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
Finally, concerning the parts west of the river Kali, in the rainy season
1814 I proceeded up the Ganges, with a view of going to Haridwar, where I
expected to procure intelligence; but, fortunately, I met at Futtehgur
with a person well qualified for the purpose. This was Hariballabh, a
Brahman born in Kumau, but who has been long in the service of the
Garhawal Rajas, and has travelled much in the adjacent parts. A map of
the western parts of the dominions of Gorkha, now also in the Company’s
library, was composed by Hariballabh, with the assistance of Kamal
Lochan. The same person gave me another map explaining the country,
which extends some way west from the Sutluj, and of which a short account
will be found in the Appendix.
I regret, that, on the banks of the Karanali, there intervenes a space,
with which none of my informants were well acquainted, its communications
being entirely with the country belonging to the Nawab Vazir.
I shall have very frequent occasion to mention the account of Nepal by
Colonel Kirkpatrick; and, although I often differ from him in opinion,
and think it my duty to state these points fully, yet no one can be more
sensible, knowing well the difficulties he encountered, of the merits of
his work, which is, on the whole, perfectly conformable to his well-known
thirst for information and judgment in the acquisition of knowledge. I
must here, however, in a general way, caution the reader to place little
confidence in the names given in the printed work. I have no doubt, that
the numerous errors in the names are to be attributed to the printing of
the work having been entrusted to some person entirely ignorant of the
native language; and who, therefore, could not be led, by a knowledge of
this, to read the names in the manuscript with accuracy. But, besides
this source of error, in some degree, perhaps, unavoidable, the printer
seems to have been uncommonly careless in reading even those names that
are known to Europeans. Thus, (in page 131,) speaking of the birds of
Nepal, he has as follows: “The two last belong to the genus of pheasants,
the damphia being of the golden, and the monal of the argheer, or spotted
sort.” There can be no doubt, that Colonel Kirkpatrick wrote argus, and
not argheer, which has no meaning.
The utmost negligence may be also observed in a matter of more
importance; for, in the route from Kathmandu to Beni, the capital of
Malebum, given in page 290, all the stages from Deoralli 1st, to Ragho
Powa, both inclusive, are evidently transposed, as going through the
territory of Lamjun and Kaski, after having entered Malebum at
Kusmachoor, while both Lamjun and Kaski are between Kathmandu and
Malebum. I suspect, also, that the person entrusted with the printing
has introduced some matter of his own about the Hindu religion, several
passages on that subject being unlike the sentiments of a person of
Colonel Kirkpatrick’s known sense and observation.
PART FIRST.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
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