An Account of The Kingdom of Nepal: And of the Territories Annexed to this Dominion by the House of GorkhaHamilton, Francis
History
An Account of The Kingdom of Nepal: And of the Territories Annexed to this Dominion by the House of Gorkha
Hamilton, Francis
Nepal -- Description and travel; Nepal -- History
The territory anciently called Mithila, comprehending much of the
northern parts of the district of Puraniya, and all those of Tirahut,
belonged for many ages to a dynasty of princes called Janaka, who resided
at Janakipur in the low country subject to Gorkha. Long afterwards, in
that part of the country there had arisen a dynasty, the seat of whose
government was at Gar Samaran, through the extensive ruins of which, the
present boundary between the Company and the Gorkhalese passes. In the
year 1802, when in this vicinity, I heard an imperfect account concerning
this dynasty, and have mentioned them in the observations on Nepal, which
I then composed. Anxious to procure more accurate information, in 1810 I
sent an intelligent Brahman to inquire after traditions, who discovered a
person residing at Chotoni, whose ancestors had been registers of
Tirahut, and who gave him the following account. In the year of the
Bengal era 496, (A.D. 1089,) Nanyop Dev, of the Kshatria tribe, acquired
the sovereignty of Tirahut, and was the founder of a dynasty, the princes
of which succeeded from father to son in the following order.
Nanyopdev’ governed 36 years.
Ganggadev’ 14
Narasingha dev’ 52
Ramsingha dev’ 92
Sakrasingha dev’ 12
Harisingha dev’ 20
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226
This person had great power, and is universally acknowledged to have
settled the customs which are now observed by the Brahmans of Mithila.
After his death there was an interegnum of thirty-four years. The
greatest difficulty in this accession arises from the two enormous reigns
of fifty-two and ninety-two years held in succession by father and son.
It is just possible that a grandfather and grandson might reign such a
number of years, and the minute distinction of grandson and son may
naturally enough have escaped the notice of Hindu genealogist; but there
is reason to suspect, that the accession of Nanyop dev is antedated, for
the same authority states, that he took possession of Tirahut on the
death of Lakshman Sen king of Bengal, who, it is well known, had
conquered it in the 1104th year of our era, or twenty-five years after
the accession given to Nanyop, and probably governed it for a good many
years. On the death of that warlike prince, it is very likely that
Nanyop may have wrested Tirahut, or the western parts of Mithila, from
his successor, and may have been the Raja of Oriswa, against whom
Lakshmam II. erected the works of Majurni Khata, for the learned
D’Anville places Oriswa in these parts. When the length of these reigns
is thus curtailed, the story may be sufficiently exact.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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