﻿THE KINGDOM OF NEPAL. 315 



are always interred ; and when the war was ended, I 

 myself went to see the monuments upon the hills. 



I believe that the kingdom of Nepal is very ancient, 

 because it has always preserved its peculiar language 

 ant independence ; but the cause of its ruin is the 

 dissention which subsists a>"nong the three kings. 

 After the death of their sovereign, the nobles of Lelit 

 Pattan nominated for :heir king Gainprejas, a man 

 possessed of the greatest influence in Nepal; altho* 

 some years afterwards they removed him from his 

 government, and conferred it upon the king of 

 Bhatgan; but he also a short time afterwards was de- 

 posed ; and, after having put to death another king 

 who succeeded him, they made an offer of the go- 

 vernment to Prifhwhtarayan , who had already com- 

 menced war. Priflnvinarayan deputed one of his 

 brothers, by name Delmerden Sah, to govern the king- 

 dom of Lelit Pa/tan, and he was in the actual govern- 

 ment of it when I arrived at Nepal; but the nobles 

 perceiving that Prifhwinarayan still continued to in- 

 * terrupt the tranquillity of the kingdom, they disclaim- 

 ed all subjection to him, and acknowledged for their 

 sovereign Delmerden Salt, who continued the war 

 against his brother Prifhwmaraydn : but some years 

 afterwards they even deposed Delmerden Sah, and 

 • elected in his room a poor man of Lelit Pattan, who 

 was of royal origin. 



The king of Bhatgan, in order to wage war with the 

 other kings of Nepal, had demanded assistance from 

 Prit'hzvinarayan ; but seeing that Prit'/izuinarayanwas 

 possessing himself of the country, he was obliged to 

 desist, and to take measures for the defence of his 

 own possessions; so that the king of Gorc'/ia, although 

 he had been formerly a subject of Gainprejas, taking 

 advantage of the dissentions which prevailed among 

 the other kings of Nepal, attached to his party many 



