Bhimsen Thapa

Prime Minister of Nepal

August 1775 Pipal Thok village, Gorkha region, Kingdom of Nepal

5 August 1839(1839-08-05) (64) Bhim-Mukteshwar, bank of Bishnumati River, Kathmandu, Nepal

1806–1837

Mukhtiyar and de facto ruler of Nepal from 1806 to 1837 Bhimsen Thapa Chhetri listen  (help ·info ) (Nepali: भीमसेन थापा क्षेत्री ; August 1775 – 5 August 1839) was the Mukhtiyar (equivalent to prime minister) and de facto ruler of Nepal from 1806 to 1837. Bhimsen's life is known for his dramatic rise and fall from power. Bhimsen rose to influence after helping the exiled ex-King Rana Bahadur Shah engineer his return to power in 1804. In gratitude, Rana Bahadur made Bhimsen a Kaji (equivalent to a minister) of the newly formed government. Rana Bahadur's assassination by his step-brother in 1806 led Bhimsen to massacre ninety-three people, after which he was able to claim the title of the Mukhtiyar (equivalent to prime minister). The death of King Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah in 1816 at the immature age of 17, with his heir, King Rajendra Bikram Shah being only 3 years old, along with the support from Queen Tripurasundari (the junior queen of Rana Bahadur Shah) allowed him to remain in power even after Nepal's defeat in the Anglo-Nepalese War. After the death of Queen Tripurasundari in 1832 and the adulthood of King Rajendra, the conspiracies and infighting with the British envoy Brian Houghton Hodgson, Senior Queen Samrajya Laxmi Devi and rival courtiers (especially the Kala Pandes, who held Bhimsen Thapa responsible for the death of Damodar Pande in 1804) finally led to his imprisonment and death by suicide in 1839. Bhimsen's prime ministership is best remembered for the Anglo-Nepalese war. The territorial expanse of the Gurkha empire had reached its greatest extent from Sutlej river in the west to the Teesta river in the east. However, Nepal entered into a disastrous Anglo-Nepalese War with the East India Company lasting from 1814–16, which was concluded with the Treaty of Sugauli, by which Nepal lost almost one-third of its land. He is also remembered for bringing about a large number of social, economic, and administrative reforms, as well as the modernization of Nepalese Army on the template of the French military forces. During his lifetime, he commissioned the building of many temples and monuments such as Dharahara also known as Bhimsen Stambha ("Bhimsen Tower").