Nepal’s Diplomacy Since Ancient Times

In ‘Kumarasambhava’ epic, great Sanskrit poet Kalidasha says ‘Himalayas is the centre of earth’. Nepal is an ancient Himalayan country in South Asia with a long history of its continued existence as an independent country, which stands as the crossroads of Chinese and South Asian civilisations.  Nepal is a not only a country but a civilization - the Himalayan civilization or ‘Himabatkhanda’. Different archaeological evidences have pointed to the fact that Nepal as a Himalayas civilisation has existed right from 300 BC, which is more than 2300 years ago. But some scholars are of the view that the history of Nepal goes back to as early as 1500 BC during the Ramayana period. 

The history of Nepal’s international contacts and relations is long. Hindu mythology and scripts point. Legend has it that there used to exist a powerful kingdom in Nepal's southern plain called Janakpur or Mithila even earlier and its king was Janak, who was famous throughout South Asia for his scholarly acumen and astute governance. Around the same time, there used to be a powerful kingdom in northern India of Aayodhya, whose king was Dasharath. These two kingdoms promoted friendly relations through matrimonial connection as Ayodhya's crown prince Ram (who is regarded as God Ram in Hinduism) married to Janakpur's princess Sita, who is also revered by Hindus as Goddess.

Mahabharat period

This is, perhaps, the first incident involving international relations in South Asia. According to historian Bal Chandra Sharma, Nepal's Kirat Kings had relations with the Hastinapur and other kingdoms of India during the Mahabharat period around 1500 BC. It is believed that one Kirat King Jitedasti participated in the Mahabharat war. In the war, Jitedasti helped Pandavas and fought the war against Kauravas, from which he never returned. Perhaps he might have died in the war but it is nowhere mentioned in the accounts of Mahabharat war and its authenticity has also not been ascertained. 

Buddha and Buddhism are other factors that connected Nepal with Indian states in the south and China in the north. Siddartha Gautam or Buddha was born in Lumbini as a prince of Shakya kingdom of Kapilvastu, southern Nepal, and later attained enlightenment and became Buddha in Bodhagya of India in the middle of the sixth century BC. According to genealogy, emperor Asoka of Magadha, one of powerful states of ancient India, visited Lumbini, Buddha’s birthplace, on his pilgrimage, and had a stone pillar installed in Lumbini as a symbol of his respect to Buddhism, which is known as Ashoka Pillar. Later Emperor Ashoka also visited Kathmandu, where he had his daughter Charumati married with Devpal, a prince of Kathmandu. 

Accordingly a new city was established after the name of Devpal in Kathmandu somewhere between present Chabhil and Pashaputinath temple area, which was known as Devpatan, whereas Chabhil was named after princess Charumati. This historic incident is evident of Nepal's long history of foreign contacts and relations right from as early as 250 BC. Kautilya’s Arthashatra mentions about bustling trade between Nepal and Magadh, a dominant kingdom of the sub-continent. According to Leo E Rose, the Kathmandu Valley at one point of history was ‘intellectual and commercial entrepot’ between South Asia and East Asia through Tibet.  

Nepal had relations with different neighbouring countries in the south of what is now called India. Nepal had good relations with Mugal kings, too. There used to be several principalities in South Asian sub-continent which were later unified by the British colonial rulers and gave the shape of a unified country and gave its name India. The roots of Nepal’s Shah Dynasty’s, too, is linked to Rajput family of Chittaur, India. According to historians, one king named Rishi Raj Bhattarak was the king of Chittaur. One of his grandsons named Bhupal Rananji Rao fled to Nepal to escape Muslim attacks and established his kingdom in Bhirkot of western Nepal. Bhupal had two sons Khancha Khan and Micha Khan. Khancha Khan inherited his father’s kingdom of Bhirkot, while the younger one Micha Khan established his kingdom in Nuwakot of Syangja district and it was later expanded as far as Kaski. 

Kulmandan Shah, one of the descendants of Micha Khan, became the king of Kaski. It is said that Kulmandan Shah got the rank ‘Shah’ from one Delhi’s emperor and started using Shah as family name instead of Khan. Kulmandan Shah’s one of seven sons Yasobramha Shah became king of Lamjung at the request of the people of Lumjung  and Yasobramha Shah’s younger son Drabya Shah established his Gorkha kingdom. Prithivi Narayan Shah was Drabya Shah’s one of the great grandsons, who expanded his Gorkha Kingdom and laid the foundation of modern and unified Nepal. 

Similarly, the relations between Nepal and China is equally old, historical and civilizational. If legendary story of Manjushree is to be believed, Nepal’s relations with China can be traced back to centuries earlier than the beginning of Christian era. However, according to Vijaya Kumar Manandhar, the epigraphic evidences refer to the contact between Nepal and China to fifth century AD and official contacts began in seventh century.  Seng-tsai, Fa-hsien, Bhuddabhadra, Hsuan-tsang visited Nepal and have presented vivid and interesting description that establishes the evidence of people-to- people contact and relations between Nepal and China from the ancient time. 

Buddhism

The key thread that connected Nepal and China so closely Buddhism. In the early period of Lichchhivi rule, Srong-btsan-Sgampo was a strong and ambitious king in Tibet of China and he married Nepali princess Bhrikuti that further deepened Nepal-China relations. Since then Nepal-China relations have continued to grow, deepen and get mature. Nepal's history is chequered so is its international relations and diplomacy. Nepal's size and influence always fluctuated which also had impact on its diplomacy and international relations.  

In its long history, Nepal’s size sometimes expanded and sometimes fragmented into different tiny principalities. When Nepal's territory was expanded, it used to have greater diplomatic influence far and wide both in the south and north, while its diplomatic influence and relations weakened when Nepal remained fragmented. Prithivi Narayan Shah, king of a tiny mountainous kingdom of Gorkha, laid the foundation of Nepal in the latter half of the 18th century bringing together several small and splintered principalities. This marked the beginning of a new phase of Nepal’s international relations and diplomacy. 

(The author is former chief editor of this daily and former ambassador. salyubanath@gmail.com)