Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
is dated A.D. 733. According to some historians, however, they
continued to hold power until around 1200.
Agriculture was the basis of the economy during this era.
The Licchavi kings, however, established both political and
business ties with kingdoms to the north and south of Nepal.
Business links were strengthened and flourished with the
spread of Buddhism and religious pilgrimages. The Shakyas
were a group that took their name from a region in the foothills
of the Himalayas. Their distinguished dynasty flourished in the
Kapilbastu district of Nepal. Gautama Buddha, a son of King
Suddhodhana, was the prince of the Shakya Dynasty. Following
the death of Gautama Buddha, the dynasty was threatened by
Bidhhusak, the king of Kosal, India. As a result, the Shakyas fled
to the northern hill part of Nepal and Kathmandu Valley. This
region lay among the foothills of the Himalayas, in the farthest
northern regions of the Indoﾭgigantic plains in Nepal.
MEDIEVAL NEPAL (750-1768)
The medieval period of Nepal is poorly documented. Few
manuscripts or inscriptions exist that provide a glimpse of the
people or of the time. Most available artifacts and manuscripts
are of a religious nature. From them, we know that it was a
period of little territorial and administrative expansion. It also
saw the gradual decline of the Licchavi Dynasty.
Evidently, the period experienced the emergence of a new
power, the Newars, who became established by 879. One thing
that is known about the period is that it witnessed a profound
change in religious practices, with a shift from Buddhism
to Hinduism. With the downfall of the Lichhavis, the Malla
Dynasty came to powerﾭa position it held from about 1200 to
1769. The Malla came to the Kathmandu Valley from the Malla
Kingdom of Gorakhpur in northern India. Under the Malla, the
valley rose in importance as a regional center of economy and
politics. It continued to benefit from a variety of social, cultural,
and economic reforms. The Nepali calendar, Bikram Sambat
