DESCRIPTION ABOUT THE GREAT KING PRITHIVI NARAYAN SHAH

Prithivi Narayan Shah,the builder of modern Nepal ,is one of the greatest kings Nepal was produced.He was the ruler of Gorkha, a small state in Western Nepal.When he asended the throne of Gorkha,Nepal was divided into a number of petty states.Within a span of thirty years , Prithvi Narayan Shah conquered the various states and unified Nepal.

After the death of his father ,Nar Bhupal Shah ,in 1800 V.S.,Prithvi Narayan Shah became the king of Gorkha at the age of twenty -one .He determined to conquer the tiny states of Nepal and make it a big and powerful state.He failed many times but did not lose heart.At last,he was successful in conquering Neuwakot,Makawanpur,Lamjung and some other states.Then ,he attacked Kirtipur.He faced stiff opposition there and could conquer it only on the third attempt.

Next,he attacked Kathmandu which was ruled by Jaya Prakash Malla.First ,he had to fight the British troops which had come to help Jaya Prakash .Jaya Prakash foiled all his attempts to conquer Kathmandu.At last,Prithivi Narayan thought of a plan.He ordered his troops to attack Kathmandu on the day of Indra Jatra festival.His troops marched into Kathmandu from four sides .The troops of Jaya Prakash were taken by surprise and offered no resistance.Jaya Prakash left Kathmandu and took shelter under Tej Narsingh,the king of Patan.prithvi Narayan Shah conquered patan and Bhaktapur too.

Prithvi Narayan Shah made Kathmandu the capital of his kingdom and introduced many reforms .His reforms were based on those of Ram shah,Jayasthiti Malla and Mahindra Malla.He liked the policies of these kings.Prthvi Narayan Shah's policies can be known from his book,Dibya Upadesh .He was a staunch nationalist.He expelled the Christian missionaries from his kingdom .He thought they were spies of foreign countries.He encouraged the use of handmade cloth.He saw that everybody got justice.He punished the corrupt officials.

Prithvi Narayan shah wanted to keep his subjects happy.He thought the people were the wealth of a king.He wished that none of his subjects should remain hungry.He used to eat his meal only when he knew that all his subjects had eaten their meal.He ordered the people to eat their morning meal before 9 a.m.He watched the roofs of all houses in Kathmandu to see if smoke came out of every house.For this purporse ,he had a nine-storey palace built at Basantpur.

Prithvi Narayan shah ruled his kingdom wiselyfor thirty years and passed away at the age of fifty-two .He is called the great king for he eastablished a big state and ruled it well.