[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924) › c31.s2 # The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c31.s2: II. Nepāl The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c31.s2 - **Language:** English ### II. Nepāl ### [c31.s2.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c31.s2.2) The kingdom of Nepāl, as at present constituted, is a considerable self-governed state extending from Sikkim on the east to Kumāon on the west, for a distance of about 500 miles along the northern frontier of Tirhūt, Oudh, and the Agra Province. Except for a narrow strip of lowlands known as the Tarāi, the whole country is a maze of mountains and valleys. Strictly speaking, the name Nepāl should be restricted, and was confined in ancient times to the enclosed valley, about 20 miles in length by 15 in breadth, within which Kāthmandū, the capital, and many other towns and villages are situated. The policy of the existing government rigorously excludes Europeans from almost every part of the state except that valley, and consequently very little is known about the rest. ### [c31.s2.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c31.s2.3) The earliest definite historical information concerning Nepāl, meaning the valley, is the statement in Samudragupta's great Allāhābād inscription of the fourth century after Christ, that, like Kāmarūpa or Assam, it was an autonomous frontier state, paying tribute and yielding obedience to the paramount Gupta power. The tribute probably was little more than nominal and the obedience intermittent. At the present day the Nepālese Government, although practically independent, sends presents or tribute to the Emperor of China, and recognizes in a vague way the suzerainty of that potentate, while receiving a British Resident and subordinating its foreign policy to the direction of the Government of India. ### [c31.s2.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c31.s2.4) Local tradition affirms that long before the time of Samudragupta, in the days of Asoka, in the third century b.c., the valley was under his control, and this tradition is confirmed by the existence at the town of Pātan of monuments attributed to him and his daughter, and by inscriptions which prove that the lowlands at the foot of the hills were an integral part of his empire.¹ The distance from Pātaliputra to the valley of Nepāl not being great, it is probable that that territory formed part of the home provinces and was administered directly from the Maurya capital. ### [c31.s2.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c31.s2.5) ¹ Pātan, 3 miles south of Khātmandū, and Bhatgaon, 9 miles east of it, were each the capital of a separate principality for a long time before 1768, the date of the Gurkha conquest of Nepāl. ### [c31.s2.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c31.s2.6) It is impossible to say exactly what happened between the time of Asoka and that of Samudragupta. The local annals, which exist in abundance, do not bear strict criticism, and give little information of value. The ruling dynasty during the sixth and the early part of the seventh century was a Lichchhavi family, but its exact connexion with the Lichchhavis of Vaisāli is not ascertainable. The Nepālese Lichchhavis are described by Hiuen Tsang as being eminent scholars and believing Buddhists, ranking as Kshatriyas.² ### [c31.s2.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c31.s2.7) ² Watters, ii, 84. Probably the pilgrim did not visit Nepāl. ### [c31.s2.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c31.s2.8) During the seventh century Nepāl occupied the position of a buffer state between Tibet on the north, then a great power in Asia, and the empire of Harsha of Kanauj on the south. King Amsuvarman, founder of the Thākuri dynasty, who died about a.d. 642, was in close touch with Tibet by reason of his daughter’s marriage to Srong-tsan-Gampo, the monarch of that country, who was strong enough to compel the emperor of China to give him the princess Wen-cheng as second consort in 641.¹ After Harsha’s death Tibetan and Nepālese troops acted together in support of Wang-hiuentse, the Chinese envoy, and against the usurper of Harsha’s throne (\*ante\*, p. 366). It is also certain that at the beginning of the eighth century Nepāl was still dependent on Tibet, and continued in that position until a. d. 703, when it, together with Tirhūt, shook off dependence on Tibet. The Tibetan king was killed in the course of the war.² The reason for the introduction of a new Nepālese era dating from October, a. d. 879, is not known. Chinese relations with Nepāl and India had come to an end soon after the middle of the eighth century. In recent times wars between China and Nepāl have resulted in a complimentary recognition by the smaller state of the suzerainty of the greater. ### [c31.s2.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c31.s2.9) ¹ Between a. d. 628 and 631, according to M. de Milloué (\*op. cit.\*, p. 164). ### [c31.s2.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c31.s2.10) ² See E. H. Parker, ‘China, Nepaul, Bhutan, and Sikkim’, in \*J. Manchester Oriental Soc.\*, 1911, pp. 129–52. ### [c31.s2.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c31.s2.11) The confused and bloodstained story of the various petty dynasties which ruled in Nepāl up to a.d. 1768 possesses no general interest. In that year the Gurkhas conquered the country, and established the dynasty which now rules Nepāl through the agency of powerful ministers who have taken over all the substantial functions of sovereignty, reducing the nominal monarchs to a position of absolute insignificance. ### [c31.s2.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c31.s2.12) Buddhism, in its early pure form, was introduced into the valley by Asoka, whose daughter is believed to have erected sacred edifices near the capital, which are still pointed out. Little or nothing is known concerning the religious history of the country for many hundred years afterwards. In the seventh century the prevailing religion appears to have been a much modified Tantric variety of the ‘Great Vehicle’ Buddhist doctrine, allied so closely to the orthodox Hindu cult of Siva as to be distinguishable from it with difficulty. ### [c31.s2.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c31.s2.13) In the course of ages the corruption of the church increased, and Nepāl now presents the strange spectacle of so-called monasteries swarming with the families of married 'monks' engaged in all sorts of secular occupations.¹ The spontaneous progress of the decay of Buddhism, which had been operating in Nepāl for centuries, has been much hastened by the action of the Gurkha Government, to which Buddhist rites are obnoxious; and there is good reason to believe that in the course of a few generations Nepālese Buddhism will be almost extinct. ### [c31.s2.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c31.s2.14) ¹ Married monks are allowed by certain Tibetan sects (de Milloué, p. 176), and used to be recognized by the Vajrayāna sect in Bengal and Eastern India (N. N. Vasu, \*Modern Buddhism and its Followers in Orissa\*, Calcutta, 1911, pp. 4, 13, 17). ### [c31.s2.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c31.s2.15) The total disappearance of the Buddhist worship from India, the land of its birth, has been the subject of much discussion and some misconception. Until lately the assumption commonly was made that Buddhism had been extinguished by a storm of Brahman persecution. That is not the true explanation. Occasional active persecutions by Hindu kings, like Sasāṅka, which no doubt occurred, though rarely, formed a factor of minor importance in the movement which slowly restored India to the Brahmanical fold. The furious massacres perpetrated in many places by Musalman invaders were more efficacious than orthodox Hindu persecutions, and had a great deal to do with the disappearance of Buddhism in several provinces. But the main cause was the gradual, almost insensible, assimilation of Buddhism to Hinduism, which attained to such a point that often it is nearly impossible to draw a line between the mythology and images of the Buddhists and those of the Hindus. This process of assimilation is going on now before our eyes in Nepāl, and the chief interest which that country offers to some students is the opportunity presented by it for watching the manner in which the octopus of Hinduism is slowly strangling its Buddhist victim. The automatic compression of the dying cult by its elastic rival is aided by the action of the Government, which throws its influence and favour on the side of the Hindus, while abstaining from violent persecution of the Buddhists.¹ ### [c31.s2.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c31.s2.16) ¹ Most books concerning Nepāl are superseded to a large extent by Sylvain Lévi's comprehensive treatise entitled \*Le Népal\*, t. i and ii, 1905; t. iii, 1908. Wright's \*History of Nepāl\* (Cambridge, 1877) gives a translation of one recension of the traditional annals. The coinage is described in \*Catal. Coins I. M.\*, vol. i, pp. 280-93, and more fully by E. H. Walsh, 'The Coinage of Nepal' (\*J.R.A.S.\*, 1908, pp. 669-760), with seven plates. Oldfield's \*Sketches from Nipāl\* is a good descriptive work. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c31.s2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c31.s2) · Pramāṇa