This paper traces the origins and early history of Nepal from Neolithic settlements in the Kathmandu Valley through the major political and cultural dynasties that shaped the nation. It examines the migration of Aryan and Tibeto-Burman peoples, the emergence of early confederations such as the Sakya clan — birthplace of the Buddha — and the influence of the Mauryan and Gupta empires on Nepalese religion, art, and governance. The paper also covers the rise of the Licchavi, Malla, and Shah periods, the unification under Prithvi Narayan Shah, and Nepal's gradual opening to the outside world through the mid-twentieth century.
Neolithic tools found in the Kathmandu Valley indicate that people were living in the Himalayan region in the distant past, although their culture and artifacts are only slowly being explored. Written references to this region appeared only by the first millennium B.C. During that period, political or social groupings in Nepal became known in north India. The Mahabharata and other legendary Indian histories mention the Kiratas (Roberts, History of the World), who still inhabited eastern Nepal in 1991.
Some legendary sources from the Kathmandu Valley also describe the Kiratas as early rulers there, taking over from earlier Gopals or Abhiras, both of whom may have been cowherding tribes. These sources agree that an original population, probably of Tibeto-Burman ethnicity, lived in Nepal 2,500 years ago, inhabiting small settlements with a relatively low degree of political centralization.
Monumental changes occurred when groups of tribes calling themselves the Arya migrated into northwest India between 2000 B.C. and 1500 B.C. By the first millennium B.C., their culture had spread throughout northern India. Their many small kingdoms were constantly at war amid the dynamic religious and cultural environment of early Hinduism (Shrestha, History of Ancient and Medieval Nepal). By 500 B.C., a cosmopolitan society was growing around urban sites linked by trade routes that stretched throughout South Asia and beyond.
On the edges of the Gangetic Plain, in the Tarai Region, smaller kingdoms or confederations of tribes grew up, responding to dangers from larger kingdoms and opportunities for trade. It is probable that a slow and steady migration of Khasa peoples (Majumdar, History of India) speaking Indo-Aryan languages was occurring in western Nepal during this period. This movement of peoples would continue until modern times and expand to include the eastern Tarai as well (Majumdar).
One of the early confederations of the Tarai was the Sakya clan, whose seat apparently was Kapilavastu, near Nepal's present-day border with India. Their most renowned son was Siddhartha Gautama (ca. 563–483 B.C.), a prince who rejected the world to search for the meaning of existence and became known as the Buddha, or the Enlightened One.
The earliest stories of his life recount his wanderings in the area stretching from the Tarai to Banaras on the Ganges River and into modern Bihar State in India, where he found enlightenment at Gaya — still the site of one of the greatest Buddhist shrines. After his death and cremation, his ashes were distributed among some of the major kingdoms and confederations and were enshrined under mounds of earth or stone called stupas. His religion was certainly known at a very early date in Nepal through the Buddha's ministry and the activities of his disciples (Shrestha).
The political struggles and urbanization of north India culminated in the great Mauryan Empire, which at its height under Ashoka (reigned 268–31 B.C.) covered almost all of South Asia and stretched into Afghanistan in the west. There is no proof that Nepal was ever formally included in the empire, although records of Ashoka are located at Lumbini, the Buddha's birthplace, in the Tarai. Nevertheless, the empire had important cultural and political consequences for Nepal. First, Ashoka himself embraced Buddhism, and during his reign the religion became established in the Kathmandu Valley and throughout much of Nepal.
Ashoka was known as a great builder of stupas, and his archaic style is preserved in four mounds on the outskirts of Patan (now often referred to as Lalitpur), locally called Ashoka stupas, and possibly in the Svayambhunath (or Swayambhunath) stupa. Second, along with religion came an entire cultural style centered on the king as the upholder of dharma, or the cosmic law of the universe. This political concept of the king as the righteous center of the political system had a powerful impact on all later South Asian governments and continued to play a major role in modern Nepal.
The Mauryan Empire declined after the second century B.C., and north India entered a period of political disunity. The extended urban and commercial systems expanded to include much of Inner Asia, however, and close contacts were maintained with European merchants. Nepal was apparently a distant part of this commercial network, as even Ptolemy and other Greek writers of the second century knew of the Kiratas as a people living near China. The Gupta emperors united North India again in the fourth century.
Their capital was the old Mauryan center of Pataliputra (present-day Patna in Bihar State), during what Indian writers often describe as a golden age of artistic and cultural creativity. The greatest conqueror of this dynasty was Samudragupta (reigned ca. 353–73), who claimed that the "lord of Nepal" paid him taxes and tribute and obeyed his commands. It remains impossible to determine who this lord may have been, what area he ruled, or whether he was truly a subordinate of the Guptas. Some of the earliest examples of Nepalese art show that the culture of north India during Gupta times exercised a decisive influence on the Nepali language, religion, and artistic expression.
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