King of Nepal

Who he is

Name

Not pinned: either the last Deva-line king named in the chronicle lists (Vijayakamadeva II is the last name before Arideva), or Arideva (Arimalla)

Title

King (raja, maharajadhiraja) of the Nepal valley

Since

Reading A: not known. Reading B: NS 320 or 321 (1199-1200). Reading C: 1201.

Born

not known

Family

Arideva's son Abhaya Malla succeeds in 1216 (Wikipedia); Arideva's parentage and the family tie to the Deva kings are not known.

Confidence

low

We could read no dated colophon or inscription of NS 320 to 322 naming a king. Wikipedia's Malla page gives Arideva (Ari Malla) 1201-1216 in its table and 'reigned 1200-16' in its text; the campaign board says the accession is placed in 1200 and 'the month is not recoverable'. Both readings are given and neither is seated.

What it holds

• the royal palace at Bhaktapur (Khwopa)
• the royal domain of the valley floor and the eastern rim
• the king's share of the tolls on the Kuti and Kyirong roads
• the right to endow and confirm the temples and guthi of the three towns

How it was acquired

Not pinned (see the realm record).

Allies and rivals

The thakkura houses of Banepa, Nuwakot and Dolakha, who hold the outposts on the Tibet roads and whose successors fight for the throne after 1249; the Karnata king at Simraungarh; the Buddhist sangha of Patan; the priests of Pashupati.

How things stand that morning

The king is at Bhaktapur, which sits on the eastern side of the valley, the side that faces Tibet; his hold on Patan and Kathmandu is that of a king who confirms trusts and takes tolls, not of a lord who garrisons (our reading; no source we read describes the hold).

Wealth

Tolls and market dues, the royal domain's rice, the gifts and fines that go with the confirmation of guthi and temple endowments.

Military

No army is recorded and no number is known.

Threats

• the thakkura houses
• the Karnata army from the south
• a famine under his reign, which the chronicle remembers for Arimalla

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1200 or 1201Arideva (Arimalla) takes the throne if he does not hold it already.Depends on: The death or fall of the last Deva king and the consent of the nobles and of Pashupati's priests. Stopped by: A contest between kings of the Deva list, which Wikipedia's Thakuri page admits historians cannot untangle.

Places of note

• The royal palace at Bhaktapur: The seat; the standing palace of fifty-five windows is later work, only the site and the court are of 1200.

Where the sources disagree

• Working reading kept on this map: reading A, a Deva-line king nobody names sits at Bhaktapur on 1 January 1200 and Arideva takes the throne in 1200 or 1201 as the likely course (full reasons on the Nepal realm record). Reading B seats Arideva already; reading C puts him in 1201.
• The campaign board says 'Who exactly is sitting here on 1 January 1200 is the problem of this power' (bhaktapur): this record agrees and gives both readings.

Evidence: Chronicle lists compiled in the fourteenth century and Wikipedia's summaries of Petech; no dated record of a king in NS 320 to 322 was found.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: The valley floor is certain as Nepal; the split between king, towns and noble houses is not documented.

Primary sources for Nepal valley

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Gopala Raja Chronicle, and the Nepalese colophons, Anonymous (chronicle); various scribes (colophons) (the chronicle about 1389; the colophons are contemporary notes of the 11th to 14th centuries). The Nepal valley in 1200 is known chiefly from dated manuscript colophons and short inscriptions, which name the reigning king with the Nepal era year, and from the Gopalarajavamsavali, a chronicle written about 1389 that lists the kings with regnal years.
• History of Buddhism in India and Tibet, Buton Rinchen Drub (Bu ston Rin chen grub) (1322). Optional background. Read online
• The Blue Annals, Go Lotsawa Zhonnu Pal ('Gos lo tsa ba gZhon nu dpal) (1476 to 1478). The fullest Tibetan account of who mattered around 1200, written three centuries later from earlier biographies and lineage records, many now lost. Read online
• The Sakya genealogy, and the works of the Sakya hierarch of 1200, Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen (Grags pa rgyal mtshan) and Sakya Pandita; the genealogy by Ngawang Kunga Sonam (the hierarchs' writings about 1170 to 1250; the genealogy 1629). Sakya in 1200 was ruled by Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen, the third of the five founders, with his nephew Kunga Gyaltsen (later Sakya Pandita, born 1182) under his teaching. Read online