The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0040/00402.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 38KB | 603 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00402}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Nepal
Chapter 2A.   Historical Setting}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{George L. Harris}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{nepal
political
century
nepalese
valley
king
india
moroccan
students
union}
$Date{1973}
$Log{}
Title:       Nepal
Book:        Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, An Area Study: Nepal
Author:      George L. Harris
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1973

Chapter 2A.   Historical Setting

     For all but the last several centuries there is an absence of reliable
information on the history of the area now known as Nepal. Although there are
ancient monuments, coins and other cultural artifacts and archeological
remains which have survived as objects of study, they are isolated pieces of
evidence which are of little assistance in penetrating the obscurity of the
country's past and constructing a continuous narrative of the experience of
its people from earliest times. Written materials date only from the fifth
century A.D., and even though historical sources gradually increase in volume
after that time, they fail to provide a basis for anything more than a vague
and fragmentary description of the country's history.

     An accurate and detailed account of Nepalese history does not become
possible until the latter part of the eighteenth century, when the nation
became unified under the King of the Gorkhas. The great body of the country's
history before that time consists of folklore and legend-handed down through
the centuries-in which gods and demons mingle with authentic persons and myths
and miracles merge with real events. About the sixteenth century these
legendary accounts, sometimes extending back to many centuries earlier, began
to be committed to writing in documents known as vamsavalis. These are
essentially genealogical chronicles of the kings and dynasties of Nepal,
recounting the achievements, real or imaginary, of its monarchs and glorifying
their reigns. Despite the fact that what little verifiable data they contain
have become heavily encrusted with the accumulated fantasies of centuries of
storytellers, the vamsavalis are the single most important category of source
material on most of the country's history and the only source for the period
before the fifth century A.D.

     Corroboration for some of the details of the vamsavalis is found in the
testimony of foreign writers. There are references to Nepal in the Buddhist
literature of India and China, Vedic and Hindu religious and philosophical
works-the Puranas, the Mahabharata, and Kautilya's Arthashastra-in the
observations of travelers, pilgrims, and traders from China and India and in
dynastic histories of China. Nevertheless, because of their inconsistencies,
the clarification they provide is only partial.

     Such information as is available on Nepalese history pertains almost
exclusively to the Katmandu Valley; it deals very little, if at all, with all
of that part of the Himalayan area which now forms the State of Nepal. The
legendary dawn of Nepalese life opens with the story of the supernatural
creation of the Valley, and from that time to the present it has been the
focal point of the country's history. It has long been the largest population
center, the site of a vigorous culture, a major trading entrepot and one of
the strongest military and political areas in the central Himalayas.

     Lying athwart the main Himalayan routes, Nepal's development has been
profoundly influenced by its relations with India, Tibet and, to a lesser
extent, China. Indian culture manifested through centuries of war, trade,
migration and religious pilgrimage has had the greatest impact. However,
Nepal has not been simply a passive receiver of the cultural radiations of
others, but has played an important role in transmitting elements of the
cultures of India, China and Tibet to each of the others. Although it has
developed in the process a unique civilization of its own, the dominant
theme of Nepalese history is the strong and enduring effects of its relations
with other nations.

Early History

     According to the vamsavalis, the Katmandu Valley was once a lake, a
contention supported by geological evidence. In the middle of this lake grew
a lotus containing a jewel whose brilliance attracted a number of gods to
the Valley. One of them, the deity Manjusri, is said to have opened a passage
to drain the waters by striking the mountain range to the south of the Valley
with a single blow of his sword.

     The origin and character of the earliest inhabitants of the Katmandu
Valley are unknown. Whatever the aboriginal population, however, it was
succeeded by a group of people known as the Kiratas who migrated to the
Valley from northeastern India in three major waves ending in the seventh
century B.C. Racially Indo-Mongoloid and speaking a Tibeto-Burman language,
the Kiratas lived under a system of tribal government and appear to have
remained undisturbed in the Valley for a period of 700 years. Gautama
Buddha was born about 563 B.C. in Lumbini, which is now the Nepalese village
of Rummin-dei (Lumbini) in the Tarai, and by the end of the Kirata period
Buddhism had become the common faith of the people of the Valley, who in the
course of time became the Newar.

     About the first century A.D., immigrants from India, the Lichavis,
established themselves as the rulers of the Kiratas, and from then until the
present time all the ruling dynasties of Nepal have been drawn from the
plains of northern India. The Lichavis ruled the Valley with brief
interruptions from the first to the ninth centuries, and during that period
the Indian impact on Nepal was in one of its most extensive and significant
phases. Powerful monarchs of India-initially the Kushans and after the fourth
century, the Guptas-exercised considerable influence over Nepal without
extinguishing its independence. The Guptas, for example, were responsible for
the establishment of a monarchical system of government in the Valley,
replacing the "republican tribal democracy" which had existed up to that
time. Another result of this relationship was the introduction of Hinduism
into Nepal. It gained its initial foothold through the conversion of the
ruling class about the fourth century and later received acceptance from
many of the people. The growth of Hinduism did not result in the displacement
of Buddhism, but led to the fusion of the two religions (see ch. 9, Religion).

     Throughout the latter part of the Lichavi period, Tibet was becoming
increasingly powerful and, under the great king Srong btsan sgam po, it
eventually came to dominate large areas of China, Central Asia and the
Himalayas. For more than a hundred years, between the seventh and the
ninth centuries, Tibet held Nepal in vassalage, and for several centuries
the influence of Tibet rather than that of India was paramount in Nepal. At
this time Buddhists were migrating northward out of India and Nepal mediated
much of the transfer of Buddhist culture from India to Tibet; Mahayana
Buddhism, the Guptan script, and Sanskrit literature, as well as Nepalese
artistic and architectural forms, entered Tibet from Nepal with lasting
effect. The seventh and eighth centuries also marked the beginning of fairly
frequent contacts not only between Nepal and Tibet but also between Nepal
and China.

     Near the end of the ninth century the Lichavis were replaced by the
Thakuri dynasty, which held control of the Valley intermittently for the
next several centuries. During the latter part of their reign the Valley
was under repeated invasion not only from Indian states to the south but
also from the mountain kingdoms to the west.

     In the thirteenth century yet another dynasty of Indian origin, the
Malla, was established in Nepal. Under the Mallas, the Newar culture of
the Valley flourished, orthodox Hinduism was strengthened by the introduction
of the caste system, and the power of Nepalese kings was extended far beyond
its previous limits. The domain of the