Posts by RanaSubodh:

Nepal signature block print

April 18th, 2015

By Subodh Rana.

 

We had almost exhausted the supply of typical gifts from Nepal. These are the souvenirs we take every year to tourism fairs to present to our overseas partners. Handicrafts and weaves, tea bags and coffee sachets were gifted. Miniature Khukri the Gurkha knife, the bottle shaped like a khukri with rum in it that came out as Coronation Rum to mark King Birendra’s Coronation in 1975 and Pashmina shawls and scarves have done the rounds from Singapore to Stockholm. So what else new could be taken as gifts?

We hit upon the idea of Nepalese block printed cloth, the signature tradition that has carried on over a century and a half since it was first imported from Benaras. Even today Nepalese living from Melbourne to Montreal feel most comfortable wrapping themselves in the khasto, block printed cotton shawl hemmed in by muslin cloth on both sides. My daughter uses it inside the house in chilly London weather. The ubiquitous but humble khasto is Nepal’s preferred body warmer.

 

Dambar Kumari prints with Nepalese motifs

I am blogging on this as not many of us know that the cottage industry started by Dambar Kumari, one of the daughters of Maharajah Jung Bahadur Rana of Nepal, still carries her name to this day. What was its origin though? Kanchi Maiya Maharani 5th daughter of Maharajah Jung Bahadur Rana, lived in the holy city of Benaras after she was given in marriage to Lt. Colonel His Highness Maharaj Prabhu Narayan Singh Bahadur of Benaras in 1873 A.D. Benaras was a 15 gun salute protectorate of British India and the monarchical tradition was being carried on there under British suzerainty. For the Hindu rulers of Nepal it was an important cultural and political window into British India as Benaras provided both spiritual solace and a listening post to the rumblings in British India.

 



Periodically the family of Jung Bahadur Rana visited Benaras and other Hindu power centers of India such as Badrinath and Kedarnath in the Himalayas. Dambar Kumari, one of the daughters of Maharajah Jung Bahadur went on such a pilgrimage at the invitation of her sister the Maharani of Benaras. After finishing her pilgrimage she decided to stay on in Benaras in her private capacity and she did not heed the call of her father the maharajah to return to Nepal. She was either passionately in love with someone she met or she was engrossed in a new hobby she had taken up. Rumour mills in Kathmandu went into overdrive. She had started living in a house of ill repute, she was a courtesan, she was shameless. Maharajah Jung started to get frantic, she asked his daughter the maharani to talk some sense into her sister. She could not continue living in Benaras all by herself! Finally Jung decided to send his youngest brother General Dhir Shumsher to Benaras to personally escort the stubborn girl back to Kathmandu. Would Dhir be able to talk some sense into her niece?

Dhir took this arduous journey with dread as he knew how stubborn his niece could be. He was always called upon by his elder brother the maharajah to executive tasks others found well-nigh impossible. He was Jung’s favorite brother. From the Kot Massacre to the Indian Mutiny, from the fabled Velayat Yatra, the journey to England, to the war with Tibet, Dhir had most ably served his brother.

Maharajah Jung Bahadur Rana

When Dhir arrived and started sending his spies to see what Dambar Kumari was up to, he was surprised by what had enraptured the young woman so to make her forget Nepal. It was the ancient Indian art of block printing on cotton cloth. From Buddha’s time trade in block printed cotton cloth was carried on from India to Babylon. Varanasi was one of the famous centers of block printing. They use the ‘Tree of Life’ motif. The printing is extremely fine due to the superbly carved wooden and metal blocks. Printing is done on a padded table. The ‘Tree of Life’ pattern uses more than a hundred blocks of various designs. Dhir reported to Kathmandu.

 

Putali Maharani in old age

Kathmandu gets cold during the winter months, it got much colder in the yesteryear of our forebears. Besides the makal charcoal heaters there was not much else to heat the houses. Rana palaces had the fireplace, an idea imported from cold Europe. Putali Maharani was arthritic and the cold did not suit her. She did not like the coarse woolen shawls imported from Tibet. She wanted something warm and soft. Something like what Ganga Maharani the daughter of the erstwhile king of Coorg and third married wife of her husband Maharajah Jung Bahadur had brought for her as a gift from Benaras while she was still a minor wife of Jung a long time ago. It was a cotton khasto or shawl with bold prints that was very attractive to behold and soft to the touch of her cheek. She hit upon an idea.

She sent a personal letter to Dambar Kumari to return to Nepal and continue her hobby here as a cottage industry and she, Putali, would give her funds and full support. Dambar Kumari received this request, a request she could not afford to brush aside lightly. Her step-mother Putali Maharani was the favorite wife of Jung Bahadur today. She had to keep herself in Putali’s good books to curry favor from her father! Dambar Kumari resolved to come back and start an industry that would give empowerment to women of less fortunate background who had taken to the brothels of Benaras. The tradition of block printing in Nepal is alive and well and carries her name to this day.

 

Maharajah Jung Bahadur with Maharani Hiranya Garva Kumariand two daughters given in marriage to Crown Prince TrailokyaIn the background (ringed) is daughter Damber Kumari Devi

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The name game

April 7th, 2015

 

 

By Subodh Rana.

 

1. The thing we call a rose would smell just as sweet if we called it by any other name. Romeo would be just as perfect even if he wasn’t called Romeo. Romeo, lose your name. Trade in your name—which really has nothing to do with you—and take all of me in exchange. Romeo and Juliet

What’s in a name anyway? We hail our Gods by many names during worship. Lord Krishna, the dark one, is Mohan when he is flirting with his Gopinis; Nanda Lal, the prankster boy of Nanda; Gopal, a cowherd grazing his cattle; Govinda, the preserver of bountiful nature; Murlidhar, the magician with the flute; in fact he has been affectionately addressed by 108 names by his devotees through many millennia.

Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar

World rulers and conquerors throughout the ages have changed their birth names often denoting inconsequential, humble beginnings to glorified appellation befitting their elevated status. We learnt in history that mere mortals took mythical names that struck fear in their enemies. The nephew of Julius Caesar Octavian became the first emperor of Rome to be known for ever as Augustus Caesar, the Majestic king. Temujin was to be known to history as the all conquering Genghis Khan whose name struck terror from China to Europe. Rebels have also taken their nom de guerre to conduct war against the State. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov took his pseudonym Lenin in hiding that was fashioned from the name of the river Lena in Siberia. Another Soviet Communist Joseph Djugashvilli, a Georgian, became Stalin, the Man of Steel.

Who are their counterparts in Nepal? The name “Malla” meant wrestler or the strong one and post Licchavi Nepal saw dynastic rule of the Malla kings that lasted over 500 years until the King of Gorkha conquered the Kathmandu Valley in 1769 A.D. The “Shah” kings of Gorkha themselves lifted this royal title from Mughal India as no Hindu royalty in India is known as a “Shah”, a Persian honorific.

Maharana Pratap Singh

The valiant Rajput Rana clan of Chittor gave a tough fight to the conquering Mughals before being finally subjugated by Akbar the Great in 1568 A.D. Maharana Pratap the epitome of Rajput chivalry however evaded capture and continued to live as a free man, always threatening to take back his kingdom, until his death in 1597 A.D. Is the Rana clan of Nepal who claimed ancestry from Chittor actually of Rajput descent or was the title borrowed by them to herald a status upgrade from more humbler origins?

The Kunwars of Nepal trace their lineage to the Karnali basin of western Nepal. The name “kunwar” itself is a title given to a Kshatriya high caste, twice-born prince. The tradition of Sacred Thread Ceremony performed on male members reaching puberty gives them a second life. Were these the progeny of princely states of Rajasthan seeking refuge from Mughal persecution in the Nepalese hills? Eminent anthropologists such as Dor Bahadur Bista seems to think not and link their tribe to the indigenous Magars. However he does not properly explain why Kunwars became high caste Hindus and the Magars did not.

Bal Narsingh Kunwar and his wifeGanesh Kumari, mother of Jung Bahadur

Ashiram Kunwar left Kaski and went to Gorkha in 1740 A.D. and enrolled in the service of Raja Nar Bhupal Shah, father of King Prithivi Nayan Shah the founder of modern Nepal. His son General Ram Krishna Kunwar was one of King Prithivi Narayan Shah’s military commanders during his war of unification of Nepal. He valiantly defeated a British force at Hahiharpur sent to assist the beleaguered Malla kings during the siege of Kathmandu Valley. General Ranjit Kunwar Rana, son of Ram Krishna, fought in the campaigns to bring the provinces of Kaski and Lamjung under the Gorkha kingdom and also led Regent Bahadur Shah’s campaign in Tibet. His son Bal Narsingh Kunwar was in the royal household and he comes into prominence in history by striking dead Sher Bahadur Shah the half-brother of ex-King Rana Bahadur Shah who took the ex-king’s life in full court following an argument. Bal Narsingh got the title of Kaji (minister) from Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa for his trouble. His son Bir Narsingh Kunwar would one day become famous as Jung Bahadur Rana.

Jung Bahadur Rana and his brothers

The hereditary surname of “Rana” was bestowed upon Jung Bahadur and all his brothers by the King of Nepal in 1848 A.D. From a princely “Kunwar” the family had now become a royal “Rana”, a throwback to the Rajput lineage the kunwars claimed. In the caste based pecking order of the time, the Rana family was now equal in marriage to the Thakuris from which the royal Shah family of Nepal hailed.

Our own erstwhile Maoist rebel leader Pushpa Kamal, a benign Lotus Flower, transformed himself to the malignant Prachanda, the awesome one.

“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”, thundered Chairman Mao Zedong and a formidable nom de guerre consolidates it. That is the name of the game.

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The legacy of Arkino

December 13th, 2014

 

 

By Subodh Rana.



 

“Picasso The Picador”

There have been many myths and legends on child prodigies in all cultures. Lord Krishna’s birth leads to a miraculous baby exchange where his foster parents Nanda and Yashoda sacrifice their own new born baby girl to save the incarnated Lord Vishnu from the clutches of the evil uncle King Kangsa. When Lord Buddha is born the wunderkind takes seven steps to pronounce to the world that he is the anointed one. Christ’s miraculous birth from a virgin mother fulfills earlier prophesies on ‘incarnation’ of God in human form. There have been more earthly prodigies galore in most disciplines whether it is in maths or sciences, music or art. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Pablo Picasso are just two of the more renowned wunderkind we have come to celebrate. Mozart played piano at age four and started composing from age five. Picasso completed his first painting “The Picador” at an early age of eight.

Laxman ‘Sthapati’ came from a caste of artisans known for sculpture and designing as denoted by his Sanskrit surname. Devoutly Buddhist he and his wife Shumaketai were talented artists and respected in their community known particularly for fine wood and metal carving. Patan as the oldest city in Kathmandu Valley was then famous for its arts and crafts and was named Lalitapura, the beautiful city, by the Malla kings well-versed in literary Sanskrit. When Shumaketai’s womb started to swell the whole community rejoiced as the tradition of carving and molding would now continue in the Sthapati family. The Malla kings would bestow on this community the building contracts for future generations to come!

A boy was born to the Sthapatis who was destined to be immortalized as Arniko, the master builder of the Yuan Dynasty of China. From early childhood the wunderkind was above average in learning his family’s craft. With a sharp intellect he probed and asked questions that would stun his teachers and bewilder the elders. There is a story about the family’s visit to a Buddhist holy place when the boy was only three years old. He looked up at the pagoda, its multi-tiered eaves and golden finial and inquired of his parents the names of the people who had built them. He learnt quickly the Buddhist sutras and could recite them with utmost ease. It was but a matter of time before he would be noticed and picked up for great building projects that would catapult him into immortality in three different countries linked by the trajectories of geography and history.

 

Arniko’s departure for China, oil painting by Hari Parsad Sharma

My earlier blog covered the story of Arniko and his artisans getting selected by Dragon Phagspa to build a stupa in the Sakya Monastery in Tibet as per the edict of Emperor Kublai Khan. The success of this enterprise led him to Dadu, the new imperial capital of Yuan Dynasty, known today as Beijing. Here Arniko was bestowed by the emperor a project to build a pagoda temple in order to protect his whole country. Having received the imperial edict, Arniko presented the drawings of the Tibetan stupa-style Dagoba that looked like a holy vessel and had a stylized gilt pagoda on its top.

On July 25th 1279 A.D. the White Pagoda was completed. Occupying an area of 810 square meters the temple was 60 meters high and dwarfed the residential buildings of the new capital. The 5-meter high gilt copper top reflected light fanning the city with golden rays and dazzling the onlookers. The population gaped at this new structure in wonderment and awe and the temple became a locus of Buddhist veneration. It is chronicled that Kublai Khan, pleased, granted onto Arniko 15,000 mu of fertile land with 100 heads of cattle and 100 local hands to farm the land. Arniko’s fortune started shining brightly.

 

Bodhisatva Manjushri

Many projects followed after this and Arniko not only worked on the new Buddhist buildings but also on statues of 191 Taoist saints and schools of Confucianism. His next big project was in Mt. Wutai in Shanxi Province. This mountain enjoys pre-eminence among four holy Buddhist mountains as the abode of Bodhisatva Manjushri who is associated with the legend behind the founding of Kathmandu Valley. Manjushri drained the primordial Kathmandu Valley lake by cutting a deep gorge at Chobar, south of the valley, thus making the valley habitable. Arniko knew this story well and he yearned to go on a pilgrimage to this holy site. In 1295 A.D. a grand project befell upon him when the grandson of Kublai Khan, Emperor Chengzong orderd him to build a monastery on Mt. Wuhai for the dowager empress. In the monastery complex was erected the Cishou Pagoda towering 60 meters high. It is written that the dowager empress visited the monastery in person and handed a reward of 10,000 liang of silver to Arniko in appreciation of his genius.

Arniko had 11 wives. Principal among them were his Newar wife Chaityaluxmi, a princess of Song Court and Mongol aristocratic women. His eldest son Asanger and his handpicked protege Liu Yuan carried forward the work of Arniko. Arniko passed away on 9th March 1306 A.D. at the ripe old age of 62 following a short illness. Emperor Chengzong grieved the death of Arniko and halted court proceedings as a mark of respect for the Nepalese artisan who helped achieve his grandfather Kublai Khan’s vision of transforming China into a Buddhist realm. Following Nepalese customs Arniko’s body was cremated and the ashes buried in Xiangshan, Wanping County. Emperor Wuzhong ordered a tombstone with inscriptions in 1311 A.D. Arniko left behind a rich legacy for the ages to marvel.

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The Pagoda – Nepal’s export par excellence

October 21st, 2014

 

 

By Subodh Rana.

 

His parents already knew of his proclivity to create wonderful images of Hindu and Buddhist deities in clay and wood from a small age. When he could get hold of charcoal from his mother’s kitchen, he would draw strange but striking images on the walls and floors. Wise elders nodded in approval and whispered to his grandparents Mitra and Kundalaxmi that the boy was a prodigy. He would do the Sakya clan proud one day by helping spread the glory of Sakya Muni to the furthest corners of the world.  

 The great Mongol looked at the vast plains stretching before him in eternity and decided that this would be the place where he would make his new capital city, Dadu, and move the court from his citadel in Inner Mongolia Shangdu or Xanadu as we have come to be familiar with in the English language. It was a decision based in realpolitik as after all he was the ruler of China now, not just a barbarian from the outer fringes of empire as his grandfather Genghis Khan and his ancestors had been. To be accepted as the ruler of China by a conquered and cowed populace he had to firstly transform himself into a local hero. He had to re-invent himself as a Chinese ruler. He had to do three things to achieve this end: bring his seat of government nearer to the Chinese heartland, start a new dynasty and change his religion. In one fell swoop Kublai Khan created the city of Beijing, founded the Yuan Dynasty, promoted Buddhism to eclipse the older Taoism and changed China forever.

 

Portrait of Kublai Khan painted by Arniko

The subject of this blog is how Nepal played a significant role on the transformation of China and how history has intertwined the cultures of the two neighboring countries. The person Emperor Kublai Khan depended upon to bring the sway of Buddhism back in his domain was the Tibetan spiritual master Drogon Chogyal Phags-pa of the Sakya sect of Tibetan Buddhism. It is said the the great khan was enamoured by the healing abilities of the Tibetan monks. Half a millennium earlier Buddhism arrived in Tibet through the teachings of the bodhisatvas such as Padmasambhaba, known locally as Guru Rinpoche, who at one time or another had made Nepal his spiritual abode. Through time the old Bon animist beliefs were incorporated into the Mahayana sect of Buddhism or the Great Vehicle that strove to absorb the old beliefs to make Buddhism more acceptable and accessible to the masses. The true conversion of Tibet came about when the Tibetan king Tsrong Tsen Gampo converted to Buddhism through the influences of his two consorts, Princess Wen Chen from China and Princess Bhrikuti Devi from Nepal.

During the Licchavi period in Nepal the ruler Amsuvarman was leaning towards Buddhist beliefs and traditions as attested to by the Chinese chronicler Hueng Tsang who visited the important Buddhist pilgrimage spots including Kathmandu, Lumbini and Bodhgaya before settling down for studies in the Nalanda University. Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Dynasty of North India converted to Buddhism in 250 B.C., the religion proclaiming ahimsa or non-violence, after beholding the brutality wrought by his victorious armies in the battlefield at Kalinga. Legend has it that his daughter Charulata came to Kathmandu Valley as a Buddhist nun and built a monastery at Chabahil. Emperor Ashoka followed soon after and built four stupas in the four cardinal points of the city still extant today in Patan.

 

Portrait of Empress Chagui by Arniko

As we have seen Buddhism had been introduced in Nepal from times immemorial. The religion sometimes competed against the older Hindu traditions but many times flourished together in symbiotic harmony as we can still witness today. It was only fitting that Buddhism would be exported to Tibet from Nepal during the time of Amsuvarman when Buddhism reached the zenith of its influence. Princess Bhrikuti made a long and arduous journey to Lhasa carrying with her a messianic zeal to convert. It was this tradition Emperor Kublai Khan would rely upon in the person of Chogyal Phags-pa to establish a new religion in his empire to counter the influence of home-grown religions such as Confucianism and Taoism. After having been appointed the Royal Preceptor, Phags-pa would soon ordain the great khan in 1270 A.D.

The Chogyal was greatly humbled by the enormous task placed upon him by the emperor. He made ready a team of experts on religion and another team of artisans and craftsmen who possessed the skill to build Buddhist temples and monasteries in Tibet and faraway China. He would again look at the Kathmandu Valley for the craftsmen who could stand up to the great task he was undertaking. Kathmandu Valley boasted the greatest number of temples and stupas and a very large number of full time Newar artisans practicing their craft, richly endowed by the ruling dynasties of the valley. It was said that the valley had more temples than houses for people to live. It was during his search for a master craftsman that he would discover the 16 year old Arniko in Patan.

 

Arniko statue in White Pagoda temple complex

Arniko became the team leader of a group of 80 artisans entrusted by King Jaya Bhim Dev Malla to showcase the magnificent pagoda style of architecture adorning his city. The team arrived in Tibet in 1261 A.D. and built a magnificent golden pagoda in the Sakya Monastery near Shegar in the Tibetan plateau, the seat of the Chogyal’s sect. So pleased was the Chogyal by the outcome that he decided to take the group to Beijing to build another stupa in the new capital. At the end of 1262 A.D. Arniko arrived in Beijing and was received at the court by the great khan himself. Arniko was granted state resources to cast, mould and paint in various media and he excelled in all.

In 1272 A.D. he was commissioned to build the White Pagoda. It was completed by 1279 A.D. and, as the tallest structure in the new capital, it became a showcase of the Yuan Dynasty. Kublai Khan himself presided over the huge Buddhist religious ceremony that was organized to consecrate the temple. In an investiture ceremony soon after Arniko was made a Duke and the emperor’s chief consort Chabui arranged for him a rich Chinese wife. Along with his first married Newari wife Chaityaluxmi Arniko lived and died in China, never to set foot again in his homeland. He is immortalized in China as the prodigy that came over the Himalayan passes to change China forever. Nepal would honor his memory by naming the highway to Tibet after him.

 

White Pagoda towering over medieval Beijing

 

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The sati wives of Jung Bahadur, Maharajah of Nepal

July 24th, 2014

 

 

By Subodh Rana.

If only the Tudor King Henry VIII of England were as lucky as Jung Bahadur Rana, he would have had male heirs aplenty and he would not have had to behead a few of his queens in the hope of his next one presenting him with an heir. All the Maharanis would live together at Hampton Court Palace in seeming harmony at least until the death of the Maharajah. If England had the tradition of Sati, who among Henry’s wives would have had the singular honour of being buried alive with him? Would her be Catherine of Aragon his first queen? Or Anne Boleyn? Or the fair Jane Seymour, his favorite queen who gave him his only male heir, had she not died in her postnatal illness?

Maharajah Jung Bahadur Rana had many wives because he did not have the Catholic Church to worry about. He had at least a dozen sons and innumerable daughters from at least 13 recorded wives. He married some for love, others for political alliances with various noble houses, including a sister of Fateh Jung Shah, one of the victims of the Kot Massacre. He is known to take away a married woman from her husband wielding his prime ministerial power as she had ignored his overtures in his less fortunate days; Jung was still smitten by her. He took another maiden as his wife in gratitude as she was his secret mistress and a spy at the royal household and had passed to him royal secrets including a not so royal plan to get rid of him. He even married an Indian princess from Coorg – a royal state in South India until the British takeover – in Varanasi on his return home from England. He also took as his lover and mistress a teenage Brahmin wife of the refuge Maratha warrior Nana Sahib, a matrimony still not consummated by her husband.

Women succumbed to a plethora of causes in the Nepal of the latter half of the nineteenth century. Tuberculosis, frequently referred to as consumption, was one of the likely killers. Then there were many infectious diseases without remedy. Postnatal care was just awful. Jung was a widower many times over. His first wife died hearbroken after the death of her first born son and his second wife died young too after giving him sons, namely Jagat Jung and Jeet Jung. His wife Maharani Bishnu Kumari, the mother of General Pudma Jung Bahadur, lost her life soon after giving birth. The princess from Coorg, Ganga Maharani was recorded to have been treated by a surgeon from the British Residency in 1854 A.D. for a life threatening abscess to which she apparently succumbed to as no mention from any source tells us what happened to her.

Jung married his principle wife Bada Maharani Hiranya Garva (Sanskrit: Golden Womb) Kumari a.k.a. Maiya Maharani in 1853 A.D. after returning from the epochal Velayat Yatra, his visit to England at the invitation of Queen Victoria. She was a sister of Fateh Jung Shah who was the chief minister during the Kot Massacre and who lost his life from Jung Bahadur’s men. She gave birth to four daughters who would later all be married to the royal princesses, Crown Prince Trailokya Bikram and his cousin Dhirendra Bikram. She was with Jung until the very end. It was she who brought up the infant son Pudma Jung when his mother died giving birth in 1857 A.D., the very same day Maharajah Jung Bahadur set out for the Lucknow campaign during the Indian Mutiny.

 

Maharjah Jung Bahadur with Bada Maharani and two daughters

Siddhi Gajendra Luxmi came from a noble household that of a Basnyat. Her father Prasad Singh Basnyat was an army commander. They considered the Chhetry Kunwars beneath their ranking. Jung Bahadur Kunwar had fallen into rough times with the eclipse of his maternal granduncle the famous Bhimsen Thapa. Jung was smitten by the beautiful Basnyat girl and at every opportunity he would make overtures to her for her attention. Siddhi liked Jung too but marrying a man with a family already and against the wishes of her parents was too much to ask of her. She succumbed to an arranged marriage forgetting Jung. Jung did not forget her.

After the Kot Massacre Jung Bahadur Rana became the new power behind the ambitious Queen Rajya Luxmi. As the prime minister to the Regent Queen, he became unassailable. He had his soldiers abduct the by now willing Siddhi Gajendra Luxmi from her husband and brought her to his household as his mistress. After Jung was bestowed the title of Maharajah of Kaski and Lamjung by King Surendra Bikram Shah in 1856 A.D., Siddhi was elevated to the rank of Antaree (Sanskrit: within the heart) Maharani. Jung Bahadur would beget a son Ranabir Jung from her.

Jung was busy making further alliances with the old noble houses. In 1855 A.D. he took as his wife another Shah girl, a daughter of Rana Shere Shah and a niece of his principle wife, Bada Maharani Hiranya Garva Kumari. History would know her as the Ramri Maharani, the beautiful one. His next wife was Misri Maharani, the sweet one. And still another was Mina Rani, a Magar girl, also known in history as the Dakhchoke Rani as she dwelled in that part of the Thapathali Durbar where the imported grapes were grown in the courtyard. She would later bear one son to Jung by the name of Dambar Jung.

 

Mina Maharani also known as Dakhchoke Rani

After his return from England Jung Bahadur wanted to instill in his people the spirit of renaissance that had taken Europe from the Middle Ages to one of science and enlightenment. He was against the old superstitions. He was against slavery and the ghastly tradition of sati, the burning of widows in the funeral pyres of the dead husbands. But even a powerful dictator in his own lifetime could not prevail upon the rigid society of Chettry-Brahmin dominated Nepal to change its course. It would take another 50 years for Maharajah Chandra Shumsher to outlaw slavery and sati.

The year was 1877 A.D. and Maharajah Jung Bahadur was in the twilight of his illustrious career. One last time he wanted to go shooting, to indulge in his favorite pastime. He took his court to the Terai. He took along with him five wives, three senior maharanis for company and two junior wives for the needs of the night. Little did people know that he would not return to Kathmandu. He had a vision of a white tiger, was it real or imaginary? His eye sight failed him. Was it dengue fever? Just like Alexander the Great a mysterious ailment had struck Jung and the end came quickly. He breathed his last on the banks of Bagmati in Pattharghatta at the stroke of midnight on 25th February 1877 A.D. The five maharanis present prepared for sati but the senior maharani forbade the two junior wives from committing it because they had young children to look after. Writes his son and biographer General Pudma Jung, “the three maharanis who had determined to immolate themselves as suttee were repeatedly entreated to desist, but they would not go back from their decision.” Bada Maharani Hiranya Garva Kumari, Antaree Maharani and Ramri Maharani were the three brave wives. History will remember them as the sati wives of Maharajah Jung Bahadur Rana of Nepal.

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The Rising

May 23rd, 2014

 

By Subodh Rana.

The grainy black and white film runs incessantly like a recurring nightmare: there are half-starving Varsovians fighting with all means at their disposal, children running the gauntlet to supply the soldiers, women frenetically tending to the wounded and the dying.

The faces look gaunt yet determined, hunger has not quelled the human spirit’s thirst for freedom; fathers fight for their sons, mothers for their daughters. They know that their own life has come to naught, trampled under the jackboots of Nazi Germany, ripped asunder by fire bombs raining down from the skies; their homes and neighbourhoods are a heap of ruins.

But they need to fight one last time before they die, before the Red Army parked across the Vistula River to the east cross over to liberate them from the Nazis only to tie them up in the bondage of Soviet Communism.

The Museum dedicated to the Warsaw Uprising is a poignant reminder of human cruelty; the various -isms that have brought such devastation to the “civilized” world of the 20th Century. It is also a monument to the irrepressible human spirit that rises from hopelessness to hope, from fear to courage and from bondage to liberation! The museum tells the story of the Warsaw Uprising that started on 1st August 1944 in sights and sounds that thunderstruck me.

Amidst the screeching fury of Stukas dive bombing on their targets, there is the martial music of the Third Reich drowning out the cries of anguish and the incessant, almost hypnotic, synchronized thuds of the Wehrmacht jackboots on Warsaw’s cobbled streets. There are pictures of the dead and dying, makeshift anonymous graves, firing squads firing without respite.

I peek and crawl into a manhole the insurgents were using as the mode of transport and communication albeit without the darkness, the stink and the grime floating. I view the city skyline from the roof of the museum to find a few war time buildings standing here and there to remind and to warn future generations. Earlier I have seen a 3D documentary of the devastated Warsaw shot from a low flying aircraft immediately after the war. I can see one church spire standing tall like a beacon of hope amongst the debris. This was the Warsaw Ghetto area where we live today, I am told.

I see a kaleidoscope of personalities, heroes and villains. The Hall of Infamy showcases Hans Frank the Nazi Governor General of Poland posing with his happy family. There is Eichmann here and Himmler there. There is Hitler taking the first salute from his conquering troops in Warsaw.

Names and faces etched in my mind from reading countless books on the subject, watching countless movies too. My first introduction to the Uprising and the Warsaw Ghetto was the book Mila 18 by Leon Uris I read at school. Then there are the Allies – Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt – sealing the fate of the erstwhile independent Poland at Yalta. The West had enough of fighting to fight Stalin. It would take a Polish Pope, Solidarity and Gorbachev to undo this terrible injustice nearly 50 years later.

The Uprising ends in capitulation two devastating months later. General Bor, the Commander of the Home Army signs the treaty suspending warfare in Warsaw. Under its terms both the insurgents and the civilian population is mandated to leave the city. More than 18 thousand insurgents and 180 thousand civilians die. Only 64 out of 987 historical buildings remain standing. Just a handful of Poles and Jews remain when the Red Army enters the city on January 17, 1945. These are the so-called “Robinsons”.



I mentally note that just like rebuilt Warsaw’s skyline reaching for the skies, the hopes and aspirations of a nation is soaring high too. The museum reminds Poles how easy it is to lose one’s nationhood lest the new generation forgets. Somewhere there is a lesson for an -ism afflicted Nepal. Will there be a rising there too?

 

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The beauty and the booty, the winner takes them all

May 19th, 2014

Kashi Bai led a double life for a time of her asylum in the court of Maharajah Jung Bahadur Rana of Nepal. She was a widow to the world but she never ceased wearing her tika of red vermilion powder on her forehead, clinking glass bangles on her wrists or the kajol decoration around her eyes. Was her husband the Maratha leader Nana Sahib the fugitive from the British Raj really dead as reported by Jung Bahadur to Governor General Lord Canning or did the young wife know better? Maharajah Jung Bahadur Rana had started to make surreptitious sorties to the residence of Kashi Bai adjoining his Thapathali Durbar. Was the widow secretly married to him and was that the reason why she would not wear the traditional white of a Hindu widow? Tongues started to wag.

Dhondu Pant, a Brahmin boy at birth, was adopted by Baji Rao and styled him as Nana Sahib a great historical figure revered by the Marathas. When the Doctrine of Lapse concocted by Lord Dalhousie, the Governor General of India, took away from Nana Sahib the inheritance to the Maratha state as he was not born a biological son of the Peshwa, Nana Sahib started issuing vitriolic diatribes against the British and later became a key figure in the Indian Mutiny of 1857.A few years after the Indian Mutiny of 1857 was quelled by the British the fugitive Maratha rebel leader Nana Sahib sought refuge in Nepal with a retinue of followers including his adoptive mother, the widow of the last Maratha Peshwa Baji Rao, and his two wives. Young Kashi Bai the junior wife had barely reached puberty and reportedly her marriage had not been consummated by the embattled rebel. Nana Sahib sought refuge with a rich treasure trove of the crown jewels of the Maratha kingdom including the famed Naulakha haar necklace studded with the most flawless pearls, diamonds and emeralds the world had ever seen – reportedly valued at nine lakh Rupees at the time.

Jung Bahadur Rana was in a quandary, should he give asylum to Nana Sahib which would then not defeat the purpose of his assistance to the British during the mutiny, as he had personally lead a large army into Lucknow? Or should he arrest him and meekly deliver him into the hands of the vengeful British? What would happen of the helpless women? Had he, Jung Bahadur, not given refuge to the widow of Maharajah Ranjit Singh of the Punjab in similar circumstances a decade earlier after the Second Anglo-Sikh War and the annexation of the Punjab, bravely facing the wrath of British India?

Jung Bahadur sent his younger brother General Krishna Bahadur Rana to meet with the asylum seekers with instruction to refuge asylum to Nana Sahib but to receive his family members with open arms. Nana Sahib agreed that under the circumstances this was the best deal he could get and donned the garb of a wandering mendicant to disguise himself as agents of the Raj were everywhere eager to claim a bounty on his head and left for the western Himal. The women and their servants were allowed to come to Kathmandu Valley and Jung Bahadur generously gave a house near his Thapathali Durbar rent free for them to stay and also made a provision of four hundred Rupees monthly allowance. The elderly widow of Maharajah Ranjit Singh also had her house nearby.

Years passed and Kashi Bai became a pious Hindu wife receiving holy men and engaging in an assortment of religious activities. Did Nana Sahib come to her in the garb of a mendicant during such occasions and secretly meet with her and his mother? Did Jung Bahadur Rana know this as well and was his reporting of the death of Nana Sahib in Deukhuri to the British authorities just a red herring to prevent agents of the Raj snooping around his country and finding another pretext to start a second war? Rumours have since surfaced that Nana Sahib and his brother Bala Rao sought refuge in the court of the Scindias of Gwalior in 1874 but they were most probably imposters. Some claim that Nana Sahib lived the life of an ascetic Yogindra Dayanand Maharaj in a cave near Sihor in coastal Gujarat and died only in 1903! This is one of history’s mysteries that will not be solved.

Nana Sahib sold his fabulous jewels to Maharajah Jung Bahadur. Historian Perceval Landon writes that the Naulakha haar was sold for Rs. 93,000.00 a princely sum then that would sufficiently pay for the upkeep of Nana Sahib and his retinue in the Nepalese hills but an amount that was only a fraction of its real worth. Another very valuable piece was a 3-inch long emerald atop a bunch of emerald grapes that went to adorn the Crown of the prime minister of Nepal and stayed there until the ouster of Maharajah Dev Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana. There was another necklace of forty-eight pearls and twenty-four emeralds also sold to Jung Bahadur at the time. Both the Naulakha necklace and the emerald in the crown was sold by Dev Shumsher to the Maharajah of Darbhanga in a great hurry following his ouster lest the succeeding Maharajah Chandra Shumsher confiscate them as state treasury.

Kashi Bai died in Nepal and she took all her secrets to her funeral pyre.

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Our man from China

January 19th, 2014

 

By Subodh Rana.

 

I knew that there was a lot of merriment at His Holiness the Chiniyia Lama’s residence at Bouddha when my father and his friends, known to us then as the 3 Musketeers, visited him. In those days I wondered how going to an incarnate Lama could result in riotous merry-making with large amounts of chaang the Tibetan-style millet wine being imbibed until the wee ours of the morning. One of the musketeers Maharajkumar Mussorie Shumsher, son of Maharaj Dev Shumsher known to history as the liberal one, was the person who introduced my father to the Chiniya Lama and a steady bevy of western beauties circling the Lama for both the proximity to divinity and free booze. The other musketeer Honourable Lalit Chand the serving Chairman of the Rashtrya Panchayat, the unitary political system King Mahendra created to replace a chaotic democracy, was probably a reluctant member of the troika given the sensitivity his high post warranted.

 

3rd Chiniya Lama Punya Bajra with western initiates

Over a century and a half ago Maharajah Jung Bahadur Rana concluded a Peace Treaty with the warring Tibetans at his Thapathali Durbar. It was a glorious moment when Nepal reversed its humiliating defeat at the hands of the Chinese half a century earlier when the defeated Tibetans were rescued by their Chinese overlords and drove the “barbarian” Gurkhalis all the way to Nuwakot! Today a large delegation of fearsome looking Tibetans had arrived to grant back Nepal her trading privileges and vouchsafe security to her traders on the long and arduous route to Lhasa. Jung needed a translator whose command of both languages would not leave any ambiguity on Nepal’s demands and possible future prevarication on the part of the Tibetans. He turned to His Holiness the Chiniya Lama.

 

Empress Cixi

The first Chiniya Lama, Taipo Shing, was a Szechuanese Nyingmapa Buddhist abbot who settled in Boudha after coming to Nepal on a pilgrimage. He was a relative of the powerful Empress Cixi of the Manchu Qing dynasty ruling China. He became the main Lama or Guru at the Boudhanath complex which had by his time acquired the status of an independent city inside a state, much like The Vatican. He was respected and revered by the believers and the non-believers alike. It was to him Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana turned to at the time of this dire need as his courtiers were not proficient enough in Tibetan and Chinese languages.

Jung Bahadur Rana welcomed the Lama in his Thapathali Durbar before the arrival of the Tibetan delegation. He was struck by the wizened visage of this holy man perched on an athletic body and marvelled at how he commanded such devotional following among his flock. Jung Bahadur started ruminating about an alliance with him that went beyond just the translation of texts but to a deeper channel of diplomacy with the Chinese Empire. An idea struck Jung that made him smile to himself at the simplicity of its conception.

 

Batuli Maharani of Jung Bahadur Rana

Batuli Maharani was one of his concubines, a bhotini who hailed from Helambu in the foothills of the Himalayas. While on a horseback inspection of the district Jung was struck by her youthful good looks and her well endowed frame and had given her a nickname Batuli or “Rotund”. He had taken her as his wife and she had given him two girls in quick succession. Jung decided to give one of his girls in matrimony to the Chiniya Lama.

The Treaty of Thapathali was signed amidst great fanfare in March, 1856 A.D. It was a singular achievement for Jung Bahadur Rana as it gave Nepal a great advantage in trading with Tibet erasing the unfair terms dictated by a victorious Chinese army during the time of Regent Bahadur Shah. The Chiniya Lama played a great role in mediating with the Tibetans. He was conferred with the Abbotship of Bouddha. The Lama wisely accepted the offer of Jung Bahadur’s daughter in marriage. He remembered the tradition of Nepalese monarchs offering their princesses in marriage to Tibetan kings and how these alliances had helped keep a tenuous peace between the neighbours.

Now I have understood why the descendants of the 1st Chiniya Lama welcomed his Rana friends including my father with such gusto. He knew all along the marital relationship between his forebears and Maharajah Jung Bahadur Rana of Nepal.

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A tale of two cities in Jung Bahadur’s life and times

January 1st, 2014

 

By Subodh Rana.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way–in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.” Charles Dickens, from “A Tale of Two Cities”.



I have always been curious to find out what Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana of Nepal might have seen and heard during his storied visit to London and Paris in 1850 A.D. The European powers, especially Great Britain, were at the zenith of their expansionist adventures overseas. The sun never set over the British Empire under Queen Victoria. France had overcome the debacle of Napoleon Bonaparte’s misadventures in Europe and was content in expanding its foreign holdings and sending their colonists to Algeria.



The paddle steamer Ripon chartered from Peninsular & Oriental (P&O) Steam Navigation Company at Alexandria carrying Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana of Nepal and his entourage docked at the port of Southampton on 25th of May 1850. News had already spread of the cholera epidemic that rocked the city killing 240 people the previous year and Jung had warned his Nepalese contingent to be very careful of what they ate and drank. He was safe in the thought that for himself he had brought with him huge barrels of Ganga Jal holy water from the Ganges for drinking and for his ablutions. For upper class Hindus taking water from overseas was anathema. The port was a transit point only as the railway that had come to Southampton just two decades earlier was going to take them to London their final destination.

Almost immediately Jung Bahadur met his first challenge: British Customs wanted to check all the personal effects of Jung and his brothers. Jung was furious. On whose authority did the British dare to rifle through his personal effects, after all wasn’t he the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the monarch of the independent Kingdom of Nepal invited by the British Queen? The authorities soon relented and gave his entourage a waiver in light of the diplomatic faux pas a stand-off might have generated: Jung had threatened to turn around and head for France!



Arriving in London Jung was met at Victoria Terminus and he rode in a carriage to Richmond Terrace his abode during his sojourn. The mansion was befitting a royal guest with a beautiful garden overlooking the River Thames. Maharajah Jung was duly impressed by the imposing buildings central London already boasted in 1850: Buckingham Palace, Nelson’s Column, Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. It reminded him of his earlier visit to Calcutta, the city British rule had slowly transformed from Mughal heritage to the mirror image of the British capital. However he was appalled to see the grime and filth in the byways and alleyways and the desperation of beggars and urchins in abundance. Amidst all the splendour Jung brooded that the society he wanted to study at close hand and emulate for his mountain kingdom was neither free nor fair.

On one of his horseback ride through Green Park he saw a group of people in animated discussion. He found out that they were members of a trade union agitating for better pay. This bemused Jung to the point of sadness. He empathized with the downtrodden as his own life had seen its depths of deprivation following the ouster of his maternal grand-uncle Prime Minister Bhimshen Thapa. He wanted to find out more as his curiosity always got the better of him whenever an intellectual challenge posed itself. He had read to him translation of the Manifesto of The Communist Party propounded by two Germans by the names of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in 1847 just 3 years earlier. Jung could not fully comprehend what this was all about but it gave him further determination to create the Muluki Ain Civil Code for Nepal as soon as he returned home. Without it he knew that these strange, nonsensical ideas would pervade his land too.

Buckingham Palace had just been completed and Queen Victoria was the first monarch to live there. Jung was discomfited by the news that the queen had just delivered a son and she was going to spend a few more weeks resting before giving an audience to the Nepalese prime minister. Jung was impatient to meet the famous monarch who reigned over half the world.

 

Queen Victoria gave her first audience to Jung Bahadur Rana on the 19th of June at St. James’ Palace at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Jung Bahadur’s joy knew no bounds as he was heralded into the parlour along with his two brothers Jagat Shumsher and Dhir Shumsher where the queen and the Prince Consort were waiting. Jung bowed and presented the credentials from the King of Nepal to the queen. “There is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries,” wrote Shakespeare in Julius Caesar. Only a few years back Jung’s career was going nowhere but he had taken fate in his own hands during the Kot Massacre and now he felt like he was in a dream.

Napoleon Bonaparte was the man most admired by Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana. If the British back-stabbed him, he could always seek support of the French as he knew that there was no love lost between the two empire builders. That is the reason why from the inception of his grand voyage he had kept France in his itinerary. France had lost its hero, Jung reflected, just as Nepal had lost another – Bhimsen Thapa his maternal grand-uncle. Now he was being hosted by the hero’s own nephew Louis Bonaparte, the president of France. The proximity to Bonaparte thrilled Jung to the core of his being.



The revolution of 1848 A.D. had overthrown the rule of the Orleans monarchy and the Second Republic had been established under the presidency of Louis Napoleon. Jung reflected on the state of affairs back home, on how he had foiled the ambition of the Junior Queen and made sure King Surendra remained on the throne. He knew that the weak king needed his guidance and protection.  In France the conservative nephew of the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte had gained ascendancy within the revolutionary movement by marginalizing the working classes. After returning to Nepal Jung would get the news just a year later in 1851 that the president had dissolved the National Assembly and crowned himself Emperor Napoleon III of France. Jung was astonished to find the so called enlightened Europe embracing monarchy once again as the revolutionaries could not find a common ground to move politics ahead. He had sent his missives of hearty congratulations to Paris to the person who had presented him with the Sword of Napoleon, the jewel in the crown of his European souvenirs.



Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana regaled in the military history of France. The Tuileries, Hotel des Invalides and the mausoleum of Napoleon, Champs-Elysees and Arc de Triomphe were the obligatory landmarks and Louis Napoleon himself guided Jung Bahadur in his visits. He visited the Cathedral of Notre-Dame where Napoleon was crowned in 1804. Jung Bahadur witnessed military parades the pomp and splendour of which he could not have ever imagined! The grand palace at Versailles was breathtaking to behold.

Jung Bahadur was convinced that he would have to take the Raj as his ally as the European colonizers were simply too powerful to oppose. This was in the best interest of Nepal. He had to move the country forward by promulgating the much needed Civil Code. He was going to abolish the centuries old practices of slavery and Sati, the burning of widows. He was going to fight against the belief in superstitions and promote science and logic. He had to build a strong military to protect Nepal’s sovereignty. He had learnt these lessons from the tale of two cities.



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The Dowager Maharani Strikes Again

August 24th, 2013

 

By Subodh Rana.

 

“It is a curse to live to be this old”, the dowager maharani reflected to herself. Her woebegone days were here to stay with her; would she have had the honor of committing sati after the death of her beloved husband Maharajah Jung Bahadur Rana this nightmare would be over! She had not accompanied the maharajah in that fateful last hunt as she was mourning the loss of her son. Alas, her only son Baber Jung, a favorite of Jung, had passed away in the prime of his life. It was bad enough to not be able to see properly, to be wracked by arthritic pain in all her joints, to even have to bear the loss of her foster son Maharajah Bir Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana after 21 years in power, but to see the old alliances of her adversaries again emerging in Nepali politics was something the dowager maharani could not stomach. She was still alive she reminded herself and what she had started out as her life’s ambition of installing Bir Shumsher on the gadhi of Kaski and Lamjung and prime ministership of Nepal by side-lining her step-sons Jagat Jung and Jeet Jung and their families might unravel now with Maharajah Dev Shumsher in power. She had to act quickly.

 

The young Putali Maharani

Putali Maharani the dowager queen personally liked Dev Shumsher as he was apolitical, he was used to luxuries his siblings could only dream of and he was harmless. Dev was brought up by Commanding General Krishna Bahadur Rana’s widow, the wife of the third brother of Maharajah Jung Bahadur. Dev’s father Dhir Shumsher, the youngest of the Jung brothers, had a large family of 17 sons and numerous daughters who needed looking after. Dev had the good fortune of being raised in this rich household, among the elite of the Rana nomenclature of the time. He did not experience the deprivation of his siblings. None of his brothers trusted him as a result. In fact while planning the coup d’état of 1885 A.D. to oust Maharajah Ranoddip Singh, reflected Putali Maharani, she had strictly forbidden Bir and his brothers from divulging the plot to Dev.

Dev Shumsher and his first wife with sons, Juddha is sitting on the right of Karma Kumari, his foster mother

Karma Kumari the first wife of Dev Shumsher was a royal princess from the house of Rolpa and Mugu in western Nepal. She was a kind-hearted person and she was very generous to her husband’s less fortunate siblings. She raised one of his youngest brothers Juddha Shumsher as her own since his father had passed away at a young age. Unfortunately she herself passed away in 1895 A.D. Perhaps this situation would not have arisen had she been alive today, mused the dowager maharani ruefully. Dev had married his second wife Krishna Kumari in 1896 A.D. and she was now the maharani. She belonged to the royal household, a junior princess from one of the wives of His Majesty King Surendra Bikram Shah. Therein lay the problem thought Putali Maharani. She wanted nothing to do with the Royal Palace.

 

On the instigation of his maharani Maharajah Dev had starting making overtures to the families of the exiled sons of Maharajah Jung Bahadur Rana. Some had been given back their confiscated property; some had been given civilian posts in the far-flung territories away from Kathmandu. Chandra Shumsher and his younger brothers started to feel threatened by these moves of Dev. They were afraid that their power bases would be eroded and the Royal sympathies for the unfortunate ousted families of Jung Bahadur tied to them by holy matrimony would make them re-emerge in the Nepalese court. Putali Maharani was aware of the intrigues in the court. Hadn’t she been Putali nani, a mere palace maid, in the tumultuous days of weak King Rajendra Bikram Shah when three power bases vied against one another?

 

She had been the informer for her lover Jung Bahadur Rana and leaked to him all the cries and whispers from within the walls of Narayan Hiti Palace. Jung had rewarded her by taking him as his wife after he assumed power following the Kot Massacre. Forces allied to the palace and to Queen Rajya Luxmi would never forgive Putali her treachery. But Putali was safe as long as Maharajah Jung Bahadur was alive. Of all the wives of Jung – some he married for political alliances, some due to hubris that comes from power and position, some to give him male progeny – Putali Maharani was his favourite and he loved his doll putali, the most. In Jung’s Thapathali Durbar complex a whole garden was named after her – Putali Bagaicha. She squinted at the garden from her terrace where she was still living, now worse for the wear with long neglect. Tears of her loss welled up in the eyes of the dowager queen and a drop coursed down the craggy contour of her once porcelain cheek.

 

Maharani Krishna Kumari came from the same Royal Palace, the sworn enemy of the dowager queen. Dev had started his moves to rehabilitate her nemesis, families of her step-children. There was only one thing now left for her to do. She must quickly ask Chandra and his brothers not to forget the legacy of her foster son Maharajah Bir Shumsher and roll back the wrong moves of Maharajah Dev. She was determined that Dev Shumsher must be asked to step down and exiled before he did further damage. The dowager maharani decided to summon Chandra.

 

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Jung Bahadur Rana And The Dancing Damsels – The Sojourn In France

August 4th, 2013

 

 

 

 



 

By Subodh Rana.

Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana left England for France with a rich treasure trove of memories and an ambition his experiences in Britain had fueled for his own poor and backward nation. He was heartbroken too as he had to leave behind his paramour Laura Bell. Far from the complexities of ruling a highly destabilized country coming so soon after the tumultuous Kot and Bhandarkhal episodes, Jung had truly relaxed in England and had grown fond of the young Irish lass. He wanted to stay longer but the situation back home was unfavourable. Jung was seething with anger that his brother Bom Bahadur who he left behind as officiating prime minister had not been able to take a firm grip on the affairs of state. Even in faraway England he got reports that his enemies were again trying to rear their ugly heads, he would have to smite them with the power of his ingenuity once more. He knew he could not trust his ambitious third brother Badri Narsingh and the one after that Ranoddip was an indecisive weakling. How he wished his youngest brother Dhir, now a colonel in charge of his retinue, was older. Dhir was Jung’s favorite brother.

Jung Bahadur had decided to cut short his European sojourn by leaving Germany and Imperial Russia for a second visit. France was all that he would be able to manage for now. He was an ardent fan of Napoleon Bonaparte who Jung believed forged a great nation out of the quagmire of the French Revolution. Jung Bahadur Rana had started to model himself after the great conqueror to make Nepal united and strong. He also knew that he might have to forge a stronger relationship with the French should the British back stab him and break the treaty signed at Sugauly in 1816 AD. Jung was born a year later. As a small wide-eyed lad Jung had sat on his maternal grand uncle Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa’s laps and listened to stories of the Anglo-Nepal Wars with tears of frustration and humiliation streaming down the old man’s face. Jung had taken a solemn oath that he would never allow Nepal to be further drawn and quartered during his watch. Jung was thus delighted that he would be meeting the nephew of the great man himself to forge ties! Prince Louis Bonaparte had been elected the first President of France in 1848 A.D. and now, two years later, Jung was being feted with state honours by such an historic personality.

 

Jung Bahadur being welcomed by the French President

Jung Bahadur Rana crossed the English Channel and landed at Calais and took a train to Paris. He was received with pomp and splendour. The French government had prepared Hotel Le Senat for the prime minister and his retinue to stay while they were in France. Jung was a man in a hurry: he knew France had a lot in store for him and he went about soaking in the sights and sounds with unmitigated zeal; from the Tuileries to Versailles, from the mausoleum of Napoleon at Hotel des Invalids to the Arc de Triumph commemorating his victories. Many times he was accompanied by the president’s cousin Joseph Charles Bonaparte. Nothing was too elaborate or too contrived for Jung. He wished to take a salute from an army of one hundred thousand soldiers marching past in their finest regalia, a wish that was put off for the time being as the French President was afraid of amassing such an army in Paris fearing an accident.

Jardin Mabille was the place gentlemen discreetly went to see the courtesans and the dancing girls. It was the center of fashion and a garden of pleasure. Gorgeously dressed high society ladies bedecked in fine jewellery were seen promenading. There was music, gaiety and a circus. Jung Bahadur did not demur when his kind hosts suggested that he visit this place with such a wild reputation. It was a matter of “noblesse oblige” for the eastern potentate whose reputation of profligacy had crossed the English Channel before him. What Jung did not anticipate was that there might be a few more Laura Bell wannabes waiting in ambush.

 

Lola Montez

Here we take off on another trajectory to introduce Lola Montez. She was the lover of King Ludwig I of Bavaria whose relationship had attributed to the king’s fall from grace and exile. Lola Montez was the self-styled Spanish dancer who had bewitched the Continent by her scintillating “spider” dance. Little did people know that she was actually an Irish lass born Eliza Gilbert. Wherever she went people fell for her beauty and charm. She was at the Jardin Mabille that afternoon when Jung Bahadur arrived as she was performing at the Bal Mabille, an institute of dance founded in 1831 AD. She coquettishly approached Jung Bahadur while he was practicing his shooting at a range. The chivalrous Jung saw the young beauty and offered her his gun to shoot. Lola took the gun and accidentally pulled the trigger, the bullet hitting the thigh of Colonel Dhir Shumsher. The wound was not a serious one and Jung laughed out loud in a guffaw, the accident was considered a minor episode in the larger design of things to follow. Jung Bahadur was smitten by the twenty nine year old Lola.

 

Lola Montez, Spider Dancerwww.youtube.com/watch?v=1n-98aBkdiY‎

An affair followed to the chagrin of Jung’s retinue including his brothers Jagat and Dhir who thought it best to hush it. Henceforth, wherever Jung visited Lola was not far behind. In a short while she was already a part of Jung’s Nepalese contingent. It was rumored that Lola spoke broken Hindi, perhaps her parents had served in India, which made Jung’s conversation with her less tiring than with Laura Bell. Jung had a lighter step henceforth.

 

Fanny Cerrito, ballet dancer

Jung Bahadur was invited to the famous ballet running at the time, “Le Violon du Diable”. The dancing star was the famous Fanny Cerrito, the Italian ballerina much sought after by ballet aficionados of the period. She had started her career in Naples in 1832 and then danced from the Russian Imperial court at St. Petersburg to a command performance of Queen Victoria in London. To the delight of the dancer and surprise of the hosts, Jung Bahadur presented a baju bracelet studded with expensive jewels to the star dancer. Tongues started wagging.

But all good things had to come to an end and after spending two delightful months of August and September 1850 A.D. in France, Jung finally set sail from Marseilles to Alexandria. From his historic visit he brought back European manners and mores, their architecture, the Civil Code (Muluki Ain), and a conviction that Nepal must look outward and transform itself into a great regional powerhouse. Or else Jung concluded, watching the Egyptian coastline slowly appear over the horizon, the Gorkhalis would be history just as the Pharaohs of Egypt had become.

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The Maharajah’s Retreat

July 21st, 2013

 

By Subodh Rana.

 

Maharajah Juddha’s Manor House

I am writing about the time Bodhnath was the only structure standing and miles around it there was free space and farming land. Somewhere in the vicinity people say was the storied Kailash Kuti Bhawan, the palace of the Licchavi rulers of Nepal. It was from this palace that King Amsuvarma had given his daughter Bhrikuti in marriage to the Tibetan king. The Chinese chronicler Huen Tsang arriving in the Kathmandu Valley in the 7th century praised it as the most magnificent building he had seen, a remarkable observation coming from someone who arrived on his pilgrimage from Xian, the capital of the Middle Kingdom and the most opulent city in the whole world at the time. What became of the palace one can only conjecture but whatever might have happened to it did not happen to the magnificent Bodhnath Stupa gathering a million dew drops on its wide dome to quench the thirst of the drought afflicted populace as legend has us believe.

Even in the sixties Bodhnath was standing tall with its golden spire glistening in the morning light for people to behold and be blessed from miles around it. The exiled Tibetans had made it their focal point of national longing. Although the Dalai Lama had made Dharamshala in India his abode, many other spiritual leaders and incarnate lamas made Bodhnath their spiritual Mecca. Lama Yeshey came here from Darjeeling with a newly ordained monk, the American erstwhile actress and hippie Zina Rachevsky.

Recently I had the unexpected pleasure of visiting the sanctuary where Zina and the Lama made their home while planning the project of building the Kopan Monastery. Teenchuli Durbar as it was known was the retreat of Maharajah Juddha Shumsher of Nepal. Located at a commanding vantage point the maharajah could secure the blessing of Bodhnath every morning during his prayers even as his soldiers could secure him from worldly adversaries. Juddha had acquired the property from a langada karnel, a lame colonel, who had built the main structure in 1859 A.D. that is still extant today. Perhaps the colonel was a war hero who returned with Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana from the Mutiny with the proverbial Lucknow loot. Could he have been the legendary Colonel Gambir Singh Rayamajhi who single-handedly captured an enemy cannon though severely wounded?

 

Langada Karnel’s house built in 1859 A.D.

Probably derelict and decrepit by the sixties I can imagine why the property attracted Zina and her Lamas. The wide expanse of the grounds with its main manor house built by Juddha, his cow sheds, horse stables, garages for cars and an enigmatic structure with three turrets but of no useful function conceivable from which the durbar got its name, was a perfect hideaway for meditation and from prying eyes. And Bodhnath was close by.

Others equally fascinating have used the property in its long journey to the custody of the present owners. One tenant would not allow even a bag of cement to come inside the property, so well enamoured was she by the brick and mud walls 3 ft. deep, by the wooden floors and beamed ceilings. Another tenant was Tom Pritzker who stayed there incognito perhaps planning for the big hotel nearby until people found out that he was the chairman of Hyatt Corp. and listed in Forbe’s Fortune 500! The present owners want to develop a hotel there too and Oh! what a jolly good idea! With 33 ropanis of land the property would offer ample space for a mid-size heritage hotel with a perfect mix of Rana history and Buddhist spiritualism. It could one day replace the storied Kailash Kuti Bhawan of the Licchavi rulers as one of the awesome landmarks in the valley.

 

Teenchuli, what was its function?

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The Refugee Queen – Nepal’s Sikh Connection

July 2nd, 2013

 

By Subodh Rana.

 

Young Queen Jindan Kaur of the Punjab

The last queen of the Punjab had finally reunited with her son in England. Reclining on her divan in the balcony of her Lancaster Gate residence she squinted at the hazy expanse of Kensington Gardens sprawling before her and reflected on the dizzying cycle of kismet she had encountered in life. Daughter of a kennel keeper of Maharajah Ranjit Singh, Jindan Kaur was a classic beauty with brains and had in course of time climbed up the proverbial ladder of the court and ended up in the bed of the king. She had been proclaimed a maharani and a son born of her would be in the line to the throne! After Ranjit Singh’s death and a few years of instability her son eventually had been crowned the king of the Punjab in 1843 A.D. at a tender age of five and she, Jindan, had been proclaimed the Queen Regent. After this crowning glory of her life however her ascendant fortune had started to unravel quickly.

The East India Company was hell bent on annexing her kingdom and in one pretext or another had started two wars with the Sikhs and both times bested her armies due to traitors in her ranks and finally annexed her kingdom in 1849 A.D. and deposed Maharajah Duleep Singh, her ten year old son. The world famous Koh-i-Noor diamond was seized. Maharani Jindan Kaur had been deemed a dangerous trouble maker, “Messalina of the Punjab” Governor-General Lord Hardinge had called her alluding to the ruthless and promiscuous third wife of Roman Emperor Claudius, and she had been imprisoned in one place or the other until finally she had been moved to the high security historical Chunar Fort near Varanasi. She thought it ironical that now she was in England and her erstwhile enemy was her protector!

Painting of Chunar Fort

Her eye-sight was going and she always felt a permanent cold in her bones that would probably only get worse in wet and dreary England. She remembered the biting cold of Kathmandu Valley during winter that had progressively ruined her health and dried and wrinkled her beautiful complexion. She was still good looking in spite of all those years spent as a refugee in Nepal but the striking beauty that had enraptured the aging Maharajah was all but gone. She could not blame her present plight solely on those terrible years in Nepal, away from her son and her court, her bountiful Punjab since she was eternally grateful to Maharajah Jung Bahadur Rana for giving her refuge against the wish of the mighty Company. She marveled at the pluck of the Nepalese ruler and frequently compared his courage to that of her husband Ranjit Singh, the Lion of Punjab! But the allure would fade, she sighed.

Portrait of Maharani Jindan Kaur commissioned in England

It was back in 1849, after 2 years of imprisonment in the formidable Chunar Fort, that she had tried a ruse and escaped right in front of her gaoler and his gora saheb. She had wrapped herself in the poor sweeper’s khadi sari while decking the protesting woman in her maharani garb, bejewelled and all, and left her in the cell shivering from fear while she veiled herself and walked out to her uncertain future beyond the walls of the fort. She had nowhere to go but her faith had commanded her to go to the Himalayas, the very place where the first guru of the Sikhs Guru Nanak himself had gone to find solace in meditation. She had heard those stories at the court. A Nepalese king of the Malla dynasty had not been sound of mind and he had come to India seeking the healing powers of Guru Nanak. Cured of his affliction the grateful king had invited the guru to come and establish a ‘muth’ in Nepal and the guru had accepted and accompanied the king and his royal entourage to the kingdom.

Guru Nanak’s footprint on a stone tablet

 

Temple dedicated to Guru Nanak near Balaju

After a formidable journey across the raging Ganges, her tributaries and the dense jungles of the Nepalese foothills abounding in dangerous predators and infested by malaria, Queen Jindan Kaur  arrived in Kathmandu Valley as a guest of the Thapathali Durbar of Maharajah Jung Bahadur Rana. She would remain there eleven long years until 1860 A.D. Jung Bahadur had given permission to build a small Gurudwara in her compound at the Thapathali Durbar complex and her initial years were spent in prayers and charity. The Nepalese had affectionately given her a local nickname, Chanda Kunwar, in recognition of her contribution. However her longing for her beloved Punjab and her son Maharajah Duleep Singh, already living in England since 1854 A.D., gnawed at the very fabric of her being. She wanted to act, she wanted to raise another army and fight the British but in the confines of Thapathail Durbar she was helpless. She pleaded with Maharajah Jung Bahadur to join her in the task of liberating her homeland but to no avail. Then in 1857 A.D. came the cruelest blow to her long held determination to one day get rid of the British: Maharajah Jung Bahadur Rana had decided to assist the British during the Sepoy Mutiny instead of siding with the Indian freedom movement. Maharani Jindan Kaur felt betrayed and she was shattered. She started to lose her eye-sight.

She was reasonably happy today reflected Maharani Jindan Kaur as providence had made her unite again with her son in Calcutta and she was allowed to set sail for England with him in 1861 A.D. She was living comfortably in London with her privy purse restored but she was in poor health and nearly blind. She did not have long to live. She longed to return to India but the British would not allow it. In her heart of hearts she knew that she would not see her beloved Punjab ever again.

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The Quaint And The Curious Practices Of Yore

June 25th, 2013

 

by Subodh Rana.

Just over two decades back if you happened to be in the center of Kathmandu city around mid-day you would likely get a near heart-attack when suddenly a loud canon fire deafened and rocked you. It was liberal minded Maharajah Dev Shumsher reminding the denizens that the morning had given way to afternoon. It was harmless as the canons fired empty shells, only later during the Peoples’ War did we associate loud bangs with evil intention and twisted metal. It is hard to establish the exact reason why such a quaint custom was instituted by the administration of Maharajah Dev in 1901 A.D. but giving the population a perspective on time might be the reason: a reminder that the notorious “Nepali Time” was not good enough for the dawning of the modern era. The practice was discontinued only in 1989 A.D.

“Gauchar” airport got its name because it was a gigantic pastureland for cattle. Farmers from far and wide brought their cattle for grazing there and the grazing continued even after the pastureland became an air-strip with the opening up of Nepal. The civil aviation authority employed professional herders to clear the field for aircrafts to land and take-off. Loud siren blared to announce an incoming aircraft and the herders quickly cleared the field of cattle. The siren still rings in my ears as often times, in the sixties, I would be accompanying my father on the golf course at the Royal Nepal Golf Club nearby. It is quite a far cry from the radar fitted and tarmacked Tribhuvan International Airport but even today, once in a while, the airport security can be seen giving chase to an intruding pie dog that finds itself stranded in the middle of the runway!

An Indian Airline DC3 on the Gauchar pastureland

Recently Bull Fighting got a good coverage in the local press as the age old tradition of pitting one raging bull against another in Nuwakot came into limelight. This tradition is said to be at least 200 years old. There are no matadors like in Spain goring the bulls to a sanguinary death. When one bull tires and loses the contest is stopped. During my childhood I remember this tradition was carried on in Kathmandu itself in Sano Tundikhel or the small Tundikhel that has since morphed into the National Stadium. The Shah kings must have brought this tradition into the valley from their perch in Gorkha and Nuwakot and remained here through much of our history. I don’t know when exactly but I think it was in the early sixties that these bull flights were discontinued.



Cars arrived in Kathmandu Valley up the mountain passes from Bhimphedi on the back of porters. There was no motorable road into the valley and inside it there were just a few kilometers of road wide enough for driving up and down Kathmandu and Patan. The Rana rulers of Nepal started importing vehicles for their own use and for the use of the King. The first cars were imported during the time of Maharajah Chandra Shumsher at the turn of the last century. The Mercedes Benz gifted by Adolf Hitler to Maharajah Juddha Shumsher in 1939 A.D., part of a diplomatic overture to influence Nepal to stay out of WWII, was also carried in this manner to Kathmandu. It was probably carried out of the valley by porters when Juddha retired and left for Dehradun, India via Argheli.

Iconic picture of a forties Austin car being carried into the Kathmandu Valley on back of porters

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Destiny’s Victims, Fall Of A Dynasty

June 1st, 2013

 

By Subodh Rana.

 

The booming cannon volleys heralding Nepal’s transformation to a republic for the 5th year running woke me up from my deep slumber even as the motley crew of the canine population of our neighborhood started their protests in a hideous cacophony of yelps and barks, growls and howls. Staring outside my window I was transported to another time, another place.

The cannons boomed seventeen salutes to the person who had just been re-installed in the Roll of Succession in the Rana rule of Nepal. General Jagat Jung Bahadur Rana watched the cannon salute from his palace at Manohara Durbar with a telescope he had imported from England. From his vantage point he, Jagat, could watch the whole of Thapathali Durbar his father’s palace where he grew up, Tundikhel the vast parade ground, the spire of Dharahara built by Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa and the three eyes painted on the stupa atop a hill beyond Kathmandu city. He felt that justice had been finally done as he was the rightful heir of Maharajah Jung Bahadur Rana his illustrious father and to the legacy he had bestowed on his progeny – the title of Maharajah of Kaski and Lamjung. By a quirk of fate the succession to the post of prime minister however had gone to Jung’s successive younger brothers in recognition of their solidarity and support during the Kot Massacre of 1846 A.D. Jagat felt cheated. He had always questioned why Jung had not given him the prime ministerial berth too. He was another titled king second in importance to the King of Nepal and both did not have any executive power which resided with the prime minister. However, as his only remaining uncle Ranauddip Singh was the prime minister now, Jagat was next in line.

Maharajah Jung Bahadur with sons Jagat (on his right) and Jeet

Jagat knew that he had nearly blown it. In his haste he had conspired to unseat his uncle and take his post with royal backing as he was married to the princess royal. Unfortunately the plot was uncovered and his resolute uncle Commander-in-Chief Dhir Shumsher had struck him off the Roll of Succession, stripped him off his title of maharajah and banished him to British India. His co-conspirator Prince Narendra shared the same fate. All this was history now as, after his uncle Dhir’s death, he had succeeded in getting re-installed in the Roll of Succession with the support of Maharani Hari Priya Devi his aunt. Oh! how he hated his Shumsher cousins and he vowed to take revenge after assuming power. What he did not know was that the Shumshers were brewing their own plot and that they would be the first to strike!

The twenty second of November 1885 A.D. dawned bright and the winter sun brought warmth that Jagat hoped would alleviate the untimely arthritic pain the 38 year old was suffering from. Manohara Durbar, the lavishly built palace that came as a dowry from King Surendra, needed better housekeeping. Things had started to fall apart since his banishment to Calcutta with his maharani, the daughter of King Surendra Bikram Shah Dev. His 24 year old son born of the princess royal Commanding General Juddha Pratap Jung had shifted to his grandfather’s Thapathali Durbar with his wives and small children. This was another reason why the palace started to wear a desolate look. Juddha Pratap was born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth. Grandson of both His Majesty King Surendra and Maharajah Jung Bahadur, “Nati Jarnel” Juddha Pratap Jung was given the title of General of the Nepalese Army at birth, perhaps the first in the history of the world! Maharajah Jung Bahadur had placed the 7 year old boy in the Roll of Succession in 1868 A.D. superseding many of his uncles. The twenty second of November would end in nightmare.

 

Right to Left, C-in-C Dhir Shumsher, Jeet Jung, Padma Jung, Ranabir Jung, Juddha Pratap Jung in order of Roll of Succession during the time of Maharjah Ranauddip Singh, circa 1882 A.D.

Unbeknownst to the father and son – Jagat Jung and Juddha Pratap – who had both gone to bed early in their respective abodes Prime Minister Ranauddip Singh was assassinated that night. Early next morning the heralds of death approached them on swift horseback. Jagat Jung was shot dead when he tried to run away from his palace. Juddha Pratap Jung was in the company of his uncles General Padma Jung and General Ranabir Jung hastily proceeding to the British Residency to seek asylum and safe passage into India when alas, unlike his uncles, he had forgotten to bring jewellery and other precious items in his possession that would guarantee him a semblance of luxury outside Nepal. He went back for them. On his way to the residency camouflaged as a jyapu farmer he was nabbed at today’s Army Headquarter’s private road leading to Bhadrakali on the Tukucha bridge. Apocryphal stories tell about the big diamond ear-rings that glittered on his ears and his faithful cocker spaniel following him that gave him away. He was shot and beheaded by a zealous subaltern eager to prove himself to the new masters and collect a reward.

Bir Singh Tamang a brave and faithful ‘dadaa‘ minder of children managed to whisk the wives and children of Juddha Pratap Jung to safety by way of Banepa and Batase Danda. His two pregnant ranis gave successive births to healthy boys on the run. Their children’s children would one day get 50 Ropanis of land in Manohara Durbar compound for compensation as destiny’s victims from the Nepalese government after the Supreme Court recognized their rightful claim. That is another story!

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The Shumsher Supremacy

May 14th, 2013

By Subodh Rana.

The news traveled quickly on galloping horseback in the chilly November night; it was relayed with cupped hands next to alarmed ears from house to house, street corner to street corner. Maharajah Ranauddip Singh had been assassinated and those on the Roll of Succession were the next target. Once powerful sons of Maharajah Jung Bahadur Rana would be hounded and hunted like common criminals in the unfolding saga of Rana rule in Nepal.

The root of discontent within the ruling clan was the advocacy of Maharani Hari Priya Devi in favour of General Jagat Jung Bahadur Rana, the eldest son of the illustrious Maharajah Jung Bahadur, now dead. She was in favor of pardoning Jagat, known as “Mukhiya Jarnel”, and bringing him back from exile and restoring him to the Roll of Succession to the post of prime minister and Maharajah of Kaski and Lamjung. Her hen-pecked husband and uncle of Jagat Jung Maharajah Ranauddip Singh was the prime minister of Nepal. Although nephew Jagat had plotted to overthrow him and usurp his post with the help of royalists, Ranauddip was in two minds. Should he listen to the nagging Hari Priya his consort or to his nephews, the sons of his younger brother Commander-in-Chief Dhir Shumsher, the pillar of strength behind his regime? He recalled how Dhir had acted decisively in stripping Jagat of his titles and exiling him to India after his nefarious plot was discovered. At many times he hoped he had died before Dhir’s sudden death in 1884 A.D. He did not have the strength of character required to arbitrate between the warring factions. He preferred his bhakti, religious rites and hymn singing to governing.

 

Maharajah Ranauddip Singh and Maharani

The dithering Maharajah Ranauddip Singh finally made the fatal decision that would convulse Nepal soon after. He agreed to pardon Jagat Jung, restore him to the Roll of Succession and bring him back to Kathmandu and to his magnificent Manohara Durbar. No sooner had he returned Jagat started to play politics. Not only was he feared and loathed by the Shumsher clan but also despised by his own brothers including Commander-in-Chief Jeet Jung, the next in line to succeed Maharajah Ranauddip Singh. In fact Jeet was pretty sure that something terrible was going to happen so he removed himself to the safety of British India and resided in Benaras before the coup d’état of November, 1885 A.D.

What happened that November night has passed into folklore. Four brothers had stealthily gone to Narayanhiti Durbar and killed their uncle the maharajah and prime minister. One brother was sent to drink the night away with Kedar Narsingh Rana the A.D.C. to the prime minister to divert his attention away from the palace. While a whole regiment was stationed just a stone’s throw away, not a soul knew what was going on. The eldest Bir Shumsher was waiting for the cue to take command and crown himself maharajah and prime minister of Nepal.

 

Maharajah Bir with wife and younger brothers who participated in the coup

The news of their uncles’ assassination soon reached the ears of the sons of Maharajah Jung Bahadur Rana. The next in line to the post of prime minister and maharajah of Kaski and Lamjung after Jeet Jung were Commanding General Padma Jung and General Ranabir Jung, half brothers of Jeet. In the dead of night they reached the British Residency to escape the wrath of the Shumsher brothers. General Dhoj Narsingh the adopted son of the assassinated maharajah also sought refuge. Other family members followed. They gathered whatever valuables they could get hold of – gold and silver bullion, jewellery, share certificates in Indian companies – for an uncertain future in exile.

Charles Girdlestone the British Resident in Kathmandu was on leave and Colonel J. C. Berkeley was officiating for the resident that fateful night when people in high positions started swarming the residency. Colonel Berkeley had a small bungalow in the Lodging Part of the residency. He had the presence of mind to open up the residency building and gather the dazed generals and their families in the reception hall. He heard bits and pieces of what might have happened and he gathered that the Shumsher clan had struck. He knew about the rumblings of discontent in the family as after all he was the person who transmitted the news to his political masters in Calcutta that the disgraced Jagat Jung was now allowed to return to Nepal. The colonel knew that his boss was already tired of trying to get concessions from the Rana regime the British government wanted but to no avail. Hence the disenchanted Girdlestone took more and more time off from Kathmandu. This meant Berkeley now had to live in the confines of the residency in this god-forsaken valley as he could not even visit the vicinity of the foothills, far less outside the valley, without the explicit permission of the Rana regime!

Colonel Berkeley had a whole list of things to do starting with seeking permission from Viceroy Hamilton for the refugees to enter India. He wondered how so many of Jung’s family members could make it to the residency without the Shumsher clan apprehending them. Jagat Jung was the main target and not his brothers. Perhaps they were tipped off on purpose? The colonel knew the Shumshers well and even liked them. He marvelled at the Machiavellian nature of the eastern potentates.

Berkeley also wondered what had become of Jagat Jung and his son as they were not among of the refugees.

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Under The Shady Ficus Tree

April 30th, 2013

 

By Subodh Rana.

The ‘Khariko Bot’ Ficus Tree kept watch over a large swathe of meadow land adjacent to the Kathmandu city from times immemorial. It carried on its lonesome presence in the center of this grazing land called Tundikhel, the play ground of the demon called Tundi as legend has us believe. Sometimes sheets of rain lashed against its strong boughs, at other times the blazing summer sun almost melted its will to live. Winter frost froze circulation in its innards when temperature dipped to minus. It dared lightning to strike it but providence spared it this trauma. The Ficus Tree survived the ravages of time in its bid to witness the next big story in the history of Nepal. Because the tree had seen it all!



Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa amassed an army to fight the British in faraway lands the Gurkhas had conquered. He reviewed those troops at Tundikhel from under the canopy of the Ficus Tree. Along the western side of the grounds were long rows of his barracks, close to his new residence Bagh Durbar, the ‘Garden Palace’. After the Kot Massacre Jung Bahadur Rana took the pledge from the army with the blessing of Queen Rajya Luxmi Devi from under the canopy of the same tree in 1846 A.D. He reviewed his armies there before setting off to Lucknow to help the British quell the Indian Mutiny in 1857 A.D.

Sometime thereafter the tree played center stage as rings of masonry tiled by marble were added around its enormous trunk to make it a proper grandstand for military and civilian reviews. After the bloody coup de’tat ousting prime minister Maharajah Ranoddip Singh in 1885 A.D., Bir Shumsher the new maharajah took his oath of office from under the canopy of the Ficus Tree in the presence of the child king Prithivi Bir Bikram Shah. The annual ‘pajani’ or civilian and military appointments were announced by successive Rana prime ministers protected by the boughs of the Ficus Tree. Ancient festivals such as Ghode Jatra, the festival of horses, witnessed masses of the population jostling for a better position to glimpse the horses and riders perform extraordinary equine stunts while the rulers had unimpeded views from the Ficus Tree. The fieu de joi volleys during the occasion of Maha Shivratri were fired from Tundikhel which reverberated across the valley and scattered birds in flight helter skelter from the branches of the Ficus Tree.

Prime Minister Juddha Shumsher announcing Earthquake Relief Fund from under the Ficus Tree

Then the great earthquake struck the valley in 1934 A.D. The homeless were given shelter in the open spaces of Tundikhel as a tent city went up to accommodate tens of thousands. Maharajah Juddha Shumsher the prime minister inspected it all from the grandstand at the Ficus Tree. The rumblings of the coming war in faraway Europe was felt by the Ficus Tree as Nepal prepared an army to send to distant lands to assist the Allied forces. The Victory Parade after World War II was also witnessed by the denizens and Maharajah Juddha gave his victory speech from under the canopy of the Ficus Tree.

Sons of Maharajah Juddha under the Ficus Tree: from left Min, Surendra, Nir, Kiran, Shanta and Rabi

After 1951 A.D. and the ouster of the Rana regime both civilian and military ceremonies were performed at Tundikhel. I remember going there from school several times to smartly march past the grandstand from where the King of Nepal gazed upon his future panchas. One of those times was the last for me to see the grand old ficus tree. Someone decided to chop it down and build the present Army Pavilion in its stead. My father General Kiran Shumsher had already retired from the army as Commander-in-Chief when he would come back from a function at Tundikhel and would ruefully remark that he missed the Khariko Bot. Somehow for him the parades were no longer the same in the absence of the watchful ficus tree.

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A Time To Build Maharajah Bir’s Legacy

April 21st, 2013

 

By Subodh Rana.

The Renaissance that transformed Nepal during the medieval Malla period is attested to by the magnificent royal cities of Kathmandu Valley classified under ‘World Heritage Sites’ by UNESCO. What is perhaps less well known is the neo-classical Renaissance that took place under the prime ministership of Maharajah Bir Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana, 1885-1901 A.D. Unfortunately very few of those buildings remain for us to marvel at due to the vagaries of fortune.

Maharajah Bir Shumsher J. B. Rana with 2 daughters married to King Prithivi Bir Bikram Shah

European style architecture was already prevalent in the palaces the first Rana prime minister Jung Bahadur built after his epochal visit to England in 1850 A.D. Thapathali Durbar had an expansive potpourri of European styles since sections were added on to the original building as the family grew larger and more and more living space was needed until Jung’s death in 1877 A.D. The second Rana prime minister Maharajah Ranauddip Singh too had already built the Narayan Hiti Durbar as his prime ministerial berth by the time Bir Shumsher came to power after the bloody coup d’etat of 1885 A.D.

During Bir’s watch an entire section of Kathmandu north and north-east of the old town of Basantapur leading up to the Narayan Hiti Durbar saw a building spree unparalleled in Nepal’s history till then.  Fabulous palaces were built, each out doing the other. Seto Durbar, Hiti Durbar, Phora Durbar and Lal Durbar captured the imagination of the rulers and the ruled alike as symbols of opulence and perhaps a little decadence. Bir also built the Upper or new Narayan Hiti Durbar and relocated the King from the Malla era Hanuman Dhoka Palace which time and termites had rendered uninhabitable. This building was demolished by King Mahendra circa 1967 A.D. and the modern palace often nicknamed the Railway Station was built in its stead.

Old Narayanhiti Royal Palace built by Bir for the King

What became of those palaces? The palace that is partially extant today having been incorporated into the Yak and Yeti Hotel complex is the Lal Durbar or the Red Palace, the magnificent abode of Maharajah Bir himself. Built in 1890 A.D. the palace, besides serving as the residence of the maharajah, also boasted grand state halls, a theater, aviary and riding stables. Belgian wall mirrors, glass lamps from Murano and Bohemian chandeliers adorned the interiors while Italian marble tiled the floors.

 

Seto Durbar (White Palace) and Lal Durbar (Red Palace) complex of Maharajah Bir

Char Burja Durbar better known today as Bahadur Bhawan was completed by Bir in 1889 A.D. His son Rudra Shumsher lived there until 1934 A.D. when he was removed from the Rana Roll of Succession and the property “nationalized”, an euphemism for the ruling Maharajah usurping it. This is the building which housed the venerated Hotel Royal of Boris Lissanevich and currently houses the Election Commission and the Vice President’s Office. Seto Durbar, the White Palace, was completed in 1890 A.D. This was the place where Bir breathed his last in 1901 A.D. Most of the Annapurna Hotel complex is built on these grounds. The palace was destroyed by fire in April 1933 A.D. (Baisakh 2090 B.S.) allegedly started by an errant hookah presaging a calamitous new year that culminated, people said, in the Great Earthquake of January 15, 1934 A.D. (Magh 2, 2090 B.S.). Phora Durbar was built in 1895 A.D. A large number of gardens with European style fountains adorned the rest home of Bir.

Phora Durbar where today the American Club is located

The original palace in the Keshar Mahal complex was also built during this period and completed around 1892 A.D. and the occupant was one of the sons of Commander-in-Chief Dhir Shumsher and younger brother of Bir, Lt. General Jeet Shumsher J. B. Rana. He later sold it to his brother Maharajah Chandra who demolished the old palace and built a new one for his son Kaiser Shumsher. It has been known as Keshar Mahal since then and has witnessed many changes to make it larger and grander. I am trying to find out its original name.

Hiti Durbar survives today as a skeletal ruin seen south of the Narayan Hiti compound, a symbol of family claims and counter-claims rendering this prime real estate in the heart of Kathmandu insolvent. We have lost a significant part of our history. Only a few buildings of the Rana period survive today as they were converted to important government offices with sufficient budgets allocated for their upkeep. Rana era palaces such as Singha Durbar secretariat building, Rastra Bank building and Sital Niwas, the office and residence of the President of Nepal provide us with but a glimpse of what was. One building of the period survived as it was converted to Shanker Hotel. Bir was a builder par excellence! Lady Fortune that once smiled upon Maharajah Bir Shumsher abandoned his legacy and we are so much the poorer for it.

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The ABC Conundrum

April 9th, 2013

By Subodh Rana.

 

Balkrishna Sama’s portrait of the nine Rana prime ministers, 1846 – 1951 A.D.

 

Nepalese history books tell stories of the nine Rana prime ministers ruling Nepal in unison for 104 years and the family is often depicted and reviled as one monolithic juggernaut that assaulted and consumed the sovereignty of benign kings and their happy, loyal subjects. Nothing could be further from the truth on both counts. Out of the nine one was assassinated, two were unceremoniously removed from the post by their own siblings, one resigned due to internal and external exigencies and the last one was forced to give it all up. But who were those that did not get to wear the “Teen Chand” prime ministerial crown?

I often look at the fading pictures of the family to trace the hierarchy at the times they were taken. The Soviets were famous for cleverly air-brushing out the disgraced party members from chesty pictures of proletarian solidarity. The Ranas just removed them from the frames. The tussle between the Jung clan and the Shumsher clan is common knowledge. The Shumshers gained ascendancy after the coup d’etat of 1885 and the assassination of the hapless prime minister Maharajah Ranoddip Singh, uncle to both the warring factions. Why then was there discord among the members of the Shumsher clan?

The executor of the coup if not the master mind was Lt. General Khadga Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana, the eldest son of Commander-in-chief Dhir Shumsher from his second wife. His elder brother General Bir Shumsher was the only son of Dhir from his first wife and he was actually brought up from an early age in the household of his uncle Maharajah Jung Bahadur after his mother died. Putali Maharani, one of Jung’s wives, was his foster mother. The daring Khadga had taken his younger siblings to the Narayan Hiti Durbar of Prime Minister Ranauddip Singh that fateful night to assassinate the uncle while Bir was nervously waiting in the wings at Bagh Durbar with some of his co-conspirators. Two of the daughters of Jung Bahadur, both married to the children of the royal prince Upendra Bikram, uncle to the king, played a crucial role in the coup. As soon as the news emerged of the assassination, Bir was taken by them to Hanuman Dhoka Royal Palace to have the boy king Surendra Bikram accompany him to Tundikhel Military Parade Ground before a hurriedly assembled army and bestow on him the oath of office and the Royal Seal.

Soon after tongues started wagging. The court was awash with rumors that the days of Bir was numbered as the ambitious and brilliant Khadga would soon take over. Moreover he was backed by his younger brothers while Bir was alone. Maharajah Bir felt cornered. Maharaj Bir struck. He had his Commander-in-Chief Khadga arrested, exiled to Palpa and struck off the roll of succession. The person next in line to become the prime minister and inherit the title of Maharajah would forfeit this privilege forever. Later as an act of goodwill on the part of Bir, he was given the post of Governor of Palpa but was never allowed to return to Kathmandu Valley. He is now best remembered for assisting the British Archeological Survey Team led by Dr. Fuhrer discover Lumbini as the birthplace of Buddha and for building Rani Mahal, Nepal”s own Taj, on the banks of Kali Gandaki River in memory of his beloved wife Tej Kumari.

 

Khadga Shumsher Rana as Governor of Palpa

Marrying more than one wife was the practice among the Hindu ruling elites of the Indian sub-continent. I suspect one of the main reason was to have a male progeny. Maharajah Bir Shumsher was the first Shumsher Rana prime minister. He was married to his first wife the senior Maharani but his junior wife from a Newar caste was elevated to the rank of Junior Maharani after his ascendancy. A resolution of the Privy Council mandated that all male heirs from both the wives would be placed in the roll of succession. Rudra Shumsher was born of the second wife and enjoyed equal status and privileges as that of all his siblings. By the time Juddha became the prime minister Rudra was the second in command as Commander-in-Chief of the Nepalese Army.

 

Prime Minister Maharajah Bhim Shumsher with Juddha Shumsher (1st in line of succession to his right) and Rudra Shumsher (2nd in line of succession to his left) Next to Juddha is Padma Shumsher and next to Rudra is Mohan Shumsher

It was that at this time fate dealt a cruel hand. During the era of Maharajah Chandra Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana, the longest ruling Rana prime minister, a new Rule of Succession was drawn and the family was categorized into three classes – A, B, and C – a categorization the English writer and sycophantic biographer of Maharjah Chandra Percival Landon reportedly helped draw. The family was getting too large as the Maharajahs had many wives. “A” Class denoted those born of high caste married wives and were eligible for the roll of succession. “B” denoted children born of secondary high caste wives and those born from alliances with princesses from the royal household. “C” were children from junior wives, although in many cases these wives too were elevated to the rank of “Maharani”, they were not eligible to be enrolled for succession.

Family pressures bearing on Maharajah Juddha had made him uneasy and he had lost much sleep. Rudra was a close confidante and a childhood friend as they were of similar age, uncle-nephew relationship notwithstanding. Rudra’s father Maharajah Bir had enrolled youngest brother Juddha to the roll of succession at the same time Rudra was. Juddha himself was the youngest son of his father Commander-in-Chief Dhir from a junior wife and thus his own future had been uncertain until Bir recognized and elevated him.

In March 1934 A.D. during a full ceremonial Durbar Maharajah Juddha unexpectedly announced the removal of his successor Commander-in-Chief Rudra from the roll of succession along with the sons of Maharajah Bhim Shumsher from his second wife by making the Rule of Succession retro-active. Armed guards quickly disarmed Rudra and stripped him of his stripes. He was to be exiled to Palpa and his assets in the valley nationalized. Padma Shumsher was then elevated to the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Nepalese Army.

My father General Kiran always felt that this decision taken by his father Maharajah Juddha was, leaving aside the unfairness of it, the single most costly mistake the Rana oligarchy made as it divided the family one last time hastening its own demise. Once powerful but still wealthy and influential members such as Rudra openly sided with the coming revolution by raising an army of insurgents in the west just as Nepali Congress had raised one in the eastern part of the country. Opposition parties such as the Congress Party was bankrolled by Subarna Shumsher and Mahabir Shumsher, grandchildren of Maharajah Bhim Shumsher struck off the Roll of Succession, from their safe haven in Calcutta. Without these forces having aligned with the democratic movement and King Tribhuvan the end of the Rana Regime would not have come as easily.

In 1954 A.D. following the change of the political power in Nepal Rudra was rewarded with the high title of Field Marshall of the Nepalese Army by King Tribhuvan, my father as the Commander-in-Chief of the new army playing a role in it.

 

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Jung Bahadur And The Courtesan – Love In The Time Of Empire

January 14th, 2013

 

By Subodh Rana.

Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana was the toast of London town. A prince from the Orient captured the popular imagination of Victorian England. A newspaper account of the period describes him as athletic, dark and handsome; bedecked in fine pearls and sparkling jewels like most Oriental despots. Jung had good reasons to be no less: he had taken state power in Nepal during the Kot Massacre of 1846, survived the Bhandarkhal plot aimed at destroying him a year later and was now, in 1850, the first prince from the South Asian Sub-continent to be invited at the court of Queen Victoria.

Both aristocracy and nobility vied with one another to give him the most opulent reception possible. On a particular mid-June evening when London warms up to a fleeting summer solstice, Jung was preparing himself for yet another party. Staying at Richmond Terrace, just a stone’s throw away from Buckingham Palace, Jung had easy access to the drawing rooms of the rich and famous. He was already getting bored by the attention lavished on him. He was a man of action and his one goal was still unrealized which made him restless: his eagerly awaited audience with Queen Victoria who was resting after giving birth to a son, Arthur William Patrick, later to become the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn.

Jung was also missing his two wives. The journey from Nepal to England was physically arduous for the mountain prince having to navigate many days and nights the treacherous seas and mentally strenuous as the trip was heretical from the religious point of view. For high caste Hindus crossing the ocean meant denigrating one’s status in society. Jung had taken with him huge casks full of holy water from the Ganges River for daily ablutions to expunge his sins. Jung took a quick shower and sprinkled himself with the water from the Ganges. He dressed himself in Oriental splendour: the chestful of military decorations, the bejewelled sword, the baju armband containing holy mantra prayers from the Veda and the sarpech, the headgear adorned with expensive pearls and diamonds.
A six-horse carriage was waiting for him. He drove with his entourage consisting of his two younger brothers Jagat Shumsher and Dhir Shumsher, his personal attendants and a retinue of bodyguards to London Tavern for a banquet hosted by the Court of Directors of East India Company. He wanted to quickly end the formalities and return home as early as possible. The hosts introduced Jung to yet another adoring group of London high society. The Kingdom of Nepaul was a friend of Great Britain and the supplier of the hardy Gurkha soldiers the Raj relied upon in those turbulent days of anarchy and mutiny in India. Jung expertly worked the crowd; slightly bowing to a Lord here, tipping his crown to a Lady there. He suddenly stopped. His sixth sense told him he was being closely watched and he turned around slowly to see the loveliest pair of big blue eyes he had ever beholden. Jung was bewitched. The host introduced Jung to the most arrestingly beautiful woman he had laid his eyes upon. She had long, flowing golden locks and strawberry complexion. Her name was Laura Bell.


A scandalous love affair ensued that would have far-reaching consequences for Nepal-Britain relations and Jung’s own political future back home. Jung Bahadur was captivated by the youthful Irish lass, barely out of her teens but she was a courtesan of first order. Laura in turn was smitten by the aura of Oriental opulence and power personified by Jung Bahadur Rana. British India had lavished on his visit vast sums of money which he in turn now lavished upon Laura. Jung put her up in a fitting residence at Wilton Crescent in the very heart of Belgravia. It is documented that Jung spent £ 250,000.00 on his demimonde the sum of which was later underwritten by Governor General Lord Canning as a sign of further goodwill.



Jung spent his days in Britain reviewing march-pasts, inspecting armouries, visiting factories and getting a close glimpse of the masters of India he so admired. He knew that to preserve Nepal’s sovereignty an alliance with Britain was not only necessary but absolutely essential; he had first-hand experience of the travails of his maternal grand uncle Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa after the Anglo-Nepalese War was terminated by the humiliating Treaty of Sugauly in 1816. Jung now had another reason to stay longer in England, his paramour Laura Bell.

Jung Bahadur stayed a total of three months in England, mostly in London but also visited Coventry and Edinburgh. All the while his fondness for Laura Bell grew and he lavished one expensive gift after another on her. As the date of departure drew near Jung expressed his desire to stay longer in England but his brothers were successful in persuading him to return to Nepal fearing a political accident back home as Jung had many enemies at the Nepalese court. Leaving Laura Bell behind was heartbreaking. It is said that Jung’s parting gift was an expensive diamond ring with a promise to fulfill her every wish.

As future events unfolded the political opponents of Jung Bahadur had sprung a trap for him upon his return and one of the accusations made against him was his love affair outside his caste. Jung evaded the trap once again and became even more powerful following his visit to Britain. He was awarded the title of Maharajah of Kaski and Lamjung by the king. Years later it is said that Laura Bell sent a written request to Jung Bahadur through the British Resident Colonel George Ramsay begging him to come to the rescue of the British during the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. Accompanying the letter was the very ring Jung Bahadur had once gifted her as a sign of his love. The Nepalese court was divided over whether to help the British or stay neutral. But he could not deny the final request of his paramour. Jung personally led his troops to the gates of Lucknow. A few years after Jung Bahadur left England Laura Bell married a British socialite and settled down. Later she became close to Prime Minister Gladstone in a relationship historians are still trying to decipher. She was eternally working the corridors of power, a true courtesan to the last.

Over a century and a quarter later there used to come to the Royal Nepalese Embassy in London a socialite by the name of Moira Brown who claimed descent from Maharajah Jung Bahadur Rana, her distant ancestor an offspring of Jung from his England visit. I remember she was always in my father’s guest list. Could there be a link to Laura Bell? The thought is intriguing; the incidents and accidents of history just fascinating!

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