गोर्खालीलाइ भारतीय भन्दै भारत

The Shah era of Nepal began with the Gorkha king Prithvi Narayan Shah invading Kathmandu valley, which consisted of the capital of the Malla confederacy. Until that time only the Kathmandu valley was referred to as Nepal. The confederacy requested the East India Company for help and an ill-equipped and ill-prepared expedition numbering 2,500 was led by Captain Kinloch in 1767. The expedition was a disaster; the Gorkhali army easily overpowered those who had not succumbed to malaria or desertion. This ineffectual British force provided the Gorkhali with firearms and filled the Gorkhas with overconfidence, causing them to underestimate their opponents in future wars.

Victory and occupation of the Kathmandu Valley by Prithvi Narayan Shah, starting with the Battle of Kirtipur, resulted in the shift of the capital of his kingdom from Gorkha to Kathmandu, and subsequently the empire that he and his descendents built came to be known as Nepal. Also, the invasion of the wealthy Kathmandu Valley provided the Gorkha army with economic support for furthering their martial ambitions throughout the region. The campaign in the eastern region was largely a failure. After a number of defeats to the Limbuwan army, the Gorkha army finally made a peace treaty with Limbuwan and incorporated the Limbuwan states into the kingdom under a mutual pact. In the west, all rulers as far as the Kali River had submitted or been replaced by 1790. Farther west still, the Kumaon Kingdom with its capital Almora also lost the war with the Gorkhali in 1791 under Bahadur Shah, the second son of Prithvi Narayan Shah.

To the north however, aggressive raids into Tibet (concerning a long-standing dispute over trade and control of the mountain passes) triggered Chinese intervention. In 1792 the Qianlong Emperor sent an army, expelling the Nepalese from Tibet to within 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) of their capital at Kathmandu. Acting regent Bahadur Shah (Prithvi Naryan’s younger son) appealed to the then British Governor-General of India for help. Anxious to avoid confrontation with the Chinese, the Governor-General did not send troops but sent Captain Kirkpatrick as mediator. However, before he arrived the war with China had finished. The Nepalese were forced into signing a humiliating treaty revoking their trading privileges in Tibet and requiring them to pay tribute to Peking every five years.

The Tibet affair had postponed a previously planned attack on the Garhwal Kingdom, but by 1803 the Raja of Garhwal, Pradyuman Shah, had also been defeated. He was killed in the struggle in January 1804 and all his land annexed. Further west, general Amar Singh Thapa overran lands as far as Kangra – the strongest fort in the hill region – and laid siege to it. However, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the ruler of the Sikh state in Punjab, intervened and drove the Nepalese army east of the Sutlej river by 1809.