The poor widow was now totally helpless. She was originally allowed a pension of 100 rupees a month; but for many years this has been withheld, and the Zemindars in the Company’s territory are giving her great trouble respecting some lands, which had been granted her free of rent. Her sister-in-law died in the year 1810, in Tirahut, where she had some villages, which she left by will to the unfortunate old lady; but I am told that the Raja of Darbhangga has seized on them as Zemindar, although his claim is probably dubious, the grants having been made before the decennial settlement.
Having thus traced the fate of Mandhata and his descendants, I return to his brother Manik, who procured the share of the principality that is west from the Kamala river.
By the Munsuf of Bahadurgunj, Manik is said to have governed his country quietly for twenty years. Although his share of the principality was one of the most productive of revenue, as including a large portion of the plain, he had little power, few of the hardy Kirats being under his authority; but then he was exempted from the dangers arising from the turbulence of these mountaineers. He left four sons, Hemcarna, Jagat, Jaymanggal, and Vikram. The first succeeded his father, and Jagat, as I have mentioned, was placed by the Kirats in the government of that part of the principality which is situated between the Kamala and Kosi.
Hemcarna had a son, Digbandan, and a daughter, Maiya Saheb, of most extraordinary beauty. About this time first rose to notice Prithwi Narayan Saha, whose ancestors had held the petty territory of Gorkha, in some measure dependent on the Palpa Rajas, the kinsman of Hemcarna. This person had by various means acquired some little power, and had induced the people of Lalita Patan to choose his brother Dalmar-dan Saha for their king; for they had fallen into anarchy, and had displaced their lawful sovereign of the Mal family, which had long been in possession of the three principalities into which Nepal. Proper had been divided. Prithwi Narayan, about this time, offered himself as a suitor for the beautiful daughter of Hemcarna, but was rejected with scorn, as a match far beneath her rank. Soon after, however, he was the fortunate suitor, but I do not exactly know the period. Hemcarna having died, was succeeded by his son Digbandan, a very weak prince, in whose affairs his brother-in-law, Prithwi Narayan, soon began to interfere; and by his courage, liberality, and strength of understanding, totally drew to himself the minds of the soldiery. In the year 1761 he openly attacked his brother-in-law, and took him and his family prisoners. The chief persons that had resisted his attack he put to death, some by the sword, some by the rope, and some by flaying them alive. Their children he delivered to the most vile and abominable tribe, (Sarki,) to be educated in their odious profession, as outcasts. The captives he conducted to Nepal, the open attack on which he then commenced; for, until then, he had contented himself with seizing on the passes, by which the valley is surrounded, and with fomenting dissensions among the three divisions of the principality. In 1769, having completed his conquest of Nepal Proper, he attacked the petty Rajas west from Gorkha, usually called the Chaubisiya, or Twenty-four. For some time he had rapid success, but in an engagement with the Tanahung Raja, he was so roughly handled, that he was compelled to relinquish these conquests. In the meanwhile, his brother-in-law Digbandan, his wife, and seven sons, were kept in close confinement, and were only prevented from starving, by a pittance sent to them by their kinsman the Palpa Raja. What became of the remainder of these unfortunate persons I cannot say; but in the year 1780 Bhubar, one of the sons of Digbandan, effected his escape to Betiya, in the Company’s territory, where he was kindly received, and two villages, free from the obligation of paying any revenue, were granted to him. He died lately, and has left two sons, one of whom in 1810 was eight, and the other five years of age; and these are the undoubted legal heirs to the whole principality founded by Lobangga Sen.