhali troops during this battle was exemplary. First, Gorkhalis attacked and captured a place called Taklakhaar. From there, Nahar Singh and Kehar Singh took their troops through a separate route different from that of the mainstream group of soldiers and climbed to the old Makwanpur Fort. From that vantage point, they took out the guns, and shut and killed 1700 enemies and the rest of the troops fled away. It was said that in the night time Mir Qasim’s forces were busy at cooking food.
Suddenly, there was an attack on them from the forests from the three different directions. Gorkhali commanders Nandu Sardar and Ashajit Bhandari were killed. Bhandari had not even met with the king before his departure to the battle because he felt ashamed due to his defeat in the Naldum battle earlier. In this war, Gorkhalis seized two cannons and 500 weapons from the enemies and established five Gorkha companies namely Shreenath, Kali Bax, Sabuz, Barjabani and Gorakh (now Purano Gorakh) giving them one hundred guns each. On Sunday 13 February 1763, Gorkhali troops attacked Khundaghat and King Digbandhan Sen surrendered. He and his family were brought to Gorkha and put in life imprisonment.
After the conquest of Makwanpur, the plains area (Talhatti) areas under it in the Tarai also came under Gorkha. Before that conquest, these areas were under Sen kingdom for hundreds of years. It was a very big achievement for Gorkha to have won Makwanpur. East India Company started a controversy regarding the ownership of these plain areas. In the meantime, King Prthivi Narayan Shah, as per the suggestion of his trusted warriors Kehar Singh and Abhiman Singh, sent Dinanath Upadhyaya first to meet with Major Kelly in Darbhanga and thereafter to Calcutta to negotiate on this matter. Upadhyaya presented the concrete documentary proof he carried with him about the ownership of Makwanpur as he was previously employed by Sen Kings of Makwanpur. Finally, the East India Company agreed with some conditions that these areas belonged to Gorkha which accepted to send some gifts to the East India Company including elephants annually.
Victory on Timalkot, Sindhuli, Jhangajholi, and Dumja:
After less than a month, Gorkha troops captured Timal and surrounding areas on Tuesday 14 September 1762. In Timal, there was a fierce battle with the Makwanpur forces. Sardar Ramkrishna Kunwar and his troops fought very hard to capture this strategic hill top. Gorkha lost 300 troops in this battle including Amar Singh Kunwar who was the younger brother of Sardar Ramkrishna Kunwar. But finally Gorkha won the battle and more than 400 troops were killed on the Makwanpur side.
Sindhuligadhi, Jhangajholi, and Dumja were also annexed to Gorkha on Saturday 2 October after the Dashain festival that year. King Prithvi Narayan Shah wanted the Khas and Magars of Dumja and Jhangajholi to be restricted from joining Makwani forces and there was a need to first capture Sindhuligadhi before attacking Makwanpur. But Abhiman Singh suggested that it was better to attack Makwanpur first by directly going there despite the rainy season, so that the Khas and Magar soldiers stationed by Makwanpur at Sindhuligadhi and their other troops stationed in Dumja and Jhangajholi may not know about the Gorkhali attack on Makwanpur. This suggestion of Abhiman Singh Basnyat was well taken by King Prithvi Narayan Shah. This attack was mounted only after defeating Makwanpur in August. Thus, Sindhuli was attacked and captured by Gorkha on 21 September but Makwanpur forces regrouped and again attacked there on Gorkhalis on 2 October 1762. Gorkhalis were finally victorious in killing many Makwanpur fighters on that day.
Capture of seven villages including Dhulikhel and Panauti:
Gorkhali forces commanded by Kehar Singh Basnyat and Ram Krishna Kunwar conquered Dhulikhel, and the remaining areas of Chaukot, Panauti, Banepa and Khadpu. On Sunday 23 October 1763, Dhulikhel was captured and rest were captured on the next day. However, they were stopped by 500 armed Nagas in Sanga area on Thursday 27 October who came to help King Jaya Prakash Malla. This group was led by Gulabram Awasthi. This Awasthi Guru was believed to have met with King Prithvi Narayan Shah during his visit in Banaras. But he escaped from Sanga to Bhaktapur. In this battle, Gorkhalis annexed Banepa, Ranikot, Nala, and Sanga, the surrounding areas of Bhaktapur, on the same day.
It was discovered that King Ranajit Malla had also supported Nagas to come to Kathmandu valley. Jivram Basnyat and Jahangir Shah from Gorkhali side lost their lives in this battle against Nagas. Jahangir Shah was the son of Prince Mahidhar Shah (son of King Prithvipati Shah). According to historian Baburam Acharya, Jahangir Shah was 80 years old. Later in this battle, almost all Bairagis were killed by Gorkhalis. Earlier, in his last meeting with King Prithvi Narayan Shah in Gorkha, Gulabram was expecting that King Prithvi Narayan Shah will give him special treatment, including gifts and money. However, Prithvi Narayan treated him in an ordinary way. That was why Gulabram Awasthi was angry with Prithvi Narayan Shah and sided with King Jaya Prakash Malla.
Gorkha also conquered the areas of Pharping and Bishankhu on Wednesday 2 November and Friday 4 November 1763 respectively. Chobhar and Panga were conquered on Tuesday 14 August 1764.
Second attempt on Kirtipur:
The second battle to capture Kirtipur on Sunday 16 September 1764 was also unsuccessful.
The youngest brother of King Prithvi Narayan Shah, Kazi Shoorpratap Shah lost his left eye when he was hit by an arrow. Another brother Kazi Daljit Shah was seriously injured when he lost one of his ribs. Birbhadara Basnyat, son of Sardar Bangya Basnyat, lost his life after being hit by a falling stone on his neck (thrown by Kirtipur troops from above). Shoorpratap Shah and Shreeharsh Panth (Chhetri) fought between themselves to obtain a stairs to climb the wall. They had enmity between them for a long time due to this incident. In this battle, some 300 Gorkhalis lost their lives and remaining troops returned to Dahachowk military base camp.
Final Victory over Kirtipur:
In this battle, Shoorpratap Shah, Bansaraj Pandey and Kehar Singh participated as major military commanders along with other leaders. Birnarsingh, son of Kirtipur leader Dhanawant, was captured by Gorkhalis and put in prison in Nuwakot. It was said that Dhanawant had sided with Gorkhalis due to his son’s imprisonment. The courtiers of Kirtipur including Sinkhwal met in a council meeting and decided to surrender after the blockade of about six months. They thought that it was wiser to surrender rather than to fight.
Kazi Dhanawant Pradhan of Kirtipur (Patan) sent a secret message to Shoorpratap Shah that if the lives and properties of people will be protected by Gorkhalis, he wanted to surrender Kiritpur.
Then this Kazi Dhanawant brought Shoorpratap Shah, Bansaraj Pandey, Kehar Singh Basnyat and other Gorkhali troops in the middle of the night with fire torches opening one of the gates (Gopur) of Kirtipur. The people of Kirtipur were fed up with the economic blockade. Kazi Dhanawant did not want the attack of Gorkhalis in broad day light because there could be a stampede with a great loss of lives and property. Many women and children would have died in the daytime. Finally, in the third attempt, Kirtipur was captured by Gorkhali forces on Wednesday night 12 March 1766.
Some goons in Kirtipur found out in the morning that they were already captured by Gorkhalis, so they went around and saw that some Gorkhalis were tired and sleeping in the public resting places.
They killed some Gorkhalis at that time.
Later Kazi Dahanwant’s two grandsons Tribhuvan and Ritudhwaj Khawas or Pradhan became Kazi during the time of King Rana Bahadur Shah in whose house Rana Bahadur Shah was killed by step-brother Sher Bahadur Shahi. Maiju Maharani, probably a daughter of Kazi Birnarsingh of Patan and sister of Tribhuvan Khawas, was a mistress of King Pratap Singh Shah. She had already become a sati in 1777 after one month of King Pratap Singh’s death. She was allowed a one-month period to recover from the delivery of her second child Sher Bahadur Shahi to become sati.
On Saturday 5 April 1766 after three weeks of victory, military leader Kehar Singh Basnyat arrested some miscreants who were involved in destroying the left eye of Shoorpratap Shah in the second attack in 1764. He wanted to fully destroy their eyesight also (traditional eye-for-eye policy) but King Prithvi Narayan Shah did not agree to that suggestion. Because all the inhabitants of Kirtipur had already become his subjects after their defeat, the king suggested that the ‘lesser’ severe punishment of cutting off the tip of the nose of these three individuals; two who held Shoorpratap’s hands and another who destroyed his eyesight.
Many historians have given different stories about this incident in their books. Sylvain Levy has gone one step further and said that King Prithvi Narayan Shah not only ordered to cut the nose of inhabitants of Kirtipur but also of seven houses (Saat Bahahle) of Bhaktapur (seven sons of King Ranajit Malla who were born from concubines). But this is found to be exaggerated and not true.
King Prithvi Narayan Shah established two trusts in the name of Baghbhairav and Mahabauddha after the victory in Kirtipur. He had the policy of protecting and promoting the local culture, religion and civilisation. Those trusts are still functioning at present. The king always had the first priority to visit the religious places like temples and monasteries after the victory. He did the same in Kirtipur also.
# The author could be reached at: niranjanbasny-at@gmail.com.
# Next issue to begin with: Expulsion of Capuchin priests: Ed. Upadhyaya.