Gautam Banarjee

Date: 26th April 1806
Time: 9 PM

While Kathmandu was asleep that dark moonless night, there was a flurry of activity going on in a house located at the present-day Ran Mukteshwar. On the second floor of the building, a special court was in session.
Reclining on thick cushions on a low bed lay 31-year-old Swami Maharaj aka Ran Bahadur Shah, the former king of Nepal. Next to him stood Bhimsen Thapa, a tall and imposing person. Just 20 days ago, Ran Bahadur had been bestowed with the powerful post of Mukhtyar by the child King of the Gorkha Empire, Girvana Yuddha Bikram Shah, who also happened to be Ran Bahadur's son.
Ran Bahadur was utilising his absolute power, stemming out of his Mukhtayar's position, in conducting the special court. The main accused were Kazi Tribhuvan Pradhan, brother of Ran Bahadur’s Newar stepmother Maiju Maharani and Chautariya Sher Bahadur Shahi, who is Ran Bahadur's stepbrother from the same stepmother.
Earlier, on the same morning, an order had gone out that Kazi Tribhuvan and Chautariya Sher Bahadur must be present at the court at any cost. If they refused to obey the order, they were to be brought in chains. Both of them, however, arrived at the court voluntarily.
With his dark eyes spitting fire, Rana Bahadur, twirling his handle-bar moustache, addressed the gathering of courtiers present. “When I was away, in Banaras in exile, a sum of 18,000 rupees went missing from the national treasury which I have just found out. Now, all of you admit if you all had a hand in this embezzlement? What did you do with the money? How many wars did you fight with this money? How many countries did you conquer? Who were the enemies you subdued? Or, you used it to bribe the British to keep me in Banaras forever? I want your answer now”.
The courtiers were silent. Ran Bahadur then abruptly turned towards Bhimsen Thapa and ordered “Go and have your dinner." Bhimsen Thapa went out of the room. The courtiers were still silent. This enquiry went on for some days. This was an old case dating back to 6 years. The accused did not have any satisfactory explanation about the missing money. Even if they did, Ran Bahadur had already made his mind not to be convinced which made the purpose of defending one’s innocence futile.
As per the tradition, any court session held at night resulted in a death sentence to the accused. Hence, the timing of this session also made the courtiers extremely nervous and scared.

Background
In 1777 AD, when Ran Bahadur ascended the throne he was only two years old. He was kept under the regency of her mother Rajendra Laxmi. And after his mother passed away, his uncle Bahadur Shah was made the regent. Ran Bahadur later imprisoned his uncle after he attained formal kingship when he was 18. His uncle, Bahadur Shah, died in prison.
By this time he was already married to two queens- Raj Rajeshwari and Subarna Prabha. But then his eyes fell on a beautiful 15-year old Brahmin widow, Kantabati, who had come with her parents to visit Pashupatinath during the festival of Shivaratri.
He married her under committing that her son would be the king of Nepal despite the heir apparent, Ranoddat Shah, having already been born.
She gave birth to a son Girvana Yuddha Bikram but later caught tuberculosis (TB). Her dying wish to see her son on the throne was fulfilled by Ran Bahadur, who abdicated in her son’s favour and became a yogi, taking the title of Swami Maharaj.
Despite his abdication, Ran Bahadur still wanted to interfere in day-to-day governance and had run a parallel power structure which resulted in a coup led by Damodar Pande. Following the coup, Ran Bahadur fled to Benaras.
The Benaras exile of Rana Bahadur was not a very pleasant one though. The money which he had taken from Nepal finished and he resorted, first, by selling the ornaments of his queen, and then to taking loans. This created a serious rift between him and his queen, who returned to Kathmandu. However, Raj Rajeswori’s loyalty to her husband remained firm. She managed to send money to him in Benaras to pay back the loans. Ran Bahadur became a free-man. He now decided to come back to Kathmandu. The year was 1804 AD.
Stepping inside the border of Nepal, Ran Bahadur Shah entered the valley unhindered as the army sent to have him arrested en route had joined his forces. Damodar Pande, who was waiting in Thankote to have him arrested, was beheaded then and there.
After two years of palace politics, Rana Bahadur finally managed to get the post of Mukhtyar with the help of Bhimsen Thapa. He also married for the fourth time. This time with Lalit Tripurasundari, his 4th queen. He embarked on a witch-hunt of which the final drama was now being staged at the Rana Mukteshwar house.

26th April 1806 Contd…
The room was unusually silent for a court session with the candles casting an eerie shadow on the wall. Nervous and tense, sweating profusely, Chautariya Sher Bahadur Shahi, Rana Bahadur Shah’s half brother, stepped forward and asked “ Am I one of the accused or not?," to which his brother replied “ Oh Yes, you are. If you do not come up with a satisfactory explanation regarding the missing money, I will have you blinded and put you in fetters imprisoning you for life.”
This reply made Chautariya Shahi more nervous. He was trembling from head to foot and his face was wet with sweat. He went out to the huge balcony where a large water vessel and amkhoras (traditional Nepali drinking vessel) were kept. He drank water and came back to the room. He did this several times continuously, going to the balcony and drinking water. This unnatural behaviour of his younger stepbrother did not go unnoticed By Rana Bahadur. When Sher Bahadur went out again, he mockingly uttered, “Nani ta galecha” meaning the little boy has broken.
Sher Bahadur heard this from the balcony. He drank some water and splashed the rest on his face and came back to stand in front of Rana Bahadur. Just then a Jackal howled outside. Rana Bahadur put his index finger on his lips asking him to keep silent and said “Hush. Listen." That was the moment when, at a lightning speed, Sher Bahadur unsheathed his sword and aimed a fatal blow on his elder brother’s neck, shouting “Take this."
Rana Bahadur ducked which resulted in the sword missing his neck but ripping his entire chest and stomach in two halves. A bleeding Rana Bahadur shouting for his bodyguard Bal Narsingh for help fell lifeless on the floor. In the meantime, Sher Bahadur managed to douse the candle and run out of the door, where he confronted Bal Narsingh Kunwar, Rana Bahadur’s bodyguard, and Chautariya Bom Shah. Bom Shah tried to catch him but Bal Narsingh ripped Sher Bahadur with a single stroke of his khukuri. The fatal blow wounded Bom Shah in the hand as he was holding Sher Bahadur.
At the same time, somebody ran and informed Bhim Sen Thapa who was having his dinner. Thapa scampered, in a disheveled state, to the site of assassination. Seeing the lifeless body of the ex-King on the floor, tears welled up in Thapa's eyes. In a voice choked with emotion, he shouted to the courtiers present in the room “You all dare kill my King. Now, if I cannot line the road from this building to Pashupatinath with funeral pyres, my name is not Bhimsen Thapa”.
Thapa ordered the main gate closed so that no one could get in or out. A fresh contingent of soldiers was ordered from Hanuman Dhoka and the building surrounded. Sher Bahadur had brought along two teen-age slave boys as attendants who were waiting outside the room. These innocent boys were beheaded on the spot and their headless bodies were thrown out of the second-floor window to the courtyard below. All courtiers were arrested.

Aftermath
The next morning Kazi Tribhuvan Pradhan, Kazi Narsingh Gurung, Chautariya Bidur Shahi, King Prithvipal Sen of Palpa and his 18 bodyguards were beheaded inside Bhandarkhal in Hanuman Dhoka. On the second day, another group including Kazi Jagan Khawas and 13 others were beheaded at Bhacha Khusi on the bank of the Bishnumati river. Their wives were forced to go on Sati including the eldest queen of Rana Bahadur Shah, Raj Rajeshwari. She was burnt alive on the banks of Sali river in Sankhu, on the 9th day of her husband’s death along with her 14 maids. Her last wish to meet the Child King Girvana Yuddha Bikram for whom she had acted as the regent for some time was denied.
A total of 93 innocent persons, 77 males and 16 females who were never formally accused or had their guilt proven lost their life in this sad and tragic episode in the history of Nepal. From the ashes of the pyre of these innocent people rose another powerful figure, Kazi and Mukhtyar Bhimsen Thapa, who would rule Nepal as de facto ruler till 1837, giving continuity to another set of power struggle, war with the British and ultimate defeat. But then, that is altogether another story.

(Banarjee is a travel trade entrepreneur and a history aficionado)