Gautam Banerjee

Jung Bahadur Rana, the first Rana Prime Minister, responsible to set up the foundation of 104-year long Rana rule in Nepal, is known for ruling the country for 31 long years with an iron fist. His mere name invokes fear and instils awe among many Nepalis, especially those who are interested in knowing about the first Rana Prime Minister.
Born as Bir Narsing Kunwar in 1817, Jung rose to power after engaging himself in the infamous Kot massacre, known in Nepal as Kot Parba, in which he virtually decimated the then King's courtiers, including his own relatives, to usurp power. He confined the Shah Kings to the palace and took power in his hand.
Though the world knows him as a draconian ruler, there are other facets of him which many of us have not known. Some researches carried out on his life reveals many unknown facets of Jung, who died on February 25, 1877.

Research
When Chandra Sumshere ascended to the seat of Prime Minister in 1901, he appointed Mir Subba Ram Mani Dixit and Kashinath Acharya Dixit to conduct a detailed-research on Jung Bahadur.
It was only 23 years that Jung had died when his nephew Chandra came to power and there were still people alive who knew him from the close quarters. The result of this research was a host of interviews, notes, letters and documents which remained locked up in the Prime Minister’s study vault till the period he had lived.
Those documents later landed up at Madan Purashkar Library and helped shed light on the life of the first Rana Prime Minister.
A plausible reason could be that Chandra had a fascination for Jung Bahadur and he was interested to know his style of running his administration and governance. Whether he actually copied Jung's style is another issue, but his research proved invaluable to the students of history.
The result of the research is an insight into a man whose personal life and thinking was far different from the way he was perceived by the common public.

Thin Voice
First, many are curious to know about how the awe-inspiring first Rana Prime Minister used to speak?
The answer is- he had a thin voice and spoke very fast.
His physical feature is also different from what many of us perceived. His one leg was shorter than the other. This is owing to an incident- he was once forced to jump inside a deep well as a display of bravado to the then King. Although he had a noticeable limp, he was very agile and had speedy movements in his youth.
Interestingly, Jung Bahadur had an abhorrence for alcohol. But he was an opium addict. In later life, the addiction reached to about 18 balls of opium a day.
He used to refer to the opium balls as pushtakari, a famous sweet concoction. This addiction took a very heavy toll on his brain. He used to have a very sharp memory in his youth; but owing to his addiction, he started forgetting things within minutes during his later life.
He was not religious at all. He used to spend a few minutes in the worship room ( puja kotha) as a formality.
Lakhan Thapa, regarded sometimes as the first martyr of the country, had led a rebellion against the Rana Regime. He enticed his followers to participated in the rebellion telling his followers that he was ordered by Goddess, Devi Man Kamana, to overthrow Jung Bahadur and to take his role instead.
Jung Bahadur sent his army that captured and brought Lakhan Thapa to Kathamandu where he was imprisoned in a bamboo cage. After a short trial in Thapathali, Jung sent Thapa back to the Man Kamana Temple to be hanged from the tree in front of the temple. In those days, this was regarded as an unthinkable action for any deeply religious man.

Govt. Coffer Use
Jung Bahadur was very careful in using the government coffers for his personal use. He used to pay in advance for the elephants that he borrowed from the government elephant stable for his hunt or capturing wild elephants, as an insurance for any death or injury that might occur to the elephants during these dangerous sports.
After the hunt was over, he would take his money back upon returning the elephants. He also regularly sold the elephants that he had captured to the government and this amount went to his coffers. As per his bodyguard Laxman Gurung, Maharaj Jung had three interests- wrestling bouts, sex and gambling. He was an avid gambler and his winnings were invested to buy land in Terai. His winning never exceeded Rs. 10,000, a huge sum in those days.
The man he hated most in his lifetime was Mahila Sahebjyu
Upendra Bir Bikram Shahdev. He was always suspicious of him and regularly scolded his brother, Bom Bahadur, for not keeping a close eye on Shahdev's activities.
Jung Bahadur had no trust over English medicines. He had more faith in our own Ayurved. He had built a Vaidyakhana inside the Thapathali Durbar. He could conduct minor surgeries and knew about Jhar phunk. During the Nepal-Tibet war, the Vaidyakhana worked overtime to make medicines to be sent to the war front for the wounded soldiers. A prized medicine in those time being Mimiya, which was used as an antibiotic.

Eye For An Eye
In the sphere of delivering justice, he believed in the principle of 'an eye for an eye.' Ram Ale was the sepoy who bayonetted Fateh Jung Chautaria in the infamous Kot massacre. Ale was his favourite and later rose rapidly to his rank. However, Ale was later hauled for murdering Chautaria. Jung Bahadur reprimanded his brother Bom Bahadur from England for releasing Ale with just a fine and not taking his life.
In later life, Jung became whimsical. He would beat his staffs or wives without no sound reasons and later rewarded them with promotions or money. One of his wives was beaten badly at his hunting camp but later he paid her a princely sum of Rs. 2,500 the following day.
A lot is known about his shooting and horse riding skills, but very little has been known about his daily physical workout and exercise. Laurence Oliphant travelled with Jung Bahadur to Nepal on Jung's invitation and he joined his team in Sri Lanka on the return voyage to Calcutta in 1851 AD.
He had described Jung's morning routine on the deck of the ship which started with gymnastics, push-ups and agility exercises in which Jung Bahadur or the Minister Sahib, as Oliphant addressed Jung, excelled others in his group. After the workout started rifle practice by shooting bottles in the sea followed by pistol practice.
From Calcutta, the team travelled overland to Nepal and Oliphant had described the thrilling sport of Hati Khedda or the catching of wild elephants. Jung Bahadur was superbly agile, ducking onrushing branches as the elephants ran full speed towards the herd of wild elephants.

Kot Massacre
Lastly, why did the Kot massacre occur? Everyone knows the story and the history behind it, but the real story told to Laxman Gurung, Jung's bodyguard by the 'hero' of Kot incident himself during one of his good mood is quite different and interesting.
The then Crown Prince Surendra always used to make Jung Bahadur a scapegoat for daring feats like jumping with a horse in the Trisuli river or into a deep well.
Jung Bahadur knew that these ideas of the King came from the courtiers in a way to mentally and physically torture him. He hated these feats of bravado and longed for someone sympathetic to take his side and support him.
All he saw was a bunch of mocking faces jeering him to accept the challenge. He then made a promise to himself, 'One day I will kill you all.' Which he did. Students of history will always be indebted to Chandra Sumshere for his invaluable research and Late Kamal Mani Dixit for bringing the little known contents on the Rana ruler.

(Banerjee is a travel trade professional and a history buff)