The Nepal valley under its king

Who rules

Name

Not pinned. Reading A: the last king of the old Deva line in the chronicle lists, Vijayakamadeva II being the last name before Arideva. Reading B: Arideva (Arimalla) is already on the throne.

Title

King (raja, maharajadhiraja) of the Nepal valley

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Family

The Deva line, which the Gopalarajavamsavali names after Anandadeva (reigned 1146-1167 on Wikipedia's Bhaktapur page) as Rudradeva, Amritadeva, Ratnadeva II, Somesvaradeva, Gunakamadeva II, Lakshmikamadeva III and Vijayakamadeva II, then Arideva (Arimalla), the first king to use the surname Malla.

Confidence

low

Nepal Samvat 321 runs from about 22 October 1199 (Julian; computed from the new moon of 21 October, with a day's tolerance) to about 9 October 1200, so 1 January 1200 falls in NS 321. The conventional placing of Arideva's accession is 1200 (Wikipedia's text: 'reigned 1200-16') or 1201 (its table: 1201-1216); his son Abhaya Malla follows in 1216. No source we could read gives a dated colophon naming a king in NS 320 to 322, so the king of 1 January 1200 is not known by name.

Wikipedia's Thakuri page says historians differ about the reigns of several kings of this run.

What the realm holds

• Bhaktapur (Khwopa), the seat of the king, on the eastern side of the valley that faces the Tibet road
• Kathmandu (Yambu) and Patan (Yala), the market and craft towns
• Deopatan and the temple of Pashupati, the royal cult
• the rim towns Sankhu, Banepa, Panauti, Nala, Bungamati and Kirtipur
• Nuwakot above the Trishuli, which watches the Kyirong road
• Dolakha and the Tamakoshi copper hills on the Kuti road
• tolls and markets on both Tibet roads
• the temple and guthi endowments of the valley

How it was acquired

Not pinned. The kings of the valley trace their right through the Thakuri and Licchavi lines; Anandadeva (1146-1167, Gopalarajavamsavali as given on Wikipedia) is credited with drawing the scattered settlements of Bhaktapur into one capital. The Karnata king Nanyadeva of Mithila attacked Nuwakot about the end of the eleventh century (a Simraungarh pillar dates his rise to 10 July 1097).

Allies and rivals

South: the Karnata kings of Mithila at Simraungarh, who have raided the hills before and are the standing danger; Wikipedia's Karnat dynasty page says the Malla dynasty under Arimalla 'likely broke off from Karnata suzerainty' and gives no date, so whether the valley's king owes the Karnata anything on 1 January 1200 is open. North: the lordships of Mangyul across the passes (Kyirong, Kuti, Dingri), trade partners, with the Tibetan lamas who come for Newar artists and for the shrines. West: the Khasa kings of Sinja, far off and not yet a threat (their first dated attack on the valley is of NS 408, 1288).

South-west beyond the tarai: the Ghurid conquest of the Ganges plain (Benares fell in 1194) and Bakhtiyar Khalji's raiding in Bihar, which cut the pilgrim road to the Buddhist sites of the plain.

The realm that morning

A single kingdom in practice, with a king at Bhaktapur and strong local nobles and trusts; the Malla change of name and, on some readings, of king is at hand but not seated. The passes are open between about April and November; the Kuti road is the shorter and the Kyirong road the gentler. Nothing in the sources we could read dates a war, a truce or a raid on the valley in the winter of 1199-1200.

Wealth

Tolls and market dues on the two Tibet roads; rice and the valley's irrigated land; copper from the Tamakoshi hills worked into bronzes, gilt-copper images and repousse at Patan; painters and carvers whom Tibetan houses commission; the endowed lands of the temples and the guthi. Coin evidence for the 1190s is thin and no money figure is given here.

Military

No army is recorded and no number is known. The king has his household guard and the retinues of the thakkura houses, hill forts (kot) at Nuwakot and on the rim, and a natural defence in the Mahabharat range, the fever of the tarai and single-file roads such as the Chandragiri and Chobar approaches.

Threats

• Karnata raids from Simraungarh by the Chandragiri road (the next dated Tirhut attack is of 1245 and reaches Gokarna)
• an ambitious thakkura house at Bhaktapur or Banepa: the Tripura and Bhonta houses that fight over the throne after 1249 are not yet attested
• famine and epidemic, which the Gopalarajavamsavali ties to Arimalla's reign
• Muslim raiding on the plains south of the tarai (Bakhtiyar Khalji's Bihar raid is dated about 1199 to 1200 by careful modern work, 1203 by others)

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 1201 (month not recoverable)Arideva (Arimalla) takes the throne as the first king to use the name Malla; a great famine and epidemic is remembered under his reign.Depends on: The death or fall of the last Deva king; acceptance by the nobles and by the priests of Pashupati. Wikipedia's table gives 1201-1216 and its text 1200-16; the Gopalarajavamsavali is the source for the famine and has no date for it inside the reign. Stopped by: If Arideva was already king by NS 320 or 321 there is no event to play; if two Deva kings reigned at once (Wikipedia says historians differ on the reigns of several) there is a contest.
2. 1216 and later (not yet true on 1 January 1200)Abhaya Malla succeeds Arimalla in 1216; the Tirhut army of Ramasimhadeva reaches Gokarna in 1245; a great earthquake on 7 June 1255 kills the king and a third of the people; the Khasa raid the valley in NS 408 (1288).Depends on: These are later events from Wikipedia's Abhaya Malla and Gopalarajavamsavali pages and are given only so the campaign can see where the line goes. Stopped by: Anything that changes the Karnata, Khasa or noble conditions in play.

Places of note

• Bhaktapur (Khwopa), the royal seat: Palace and capital since Anandadeva (1146-1167).
• Kathmandu (Yambu): Market town at the crossing of the India and Tibet roads.
• Patan (Yala): Buddhist and craft town.
• Deopatan and Pashupatinath: Shaiva shrine town; royal cult.
• Nuwakot: Hill fort above the Trishuli on the Kyirong road.
• Dolakha: Eastern hill town on the Kuti road.

Where the sources disagree

• Working reading kept on this map (finishing pass): reading A. On 1 January 1200 the throne is held by a king of the old Deva line whom no source names, and Arideva (Arimalla) is not yet king. Why: no dated source seats Arideva before 1 January 1200; both of Wikipedia's dates for his accession (1200 and 1201) fall on or after that morning; and the brief and the campaign board say not to seat him without a dated source. Reading B (Arideva already king in Nepal Samvat 321, which runs from late October 1199 to early October 1200) and reading C (1201) stay open and the campaign may choose them. If a name is wanted for the Deva king, the last name the chronicle list gives before Arideva is Vijayakamadeva II, but nothing dates his reign.
• The campaign board entry calendar and the Bhaktapur note: 'Ananda Deva is credited with making Bhaktapur the capital in the middle of the twelfth century'. Wikipedia's Bhaktapur page says he ruled 1146-1167 and does not date the move of the capital; compatible, not documented.
• The campaign board entry powers text: 'Malla line reckoned to start with Arimalla in this very year'. Wikipedia gives 1200 in one place and 1201 in another for the same man.
• Wikipedia's Thakuri page lists the kings after Shivadeva III (1099-1126) with no dates and warns that historians differ; we give the names as the chronicle list and not as dated reigns.

Evidence: The chronicles (Gopalarajavamsavali, composed in the fourteenth century and commissioned under Jayasthiti Malla, with the earlier part muddled) and a few colophons are all there is for the century before Arimalla; Wikipedia pages summarise Petech and Regmi and we could not read them directly. Everything after Arimalla is far better dated.

"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 and its rim follow the Nepal Mandala of the Shiva pilgrimage reckoning (Brahmeswar at Nuwakot to Bhimeswar at Dolakha). The reach of the king over the hills north and west of the polygon is not documented; they are drawn as peoples.

Primary sources for this realm

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