60 Gaur Das Bysack — Notes on a Buddhist Monastery [No. 1, 
the subjection of that warlike tribe. It is said that unhoard of cruelties 
wero perpetrated in this war, which were witnessed by two members of 
the Roman Catholic Mission. This warfare, brought on by internecine 
dissensions, led one of the Nopalese old dynasties to entreat for aid 
from the English in India, with the result of the despatch, in 1769, 
perhaps for the first time, of a forco undor Captain Kinloch to the 
frontiers, though it proved unfructuous. Following close upon the 
Gorkha conquest of Nepal, Depa Shidar, 1 the chief of Bhutan, urged by 
purely hostile propensities, pounced upon Sikkim, retained possession of 
it, for a short while, and subsequently in 1772, when Warren Hastings 
had just assumed the rule of Bengal, invaded the Kuch Behar Raj.* 
This Raj, in its distress, sought the aid of that keen-sighted statesman, 
who lost no time to send a battalion of native infantry against the 
invaders. 3 The Bhutanese, after a desperate resistance, were utterly 
routed, pursued into their fastnesses, and forced to sue for peace. Depa 
Shidar entreatod the Tashi Lama who was then Regent of Tibot and 
principalities governed by three branches who had their respective capitals in 
Kathmandu, Lalita Pattan and Bhatgaon. These were snbvertod by the Gorkha 
chief. Their roligion was Buddhist, but they recognised caste. Their descendants, 
now obsoure, still follow the Buddhist faith. The dissensions of tho kings of the 
three principalities led to tho chief of Bha(g£on to sock the aid of the Gorkha 
Ppithvi Narayan who, after subduing the enemies of his ally, turned his arms againBt 
the latter, and after long years of fighting made himself completely master of the 
whole country. 
1 JDepa Shidar ’ also called De-tar-yag or De-tar-ya, the “Dell 
Terria” of Turner. 
s Knoh Behar, a state on the north-east frontier of British India. It lies 
betwcon Bengal and Assam, and is divided from Bhutan by tho Dudre. In olden 
times it was very extensive, and formed the western division of the anoient Kamrup 
Kaj. Tho name of tho place is a museum of mythic history. According to a certain 
Tantra (the Yogini) Hipa Devi was a great devotee of S'iva who incarnated himself 
and lived in Kuchintpdrd, a settlement of the Kuch or Konch tribe, and tho fruit of 
his amour with her was a chief who beeamo a great Raja, and as the Raj was the result 
of S'iva’s vihdra {cor. Behar) or ‘ dalliance,’ the State received the appellation of 
Kuch Vihdr. Kamrup is the mine of the Tantras, and hence these works spread on 
both sides, to the hills and the plains. Wilson, in a note in his translation of the 
Vi B hnn Purina, includes Kuch Bohar in the Matsya De(a. 
a Hastings in his two letters to Sir George Colebrooko and John Purling 
dated, respectively, 15th January and 81st March 1773, writes of the famine and of 
this war. Among other things, ho says, “ I shall over oppose remoto projects of con- 
quests, yet I Bhall sedulously promote every undertaking which can complete the 
line of our possessions or add to its security.” The Bhutanese “ are a resolute and 
daring poople. They mado a desporato defence of the fort of Behar.” (Oooch 
Behar.) “ Many of them meeting death at the muzzle of the sepoys’ pieces.” (See 
Gleig’s Memoirs of Warren Hastings, I. pp. 278 and 295.) 
