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A cursory Notice of Nayakote. By B. H. Hodgson, Esq. Resident at 

 the Court of Nepal. 



Nayakote, or the hither Nayakote as it is often called, to distinguish 

 it from Nayakote of the Choubisi, is the name of a petty town and 

 district lying WNW. seventeen miles from Cathmandoo, by the high 

 road to Gorkha. The town (so to speak) is situated at the northern 

 extremity of the district, upon a spur descending south-westerly from 

 mount Dhaibung, or Jebjibiar, at about a mile distant from the river 

 Trisool on the west, and the same from the river Tadi, or Surajmatti, 

 on the south and east. The town consists of from 60 to 100 pukka 

 three-storied houses, in the Chinese style of Cathmandoo, chiefly own- 

 ed by the court and chiefs ; of a durbar, called the upper, to distin- 

 guish it from the lower one on the banks of the Tadi, and of a temple 

 to Bhairavi, all in the like style of architecture. The town forms only 

 a single street, lying in an indentation on the crest of the ridge, and 

 is consequently not visible from below on any side, though the durbar 

 and temple, from being placed higher, are so partially. Nayakote, up 

 to the late war with the English, was the winter residence of the pre- 

 sent dynasty of Nepal : but as the situation of the town is bleak and 

 uncomfortable at that season, the court and chiefs then usually resided 

 in mansions still standing at the base of the hill towards the Tadi, but 

 now a good deal dilapidated like the town residences, owing to the 

 court having been stationary at Cathmandoo since 1813. The dis- 

 trict, like the edifices of the great, bears marks of neglect, which are the 

 more palpable by reason of a considerable portion of it being devoted to 

 gardens and orchards, the property in a great measure of the owners of 

 those edifices. The elevation of the town above the level of the Trisool 

 must be from 800 to 1,000 feet, and the effect of this elevation in con- 

 cealing it is aided on the side towards the Tadi by a fine forest of saul 

 trees occupying the whole declivity. On other aspects the saul trees, 

 inherent to the whole site, are reduced to scrubby brush-wood by 

 perpetual injudicious cutting and defoliation, the leaves being used as 

 plates to eat from, and being perpetually carried to Cathmandoo for 

 sale there. This ridge has a soil of a deep red clay, and its general 

 form is rounded, but broken by deep ruts and ravines in most direc- 

 tions. Towards the Trisool west, and towards the Tadi south and 



