An Account of The Kingdom of Nepal And of the Territories Annexed to this Dominion by the House of Gorkha

CHAPTER FIRST. OF THE TRIBES INHABITING THE TERRITORIES OF GORKHA.

Original Inhabitants.—Hindu Colonies, their period.—Brahmans, History.—Colony from Chitaur.—Colony of Asanti.—Success of Colonization in the West,—in the East.—Colony of Chaturbhuja.—Hindu Tribes east from the River Kali.—Language.—Brahmans, Diet, Festivals, Offspring.—Rajputs, adopted, illegitimate.—Low Tribes.—General Observations on the Customs of the Mountain Hindus east from the Kali.—Of the Hindus west from the Kali.—Of Tribes who occupied the Country previous to the Hindus.—Manners.—Magars.—Gurungs.—Jariyas.—Newars.—Murmis.—Kiratas.— Limbus.—Lapchas.—Bhotiyas.

The numerous valleys among the prodigious mountains, of which Nepal in its extended sense consists, are inhabited by various tribes, that differ very much in language, and somewhat in customs. All that have any sort of pretensions to be considered as aboriginal, like their neighbours of Bhotan to the east, are, by their features, clearly marked as belonging to the Tartar or Chinese race of men, and have no sort of resemblance to the Hindus.

The time when the Hindus penetrated into these regions is very uncertain. Bhim Sen, the son of Pandu, is said to have penetrated into these parts, and probably was the first who introduced any sort of improvement. He still continues to be a favourite object with the rude tribes, not only on the mountains, but in their vicinity. Probably at no great distance from the time of that prince, and about the commencement of our era, Sakya, the last great teacher of the Bouddhists, passed through the country, and settled at Lasa, where he is supposed to be still alive in the person whom we call the Grand Lama. His followers seem to have acquired a great ascendancy over all the tribes of Nepal, as well as in Thibet and Bhotan, which they retained until a subsequent colony of Hindus settled in the first of these countries, and introduced the Brahmans, who have had considerable success in destroying the heretical doctrines, although these have still numerous votaries.

Colonel Kirkpatrick, or perhaps rather his editor, seems to have entertained a very different opinion concerning the period when the Hindus penetrated into Nepal. Speaking of Sambhunath, he says, {10} “After all, it is highly probable that the sanctity of this spot might be safely referred to a period very anterior both to the Newar and Khat Bhotiya dynasties (who preceded the Newars) of Nepaul, since the sacred books of the Hindus leave scarcely any room to doubt, that the religion of Brahma has been established from the most remote antiquity in this secluded valley, where there are nearly as many idols as inhabitants, there not being a fountain, a river, or hill within its limits, that is not consecrated to one or other of the Hindu deities.” What idea the author may have held of the terms Hindu and religion of Brahma, I cannot say. If he meant by Hindu whatever colonists may have come from the plains, I agree with him, and have stated, that Bhim Sen and Sakya Singha seem, in early ages, to have penetrated into the mountains, and to have introduced civilization. But I think him mistaken, if, by Hindu, he means the followers of the present Brahmans, introduced into India from Saka Dwip by the son of Krishna, contemporary with Bhim Sen; and if, by the religion of Brahma, he means the doctrine taught by these Brahmans, who do not, however, worship that deity. In the first place, I have been assured, that, in the sacred books of the Hindus, that is to say, in the Puranas attributed to Vayasa, the Khas and Kiratas, the ancient inhabitants of the mountains, are always spoken of as impure infidels. Again, the number of idols and places consecrated in Nepal to the Hindu gods is no sort of proof that the doctrines of the Brahmans have existed long in the country; for the Bouddhists, who follow the doctrine of Sakya, admit of the worship of the same inferior deities (Devatas) with the Brahmans, both having probably adopted their worship from sects that had previously existed. Farther, the changes in the names of places, since the Hindu conquest, has been rapid almost beyond conception; for instance, the capitals of the three principalities into which Nepal was divided, and which are now called Kathmandu, Lalita Patana, and Bhatgang, and which, in 1802, I always heard called by these names, were, during the Newar government, which ended in 1767, called Yin Daise, Yulloo Daise, and Khopo Daise. {11} To these circumstances, explanatory of the author’s mistake, I must add the statements, which will follow, and which reduce the arrival of the present Hindu colonies to a modern period, or to the fourteenth century of the Christian era.

According to the traditions most commonly current in Nepal, the Hindus of the mountains (Parbatiya) left their own country in consequence of an invasion by the Muhammedan king of Dilli, who wished to marry a daughter of the Raja of Chitor, or Chitaur, celebrated for her beauty. A refusal brought on the destruction of her father and his capital city; and, to avoid a hateful yoke, many of the people fled to the hills. A somewhat similar story, related in the translation of Fereshtah by Dow, would seem to verify the truth of the tradition, and fix its date to the 1306 year of our era.

In opposition to this tradition, very generally received at Kathmandu, and throughout the eastern parts of the Nepalese dominions, Hariballabh contends, that there was a certain Asanti, a prince descended of Shalivahana in the seventh or eighth generation, and who, therefore, should have lived in about the second or third century of the Christian era, but whom Hariballabh supposes to have lived seven or eight hundred years ago, in which case the Shalivahana from whom he was descended must have been different from the prince whose name has been given to an era. Asanti came to these mountains, and established a kingdom extending from Pesaur to Morang, and having for its capital Karuvirpur, a town near Almorha. His descendants were called Suryabangsi Rajputs, and with them came pure Brahmans, whose doctrines gradually gained ground by the addition of colonists, and the progress of generation. This progress would appear to have been very slow, for I cannot find, even in Kumau, the seat of the first colonists, that there are now any other Brahmans, except those called the Brahmans of Kumau, a colony avowedly introduced from Kanoj by Thor Chandra, who lived after the middle of the fifteenth century of the Christian era, and, therefore, subsequent to the colony from Chitaur. The country had previously been inhabited by Jars, Magars, and other impure and infidel tribes, and great numbers of these continued under the descendants of Asanti as cultivators; but, west of the Soyal, there was no Raja who was not of pure birth, although the barbarous chiefs continued to hold most of the country east from thence, tributary, however, to the descendants of Shalivahana. Hariballabh remembers the names of only the three first of Asanti’s successors, namely, Basanti, Dham Deva, and Brahma Deva; but his descendants continued, for a considerable time, to enjoy a supremacy over the chiefs of the hills, although their power was much reduced by family dissensions, and by appanages granted to collateral branches. Various turbulent chiefs, that successively came from the low country, took advantage of this weakness to reduce the authority of the descendants of Asanti to a jurisdiction nearly nominal; and, in the reign of Akbur, the government of Karuvirpur was totally overturned by the petty chief of Kumau, who pretended to be of the ancient family of the moon, and whose ancestors, a few generations before, had succeeded, by an abominable act of treachery, in obtaining a settlement in the hills. Indeed, it is generally admitted, even by themselves, that all, or at least most of the chiefs, who came from the low country, used similar means, that is, entered into the service of the mountaineers, and, having gained their confidence by a superior knowledge and polish of manners, contrived to put them to death, and to seize their country.

This conduct is justified, in their opinion, by their having abolished the impure and abominable customs that previously existed among the mountaineers; and, in conformity with this common principle, all the chiefs west of the river Kali glory in having either totally expelled or extirpated the original inhabitants, and in having established, in its full height, the purity of the Hindu doctrines.

To the east of the Kali river, the chiefs have not been actuated by so pure a zeal, and not only have permitted many of the mountain tribes to remain and practise their abominations, but have themselves relaxed, in many essential points, from the rules of cast, and have debased their blood by frequent intermixtures with that of the mountaineers; while such of these as chose to embrace the slender degree of purity required in these parts, have been admitted to the high dignities of the military order.

Perhaps, in the parts west from the river Kali, the Hindus from the south have not, in fact, been so bad as they pretend; and, although no one is willing to acknowledge a deficiency of zeal, or a descent from barbarians, yet, in fact, they may have permitted to remain such of the cultivators as chose to adopt the rules of purity, and to take the name of Sudras. I have not seen a sufficient number of the people from that part of the country to enable me to judge how far this may have been the case; for all the original tribes of the mountains, as already stated, have strongly marked Chinese or Tartar countenances, when the breed has not been improved by a mixture with people of more elegant features.

According to Sadu Ram and Samar Bahadur, when the colony from Chitaur, mentioned above, arrived at the mountains east from the Kali, in the beginning of the fourteenth century of the Christian era, they found the whole occupied by impure or infidel tribes, nor for some time did any of the sacred order, nor any descendants of the colony, extend beyond the limits of their conquests. Gradually, however, the descendants of the colony, and especially the members of the sacred order, who indulged very much in promiscuous amours, spread wide over the mountainous region, and multiplied exceedingly, introducing everywhere, as much as possible, the modern doctrines of purity and law, modified, however, a good deal, to accommodate it to the licence which the mountaineers exercised in the intercourse of the sexes, and in eating. In this conversion the Brahmans have had great success, and most of the chiefs of the highland tribes have adopted the rules of purity, and are called Rajputs, while various fables and genealogies have been contrived to gratify their vanity, by connecting their history with Hindu legend.

Concerning the colony from Chitaur I received another account, from the Mahanta, or prior of the convent of Janmasthan, at Ayodhya. He alleges, that Chaturbhuja, a prince of the Sisaudhiya tribe, having left Chitaur, conquered Kumau and Yumila, where he established his throne, from whence his family spread to Palpa Tanahung and the Kirats. The supremacy very lately admitted by all the eastern mountain chiefs to the Rajas of Yumila, is a strong presumption in favour of this opinion. Many chiefs, and especially the Palpa Tanahung and Makwanpur families, pretend to be descended of the Chitaur princes; but it is very doubtful whether they have any claim to a descent so illustrious, for the Mahanta said, that, after some generations, all the hill chiefs rebelled, and paid only a nominal obedience to the Raja of Yumila, nor does Samar Bahadur, uncle of the Palpa Raja, claim kindred with that chief, while one of the branches of his family still remains impure. But, if this tradition be well-founded, the Yumila, or Kumau principality, or at least its possession by the Rajputs, must have been subsequent to 1306, which will not admit of above twenty-five generations, instead of the fifty or sixty which the Brahmans of that country allot for the arrival of Asanti. This difference may, however, be explained. Chaturbhuja, as well as a fortunate Brahman, who obtained Malebum, as will be afterwards mentioned, may have married the daughter of the former chief of Yumila, and thus succeeded to the power; and the fifty or sixty generations, in both cases, may include both the original family, and those who succeeded by marriage. But, if the Mahanta is right, the Yumila or Karuvir family, in place of being descended of Shalivahana, was descended of the princes of Ajmir and Chitaur.