Malla dynasty (Nepal)

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Malla dynasty
मल्ल वंश
CountryNepal Mandala
Kingdom of Kantipur
Kingdom of Lalitpur
Kingdom of Bhaktapur
Founded1201
FounderAri Malla
Final rulerJaya Prakash Malla (Kantipur)

Ranajit Malla (Bhaktapur)

Tej Narasimha Malla (Lalitpur)
Style(s)
Mahārājdhirāj
Deposition1769
Languages: Newari | Maithili

The Malla dynasty (

Karnat dynasty of Mithila.[1] The term malla means wrestler in Sanskrit
. The first use of the word malla in the Kathmandu Valley begins from 1201.

The Malla period was a golden one that stretched over 600 years, as they presided over and flourished the

Newar civilization of Nepal Mandala which developed as one of the most sophisticated urban civilisation in the Himalayan foothills and a key destination in the India-Tibet trade route.[2]
While Newari was the language of the common people, Maithili was the literary and court language.[3] But later Newari developed as the court and state language of Nepal from the 14th to the late 18th centuries.[4]

Clockwise from top-left: (a) Kathmandu Durbar Square, the Royal palace of Malla King of Kantipur (b) Patan Durbar Square, the Royal palace of Malla King of Patan(c) Bhaktapur Durbar Square, the Royal palace of Malla King of Bhaktapur, as they all looked during 1850s.

Origin

The Malla kings claimed descent from the

Suryavamși
.

Being originally Maithil themselves, the Mallas were noted for their patronisation of the

Maithil Brahmins of the Valley, whereas the immigrant warrior and noble classes are the ancestors of today's Chatharīya Srēṣṭha Newars. Other groups too immigrated and eventually assimilated in the Newar society, some of which are the present-day Khadgis (Nāya/Shahi), Dhobi, Kapalis/Jogis, Halwai/(Rajkarnikar) and Tamrakar of Lalitpur, Podya (Chamahar), Kulu (Dusadh), among others.[6] These people eventually became endogamous caste units who started to be identified as Newar from 16th century onward.[7]

The backbone of the Malla army, particularly under Jaya Prakash Malla, was made up of Tirhutia soldiers from Northern Bihar and parts of the Terai, whereas the military leaders and chiefs were recruited from the Kshatriya families of the time, marked by their clan titles like Pradhan, Pradhananga, Amatya, Rawat, etc.[8][9]

History

Early Malla period

Beginning in the early twelfth century, leading notables in Nepal began to appear with names ending in the term malla, ("wrestler" in Sanskrit),[10] indicating a person of great strength and power. Arimalla (reigned 1200–16) was the first king to be so called,[11] and the practice of adopting such a name was followed regularly by rulers in Nepal until the eighteenth century. The names of the Malla kings were also written as, for example, Ari Malla. Another legend says that Arimalla was fond of wrestling and he added malla to his name. However, this is debated as the word malla appears frequently in the historical records prior the Malla dynasty.[10]

Another possibility is that Aridev adopted the title Malla because it was popular at the time in India. It seems more convincing because Aridev belonged to the dynasty started by Vamadeva, and that none of his predecessors used Malla in their names. If such is the case, it makes the Malla dynasty separate from the Malla community which originated in India.[12]

The long Malla period witnessed the continued importance of the Kathmandu Valley as a political, cultural, and economic center of Nepal. Other areas also began to emerge as significant centers in their own right, increasingly connected to the Kathmandu Valley.[13]

The time of the earlier Malla kings was not one of consolidation but was instead a period of upheaval in and around Nepal. In the twelfth century,

Matsyendranath, Pashupatinath, and Swayambhunath. These acts were all public announcements of his overlordship in Nepal and signified the temporary breakdown of royal power within the valley.[13]

The first Malla rulers had to cope with several disasters. In 1255, one-third of the population of Kathmandu (30,000 people, including King

Sultan of Bengal Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah in 1345–46,[13] during the reign of Jayaraja Deva (r. 1347–1361), left plundered Hindu and Buddhist shrines in its wake. The invasion, however, did not leave a lasting cultural effect. In India, the damage was more widespread and many Hindus were driven into the hills and mountains of Nepal, where they established small Rajbanshi principalities.[17] In fact, none of the existing buildings in the valley proper dates from before this raid. He is said to have destroyed the Lichchhavi palaces of Managriha and Kailashkuta. He also damaged all the temples in the Kathmandu valley except the Changu Narayan Temple, which he could not locate as it lies some hills away from Kathmandu. He returned after 3 days of looting and burning.[18]

Apart from this, the earlier Malla years (1220–1482) were largely stable. During the reign of Jayabhimdev Malla in 1260, the eighty artisans were sent to Tibet. Among them was Araniko (1245–1306) who later rose to become a high-ranking official in the court of Mongol leader Kublai Khan's Yuan dynasty.[19] Araniko is the only person from this early Malla era whose biography is known to us in some detail, thanks to the Chinese historical records.[18]

Portrait of Jayasthiti Malla (r. 1382–1395)

This period reached a high point under the third Malla dynasty of

Jayasthiti Malla, a man of obscure but apparently high birth, eventually led to the reunification of the land and a lessening of strife among the towns.[13][18]

By 1370

Jayasthiti Malla. This legendary compilation of traditions was seen as the source of legal reforms during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.[13]

After the death of

Yaksha Malla built the Mul Chok in 1455, which remains the oldest palace section in Bhadgaon. The struggles among the landed aristocracy and leading town families (Pradhans), especially acute in Patan, were controlled during his reign. Outlying areas such as Banepa and Pharping were semi-independent but acknowledged the leadership of the king. Newari appeared more often as the language of choice in official documents. The royal family began to accept Manesvari (also known as Taleju), a manifestation of Shiva's consort, as their personal deity.[13]

After the death of Jayasthiti Malla's grandson

Yaksha Malla in 1482, the Kathmandu Valley was divided up among his sons into three kingdoms of Bhaktapur (Khowpa), Kathmandu (Yein) and Lalitpur(Yela:). The rest of what we today call Nepal consisted of a fragmented patchwork of almost 50 independent states, stretching from Palpa and Jumla in the west to the semi-independent states of Banepa and Pharping, most of them minting their own coins and maintaining standing armies. Most notable Malla kings of this later era were: Pratap Malla of Kantipur, Siddhi Narasimha Malla of Lalitpur, and Bhupatindra Malla of Bhaktapur.[18]

Period of three kingdoms

Portrait of King Bhupatindra Malla (r. 1696–1722)
Bhaskar Malla of Kathmandu (r. 1700–1714) dressed in Mughal fashion

After 1482, a crucial date in Nepalese history, the kingdom was divided. At first, the six sons of

Nuwakot, and Patan included territories to the south as far as Makwanpur. The relationships among the kingdoms within the valley became quite convoluted. Although all three ruling houses were related and periodically intermarried, their squabbles over minuscule territorial gains or ritual slights repeatedly led to warfare. The kings attended coronation rituals or marriages at each other's capitals and then plotted the downfalls of their relatives.[20][18]

The period of the three kingdoms—the time of the later Mallas—lasted until the mid-eighteenth century. The complete flowering of the unique culture of the Kathmandu Valley occurred during this period, and it was also during this time that the old palace complexes in the three main towns achieved much of their present-day forms. The Kings still based their legitimate rule on their role as protectors of

Tirhut area to the south, became a popular court language during the seventeenth century and still was spoken by many people in the Terai in the late twentieth century. In the west, Khas bhasha, or the language of the Khasa, was slowly expanding, only later to evolve into present-day Nepali.[20][18]

The final centuries of Malla rule were a time of great political change outside the Kathmandu Valley. In India overlordship in Delhi fell to the powerful Mughal dynasty (1526–1858). Although the Mughals never exercised direct lordship over Nepal, their empire had a major indirect impact on its institutional life. During the sixteenth century, when the Mughals were spreading their rule over almost all of South Asia, many dispossessed princes from the plains of northern India found shelter in the hills to the north.[20]

Legends indicated that many small principalities in western Nepal originated in migration and conquest by exiled warriors, who added to the slow spread of the Khasa language and culture in the west. Along with these exiles came Mughal military technology, including

firearms and artillery, and administrative techniques based on land grants in return for military service. The influence of the Mughals is reflected in the weapons and dress of Malla rulers in contemporary paintings and in the adoption of Persian terminology for administrative offices and procedures throughout Nepal.[20]

Meanwhile, in Tibet domestic struggles during the 1720s led to decisive intervention by the powerful Qing rulers of China (1644–1911). A Chinese force installed the 6th Dalai Lama (the highest ranking Tibetan religious leaders) in Lhasa in 1728, and thereafter the Chinese stationed military governors (amban) in Lhasa to monitor local events. In 1729 representatives of the three Nepalese kingdoms sent greetings and presents to the Chinese emperor in Beijing, after which the Qing viewed Nepal as an outlying tributary kingdom (a perception not shared within Nepal). The expansion of big empires in both the north and south thus took place during a time when Nepal was experiencing considerable weakness in its traditional center. The three kingdoms lived a charmed life—isolated, independent, and quarrelling in their mountain valley—as the systems around them became larger and more centralized.[20]

By the seventeenth century, the mountain areas to the north of the valley and the Kiranti region to the east were the only areas that maintained traditional tribal communal systems, influenced to various degrees by Hindu ideas and practices. In the west and the south of the three kingdoms, there were many petty states ruled by dynasties of a warrior (

Karnali River system, there was a separate confederation called the Baisi (the Twenty-two), headed by the Raja of Jumla. The confederations were in constant conflict, and their member states were constantly quarreling with each other. The kingdoms of Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhadgaon periodically allied themselves with princes among these confederations. All of these small, increasingly militarized states were operating individually at a higher level of centralized organization than ever before in the hills, but they were expending their resources in an almost anarchic struggle for survival. There was an awareness of the distinct culture of the Himalayan area but no real concept of Nepal as a nation.[20]

Portuguese

The first contacts between the people of Nepal and

Europeans also occurred during the period of the later Mallas. In 1623 the Portuguese from Goa sent missionaries António de Andrade, João Cabral and Estêvão Cacella visited Lhasa in 1628, after which Cabral traveled to Nepal.[21] The mission was to find Christian kingdoms allied with the Portuguese to propagate the faith and trade. In the early stages, they thought it was the mythical kingdom of Catai.[21] The offer of gifts also took place in other kingdoms such as same happened in Bhutan, where military support was offered by the Portuguese against the enemy kingdoms.[22] This gesture aimed at creating an alliance that would allow converting and creating new convents as well as expanding the Portuguese influence in Asia.[23] In 1670 King Pratap Malla invited the Jesuits to settle in the country. The first Capuchin mission was founded in Kathmandu in 1715.[24]

British

By 1764 the British East India Company, officially a private trading corporation with its own army had obtained from a decaying Mughal Empire the right to govern all of Bengal, at that time one of the most prosperous areas in Asia. The company explored possibilities for expanding its trade or authority into Nepal, Bhutan, and toward Tibet, where the Nepalese had their own trading agencies in important settlements. The increasingly powerful company was emerging as a wild card that could, in theory, be played by one or more of the kingdoms in Nepal during local struggles, potentially opening the entire Himalayan region to British penetration.[20]

End

The Malla dynasty ruled the Kathmandu Valley until Prithvi Narayan Shah of the Gorkha Kingdom invaded it in 1768-69 CE with the Battle of Kirtipur. The last Malla kings were Jaya Prakash Malla of Kantipur (i.e. Kathmandu), Tej Narsingh Malla of Lalitpur and Ranajit Malla of Bhaktapur. Prithvi Narayan Shah and his Gokhali troops surrounded the Kathmandu Valley. Jaya Prakash Malla was all alone. So, to render help, he called the East India Company, which was commanded by the British. There was a massive battle and at the end, the Gorkhali did win. With this, Jay Prakash Malla went to Patan. Then Tej Narasingh Malla and Jaya Prakash Malla fled to Bhaktapur. Similarly, the Gorkhali troops captured Patan and when it came to Bhaktapur, a fight ensued. This resulted in the victory of Prithvi Narayan Shah over Kathmandu Valley and marked the end of Malla period.

Jaya Prakash Malla was killed by Prithvi Narayan Shah during the celebration of

Indra Jatra
. It was a time when all of the people were celebrating, and many of them were unconscious as they were drunk, which gave Prithvi Narayan Shah the advantage to assassinate his fellow rival.

Legacy of Malla dynasty

The rivalry between the three kingdoms of the Kathmandu Valley found its expression not only in warfare but also in the arts and culture, which flourished in the competitive climate, quite similar to that of Renaissance Italy. The outstanding collections of exquisite temples and building in each city's Durbar Square are a testament to the huge amounts of money spent by rulers striving to outdo each other.[17]

The building boom was financed by trade, in everything from musk and wool to salt, Chinese silk and even yak tails. The Kathmandu Valley stood at the departure point for two separate routes into Tibet, via

pagodas and ornately carved royal palaces. In the mid-17th century Nepal gained the right to mint Tibet's coins using Tibetan silver, further enriching the kingdom's coffers.[17]

In Kathmandu King Pratap Malla (r. 1641–74) oversaw that city's cultural high point with the construction of the Hanuman Dhoka palace, the Rani Pokhari pond and the first of several subsequent pillars that featured a statue of the king facing the protective temples of Taleju, who the Mallas had by that time adopted as their protective deity. The mid-17th century also saw a high point of building in Patan.[25]

The Malla era shaped the religious as well as artistic landscape, introducing the dramatic chariot festivals of

Matsyendranath. The Malla kings shored up their position by claiming to be reincarnations of the Hindu god Vishnu. They also worshipped Kumari, a living goddess believed to be the reincarnation of goddess Taleju.[26]

The cosmopolitan Mallas also absorbed foreign influences. The Indian Mughal court influenced Malla dress and painting, presented the Nepalese with firearms and introduced a system of land grants for military services, a system which would have a profound effect in later years. In the early 18th century, during the reign of Pratap Malla, Capuchin missionaries passed through Nepal to Tibet, and when they returned home gave the West its first description of exotic Kathmandu.[26]

After the defeat of the Malla Kings, their surviving descendants left the valley and settled in different parts of Nepal.[27] Their descendants have been using surnames like Malla, Raghubansi, Rajbanshi, Pradhananga, Pradhan, among others.

List of Malla rulers

See also

Footnotes

  1. JSTOR 603754
    .
  2. ^ Gellner, David N. (1986). "Language, Caste, Religion and Territory: Newar Identity Ancient and Modern". European Journal of Sociology. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
  3. ^ Yadav, Ramawatar (2011). "Medieval Maithili stagecraft in the Nepalamandala: the Bhaktapur school". Contributions to Nepalese Studies.
  4. . Page 3.
  5. . Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  6. ^ Fisher 1978, p. 487.
  7. . Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  8. . Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  9. .
  10. ^ a b Shrestha, D.B.; Singh, C.B. (1972). The History of Ancient and Medieval Nepal (PDF). University of Cambridge.
  11. ^ Kessler, P. L. "Kingdoms of South Asia - Nepal". The History Files. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  12. ^ Regmi, Mahesh C. Regmi Research Series (PDF). University of Cambridge. p. 252.
  13. ^ a b c d e f Savada. History, The Malla Kings.
  14. ISBN 9788120725089. Archived from the original
    on 16 February 2018. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  15. . Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  16. ^ Newar.
  17. ^ a b c d Bindloss et al. p34.
  18. ^ a b c d e f Hays, Jeffrey. "EARLY NEPAL DYNASTIES: LICCHAVIS AND THE MALLA KINGS | Facts and Details". factsanddetails.com. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  19. ^ Jing
  20. ^ a b c d e f g Savada. History, Three Kingdoms.
  21. ^ a b Oliveira, Bruna (2009). "A missão Tibetana na Correspondência Jesuíta (1624-1631)" (PDF).
  22. ^ Didier, Hugues (2000). "OS PORTUGUESES NO TIBETE os PRIMEIROS RELATOS DOS JESUÍTAS (1624-1635) Estudo histórico de" (PDF).
  23. .
  24. .
  25. ^ Bindloss et al. Nepal. p34-35.
  26. ^ a b Bindloss et al. Nepal. p35.
  27. ^ Where Have All The Mallas Gone?: The Descendants of the Mallas, Sampada Malla & Dinesh Rai, ECS Nepal, Jul.19.2010 Archived 2014-03-15 at the Wayback Machine

References

External links