Saturday, June 5, 2010

Kirat Period

Nepal's very first recorded or discovered history began with the Kiratis, who arrived in the 7th or 8th century BCE from the east to the Kathmandu valley (now the capital of Nepal). Little is known about them, other than their deftness as sheep farmers and great fondness for carrying long knives. The Kirats ruled for about 1225 years (800 BCE-300 CE), their reign had a total of 29 kings during that time. Their first and best-remembered king was Yalambar, who is referenced in the epic Mahabharata.
In the chronicle of Bansawali William Kirk Patrick mentions that the Kirat rule existed from about 900 BCE to 300 CE. During this long period altogether 29 Kirat Kings ruled over the country. The 29 Kirat Kings were;
Yellung Hang or Yalambar
Pari Hang
Skandhar Hang
Balamba Hang
Hriti Hang
Humati Hang
Jitedasti Hang
Galinja Hang
Oysgja Hang
Suyarma Hang
Papa Hang
Bunka Hang
Swawnanda Hang
Sthunko Hang
Jinghri Hang
Nane Hang
Luka Hang
Thor Hang
Thoko Hang
Verma Hang
Guja Hang
Pushkar Hang
Keshu Hang
Suja Hang
Sansa Hang
Gunam Hang
Khimbu Hang
Paruka Hang
Gasti Hang
The 1st Kirat King Yalambar laid the foundation of the Kirat dynasty after defeating the last ruler of the Abhir dynasty. When Kirats occupied the valley, they made Matatirtha their capital. The Kirat kingdom during the rule of Yalambar had extended to Tista in the East and Trisidi in the West. It is said Yalambar had gone to witness the battle of Mahabharata between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. He was so brave and powerful that Lord Krishna beheaded him prior to the battle suspecting he might fight for the Kauravas.
The 7th Kirat King 'Jitedasti'
During the rule of the 7th Kirat King Jitedasti, Lord Gautam Buddha visited the valley with his several disciples. He visited holy places of Swayambhu, Guheswari, etc., and preached his religious teaching. The Kirats of the valley refused to follow his doctrine but welcomed Lord Buddha and his disciples.
The 14th Kiirat King 'Sthunko'
During the rule of the 14th Kirat King Sthunko, the Indian Emperor Ashok came to the Kathmandu Valley with his daughter, princess Charumati. During his stay in the valley, he had four stupas built in four directions and one in the centre of Patan. He arranged his daughter Charumati's marriage with a local young prince named Devpal. Prince Devpal and his consort Charumati lived at Chabahil near Pashupati area. Later Charumati had the stupas of Devpatan built after the death of her husband in his memory. Charumati who had later on become a nun herself also got erected a convent where she resided and practiced Lord Buddha's doctrine.
The 15th Kirat king 'Jinghri'
During the rule of the 15th Kirat King Jinghri, another religious doctrine, Jainism, was being preached by Mahavir Jain in India. In this regard, Bhadrabhau, a disciple of Mahavir Jain, came to Nepal. But Jainism did not gain as much popularity as Buddhism in Nepal.
The 28th Kirat King 'Paruka'
During the rule of the 28th Kirat King Paruka, the Sombanshi ruler attacked his regime many times from the west. Although he successfully repelled their attacks, he was forced to move to Shankhamul from Gokarna. He had a royal palace called "Patuka" built there for him. The 'Patuka' palace can no longer be seen, except its ruins in the form of a mound. Patuka changed Shankhamul into a beautiful town.
The 29th Kirat King 'Gasti'
The last King of the Kirat dynasty was Gasti. He proved to be a dimpled or weak ruler and was overthrown by the Sombanshi ruler Nimisha. This ended the powerful Kirat dynasty that had lasted for about 1225 years. After their defeat, the Kirats moved to the Eastern hills of Nepal and settled down, divided into small principalities. Their settlements were divided into three regions, i.e., 'Wallokirat' that lay to the East of the Kathmandu Valley (now the capital of Nepal), 'Majkirat' or Central Kirat region and 'Pallokirat' that lay to the far East of the Kathmandu valley (now the capital of Nepal). These regions are still heavily populated by Kirats.

30 comments:

  1. i really happy to read this, thank you so much.

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    1. yalamber participate mahabharat but mahabharat war 1838CE,and yalamber 900CE.history not complet

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    2. Sir it's just a mythology. At that time he was already dead.

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    3. there are schools of thought about the date of Mahabharata Yuddha... one of them matches with period of King Yalambar... search wikipedia

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    4. i am really proud to be kiraatee,
      thaank you for doing all these for us.Sp hanggam

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  2. I am glad to have the list of Kirata kings. Thank you for the information.

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. 1225 years of remakable Kirat Dynasty during the anceant period in Nepal is indeed a proud movement. As many historic evidence is yet to be research in respect of the Kirati's Dynasty defall. It would be a big tasks for the historical students and Kirstis as well.

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    2. 1225 years of remakable Kirat Dynasty during the anceant period in Nepal is indeed a proud movement. As many historic evidence is yet to be research in respect of the Kirati's Dynasty defall. It would be a big tasks for the historical students and Kirstis as well.

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    3. Sorry but the Mahabharat cannot be !800BC as even the rig Veda is only !500 BC. You should not base yourself on wild chronologies of Hindu Pandits but on real time Historians Eastern and Western. In the Mahabharat in Sishupal Badh there is mention of the Sugata another epithet of the Buddha . Which means the Mahabharat itself or at least parts of it were written after the Buddha. And The Mahabharat itself mentions Yalambar as Barbarika( another name of Yalambar) the Kita King from Nepal .The mhabharat can be dated around 800BC which fits with the time line of Yalambar who's dated between 800BC to 1300BC

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  4. I need some more information to know the history of barambar

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  5. yalamabar was not in time of Mahabharata war. Ealabya was there to save pandav.

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  6. Thanks its too good it is easy to do my (homework)HW☺😊😍🙌🙏👅👄👏👏👏

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  7. Thanks its too good it is easy to do my (homework)HW☺😊😍🙌🙏👅👄👏👏👏

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  8. First of all thanks the contributors. I have seen the list of 32 Kirat kings in some web page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yalambar) and there were differences between the years given in English (58)and Nepali (85). May we get which one is correct? So, i request for that correction. Also do they have their own mathematics and numeral systems?

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    1. Wikipedia is a free writing site, there where a person may write and post a true information and another can be added or edit wrongly.

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  9. Yalamber did not participate in mahavarat it was Eklavya who was beheaded.

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  10. actually kirati's are hindu and they are tagadhari and they came from southern part of himalays or Nepal.They celebrate Chandi Nach as Goddess and other many more hindu god and goddess.But so called those kirati or Rai eat cow/ox which not their culture. so there should be research of real kirati rai .As kirati Rai , we worship it .We are aryan kirati.
    We are Rai when king Prithvi Narayan Shah gave Kipat to Limbu by saying "you are not naulakhe Rai"Means we were real rai before kipat given to Limbu.We were deceived by so called mongolian kirati.We are Sunabhat(Biyari later Bichari)Rai lives in Rainas uptyaka-Lamjung, Paluntar-Gorkha,Nuwakot,dhading,Kritipur,,Bhaktpur,Raigau-Makawanpur and Sindhuli.We have our own language and culture and history.We claim that Buddikarna Rai was our ancestor.

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    1. Sorry but you're totally wrong. We are not hindus. We are Kiratis. We have our own culture which was latteron suppressed by Prithivi Narayan Shah and his hindu fellow . You are maybe Aryan Rai( like actress Ashwariya Rai) But we are Mongolian Rai.

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    2. Dear sir, who told you that we kirati worship god and goddesses in chandi ... you better observe your society and study your culture first ... I don't know what culture came first;hindu or kirati but what I do know is that Kirati is a culture not a religion ... chandi in kirati rai language is sakenwa/sakela etc and on December we celebrate sakenwa to thank the mother nature that we are alive and now we r moving to the terai because the hills and Himalayas are started to freeze and on june we celebrate it to thank the mother nature that now we can start the new beginning of the vegetatatio and now we are moving forward towards hills and Himalayas ... I'm writing this not just I heard it ... I'm writing this because I've grown in my kirati culture and I'm sure that I've never been deprived by my elders about my culture and my history because one's history can be unclear to others but not to their own blood ... thankyou

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  11. Kirant and lichchhivi dynasties were very friendly to the kathmandu valley. The rulers that time always thought to conserve the cultural and religious heritage and develop further more of it in kathmandu valley. But after the shah dynasty entered everything deteriorated. The shah and ranas could not adopt the culture and religion of local people of kathmandu and occupied the public land to build their palaces and to keep their armies. As a result we can see the condition of whole nepal today.

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  12. When Kirats came to Patan from Gokarna, there were already Buddhists settlers migrating from South that were living there. The famous folk tale of the Kirats and the wasps shows that Kirats had terrorized the Buddhist settlers there and thus through magical intervention Kirats were killed by wasps against whom their weapons were useless. The 800 count after which Chyasal tole is named is body count, or the count of people who were killed, but the manner of how they were killed is unclear. If you follow the folk tale it was the divine intervention against the cruelty of the Kirats. But, logically it must have been some conflicts or war. Whether there was there a full fledged war between Kirats and Lichhavis is not certain. But, eventually it can be seen that Kirats had peacefully integrated into the Newar society. Newars are mixture of Kirats, Lichhavis, Thakuris, Shakyans, Tharus and so on. It is a urban civilization, which is and was heterogeneous.

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  13. This list of king NOT matching by other history.which is right and which is wrong??

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  14. Is all of this really real ???

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  15. buddha came in ktm while kirati king was here so they are peace loving, straight forward people.

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  16. Pl tell that Yalambar and Barbarik of Mahabharat war is the same person and coach dynasty of Coochbihar is a break away faction of Kirat dynasty of Vijaypur(Sharan)?

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  17. Myself Tamal Sen, Forbesganj Bihat

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  18. Kirat Yalamber dynasty is the longest ruler of Nepal. Well said. Kirat are the real people of Nepal.

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  19. Histories narrated are quit confusing if Kiraties were not Hindus by religion than why Eklabya or barbarik accepted lord Krishna as Bhagwan during Kurukchetra,according to this we all kiraties are the branch of Hindus by religion just the lover of nature Krishna so to say Santana by dharma/culture.Unite we stand divide we fall.Thanks.



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