Regime of Rajendra Laxmi

After the death of Prithvi Narayan Shah, his son Pratap Singh Shah became the king of Nepal. Rajendra Laxmi was the Queen of Pratap Singh Shah. They had a son called Rana Bahadur Shah. Rana Bahadur Shah was still a baby of two and half years when Pratap Singh Shah died on 26th Mangsir 1864 at the age of 26. So, Rajendra Laxmi began to rule in the name of Rana Bahadur Shah, as a regent.

During the reign of Pratap Singh Shah, Bahadur Shah, the younger brother of the king was exiled. Bahadur Shah was spending his time at Bettiah. Rajendra Laxmi sent a message to Bahadur Shah and called him back to Kathmandu. When Bahadur Shah came, both Rajendra Laxmi and Bahadur Shah began to rule the country jointly as coregents of Rana Bahadur Shah. But, after some time, they began to quarrel and could not work together.

Prithvi Narayan Shah left the work of unification incomplete when he died. Pratap Singh Shah, in his short period of kingship, annexed Upardang Gadi, Kabilaspur Gadi, Sumeswar Gadi and Chitwan. But the completion of unification was carried out by Rajendra Laxmi and Bahadur Shah was on the throne.

When the Chaubise Rajya heard about the quarrel for power between Rajendra Laxmi and Bahadur Shah, they united together under the leadership of the king of Palpa. They attacked Gorkha kingdom in 1781 A.D. Rajendra Laxmi sent a strong troops under the command of Amar Singh Thapa. There was a fierce battle between Gorkha troops and Chaubise Rajya troops. The Gorkha troops defeated them at Chiplete, Sirhanchowk and Tarkughat. The Gorkha troops under the leaddership of Amar Singh Thapa was so strong that many kingdoms fell into their hands without fighting. Bir Mardan Shah, the king of Lamjung ran away from the kingdom. Siddhi Narayan Shah of Kaski also surrendered to the Gorkha troops.

Rajendra Laxmi was much encouraged after the success of Gorkha troops. Now, she planned to invade all other small kingdoms and extend the territory of the kingdom of Nepal far and wide. She sent a troop undr the command of Abhiman Singh Basnet to attack Palpa. Taking this advantage, Kirtibam Malla of Parbat attacked Lamjung. The Gorkha troops came back to Lamjung from Palpa. A battle was fought between the troops of Rajendra Laxmi and Parbat at Makaidanda in 1784. Finally, Parbat was defeated. Then, the Gorkha troops attacked Bhirkot, Rishing, Satahun, Gorahun, Dhor, Paiyun, Charikot and annexed them all to the kingdom of Nepal.

Knowing that Palpa was a strong State, Bahadur Shah got married to the daughter of King Mahadatta Sen of Palpa. Then he sent strong troops and invaded Gulmi, Khanchi, Dhurkot, Kushma and Baglung one after another. Encouraged by this success, he sent his troops to the far-western Baise Rajya. His troops under the command of Damodar Pandey and Amar Singh Thapa invadedmost of the States of Baise Rajya to Nepal. His troops also invaded Almorah, Garhwal and Kumaon in the west and invaded Ilam and some portion of Sikkim in the East. Thus, under Bahadur Shah, Nepal grew from a small State to a big and powerful Nepal. Bahadur Shah also fought against Tibet and China. But Nepal suffered beavy loss during dthis war. Consequently, he was forced to sign an insulting and suicidal treaty known as Betrawati Treaty. This treaty halted the expansionist activities of Nepal.