King
Prithwi Narayan Shah’s “Dibya Upadesh”
(ruled AD 1742 – 1774):
At Nuwakot in 1774, Prithwi Narayan Shah “summoned
his priests, teachers, thar ghar (Ganesh Pande, Bhagirath
Panth, Narayan Das Aryal, Sarbeshwar Khanal, Gangaram
Rana, Keshav Bohara), nobles and his tutor (afna dada)
Surathi Singh Rana and all the elders and spoke to
them thus: When an old man dies, his words die with
him, so they say. What you who are gathered here will
hear from me, pass on to your children, and they to
ours; and this kingdom will endure.”
Mamajiu, Udyat Sen, yuvaraj of Palpa, advised: “bahun
…bayel ho, patak lagchha ; .. thakuri .. sher
ho, pachhadi daga hunchha ; .. Magar .. tagan ghoda
ho, dhilo hunchha ; .. khas turki ghoda ho, khas ko
sawar garya chado hola”
Daughter of the Rana pujari of Salyan Kot Devi Gyami
Rana: “I have eaten the salt of Jaya Prakash
Malla and I will be true to this until death.”
(Jayant Rana led Narbhupal’s, AD 1716 to 1742,
Nuwakot attack; when suspicion of collusion with enemy
fell on him, went to Jaya Prakash Malla who made him
commander of his Nuwakot troops; around this time
“most of the Magars deserted Gorkha to take
refuge in Nepal.” After the fall of Nuwakot
AD 1744, Jayant Rana captured and skinned alive.)
Parshuram Thapa (brother of Kasiram Thapa killed
on the orders of Jaya Prakash Malla) gave his hand
to me, saying “Come attack Nepal” while
he sent his brother to make offers to Chaubise Rajas
to attack us from the rear.
“Pande, Basnet, Panth bhaiyad Mangra lai maratap
dida alo palo palo gari khana dinu; yi mera nun gunka
sojhya sevak hun …”“In giving the
kazi’s post to the Pandes, Basnets, Panthas
and Magars give it to them each in turn. They are
the true servants of my salt. Even if they should
commit some crime deserving of death, do not kill
them yourselves…..send them into battle. If
they come back alive, it is well.”
In their own companies enlist Khas, Magars, Gurungs
and Thakuris and only these four jats.
“Gurungs, Magars and Khas are very loyal. Their
nobles, chieftains and headmen and the very old families
should be tested and placed close to the king. Purba
paschimka khas bahunlai darbarma paith huna na dinu.”
“Adalatma Thakuri janchi dittha rakhnu, Magar
janchi bichari thapnu.”
nIn the history of Nepal I saw that the Turks, the
Magars and the Mughals might attack Nepal. The Turkish
attack had come. Magrath ko raja mai hun. To meet
the Mughol threat, I established forts…”
Prithwi Narayan Shah’s Dibya Upadesh epitomizes
the role of the Magars in the Rise of the House of
the Gorkhas and the formation of State of Nepal: from
his dada, Surathi Singh Rana, as one of the four “thars”
the Magars were entitled to the Kazi’s post
on a turn by turn basis and placed close to the King,
they were trusted to be court officials. One should
remember that Prithwi Narayan Shah’s Dibya Upadesh
was written on his death-bed in 1774 and the roles
of Jayant Rana, Parshuram Thapa etc. were all overlooked
as passing incidents.
An Account of the Kingdom of Nepal:
Francis Buchanan Hamilton MD
Spent 14 months 1802/03 in Nepal collecting information
assisted by Ramajai Batacharji;
Sikkim: assisted by Buddhist Lama in Puraniya who
fled due to Gorkha violence;
Between Sikkim and Nepal Proper, Kirat: assisted
by Agam Singha last hereditary Kirati chief, a Brahman
monsuf of Puraniya whose ancestors hereditary Dewans
of Kirat chiefs, Narayan Das Kayastha hereditary second
minister to Kirat chief, slave of Gorkha Raja, a Kirat
from Hedang near Arun river;
Between Nepal Proper and river Kali (Magrath area):
Sadhu Ram Upadhyaya hereditary Purohit of Palpa Raja;
Prati Nidhi Tiwari and Kanak Nidhi Tiwari whose family
originally from Kumau were advisors to Palpa Raja;
Samar Bahadur, uncle of Palpa Raja, now in exile.
West of the river Kali in 1814: Hariballabh, Kumau
Brahmin long in service of Garhawal Rajas
Hamilton admits that in the “thirst for information
and judgment in the acquisition of knowledge”
there are errors and negligence plus “I suspect,
also, that the person entrusted with the printing
has introduced some matter of his own about the Hindu
religion ….”.
Colonel Kirkpatrick’s “Mungars”
occupied great portion of lower hills of western Nepal,
seem to have received Rajput chiefs with much cordiality,
adopted a great part of the customs of mountain Hindus,
now abstain from beef, much addicted to intoxication,
excessively cruel and treacherous, submitted to the
same Brahmins that instructs Rajputs though they had
their own Dhami priests.
In the beginning of the XIVth century “. all
the chiefs west of the river Kali glory in having
either totally expelled or extirpated the original
inhabitants and in having established, in its full
height, the purity of the Hindu doctrines.”
“In this conversion the Brahmans have had great
success, and most of the chiefs of the highland tribes
have adopted the rules of purity, and are called Rajputs,
while various fables and genealogies have been contrived
to gratify their vanity, by connecting their history
with Hindu legend.”
“The family of Gorkha which now governs Nepal,
although it pretends to come from Chitaur, according
to Sadhu Ram, a good authority, is, in reality, of
the Magar tribe;”
“… when the princes of the mountaineers
were persuaded to follow the doctrines of the Brahmans,
many of their subjects or clans were induced to follow
the examples of their chiefs …”
“The Thapas, for instance, are of two kinds,
Khas and Ranggu ….. The Ranas, also, are divided
into two kinds, the Khas and Magar. The latter are
a branch of the Magar tribe, and totally neglect the
rules of Hindu purity. …. And some branches
of the same families were pure, while others rejected
the advice of the sacred order, and eat and drank
whatever their appetites craved.”
The Magars/Magrath of Yore has always been SEEN through
the non-Magar eyes:
Aryans (Baburam Acharya, Surya Bikram Gyawali, DR
Regmi, Nayan Raj Pant etc.),
British (Kirkpatrick, Hamilton, Vansittart, Wright
etc.)
More recently Iman Sing Chemjong and Father LF Stiller.
Some penned the Magars as “impure and infidel
tribes” and no Magars of Yore took up the pen
to write about his own tribe. It is possible that
the more “fortunate” Magars distanced
themselves from their “impure” brothers.
Surprisingly, Hamilton had Kirati inputs from Agam
Singha and a Kirati from Arun river and hence fare
far better than the Magars.
Despite the strong Magar presence in the time of
Prithwi Narayan Shah, after the Anglo-Nepal war of
1814 – 1816, the Magars seemed to have been
totally “rooted out” from the seat of
power in the State of Nepal. In the famous battle
of Nalapani, the men, women and children of the Magar
Battalion, Purano Gorakh, sacrificed their lives fighting
the British. Unfortunately, Nalapani figures only
with its commander, Bul Budder, and NOT the Magars.
Recent scholars like Leo E Rose refer merely to the
Magars and Gurungs as “the tribes most favored
by the British for recruitment of the famed Gurkha
soldiers”. The Magars’ lust for soldiering
in building up the State of Nepal, in maintaining
the British Empire as well as the Republic of India
has now turned homewards into the Peoples’ Janasena.
Today’s Magars find themselves totally marginalized
and excluded from the “affairs of the State”.
Sir Francis Bacon said, “Reading and writing
maketh a man wise.”
nnIt is time the Magar Studies Centre looks into
the Whys, How and Wherefore of the Magars from the
Magars’ very own eyes.
It is, perhaps, befitting to conclude this Magars
of Yore with this heart-wrenching cry of Subedar Rekh
Bahadur Saru Thapa Magar in his poem “ Bhupu
Sainik Sathiharulai” (Rastra, Magh 2055):
BHUPU SAINIK SATHILAI
Subedar Rekh Bahadur Saru Thapa Magar
Bhupu sainik sathi ho,
Hami Nepali bir yoddha bhani
Bishwalai chinayoin
Tara
Hamilai Gorkhali bhani chine,
Nepali bhani chinna sakenan
Pratham bishwayuddha hami ladeun,
Ditiye bishwayuddha ma pani hami ladeun
Italian ko yuddha bhumi ma hami ladeun,
Burma ko dharti ma pani hami ladeun
Indonesia ko yuddha bhumima hami ladeun,
Tunisia ko dharti ma pani hami ladeun
France ko yuddha maidan ma hami ladeun,
Palestine ko bhumima pani hami ladeun
Tara
Swadesh farke pachhi hamile British 25 Pound,
Royalty kahan chhan bhani
Shri Panchko Sarkar sanga sodhna sakenaun
Bharat-Pak yuddha ma hami ladeun,
Bharat-Chin yuddha ma pani hami ladeun
Sri Lanka ma hami ladeun,
Bangladesh ko yuddha bhumi pani hami ladeun
Tara
Afno janma bhumi ma aye pachhi,
Yas desh ka bhumi putra hami
Sadar mukam ka likhure peon dekhi darayau!
Aba hami hamro santan ko lagi,
Afno hak ra adhikar prapti ko lagi
Afnai desh bhitra ka dusman biruddha ladaun!
The program ended with the remarks from Retd.IGP KhadgaJit
Baral( who generously donated Rupees 20,000/- for the
Center), MS Thapa, Rt. Hon'le Balaram Gharti Magar,
Dr. Lakshman Pun and vote of thanks by Dr. Govind P.
Thapa.
It was announced that a concept paper would be prepared
and presented in due course of time by the Center on
the topic " Magars in 21st Century".
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