Battle of Makwanpur

01The second campaign

Nepal had lost its western provinces in 1815, and a treaty was drafted at Sugauli in December. The darbar in Kathmandu would not ratify it. Lord Hastings ordered Ochterlony to march on the capital itself. In February 1816 he turned the Gorkha defences of the Bichhakori pass by a hidden track through the jungle, which a smuggler showed him, and came down into the Makwanpur valley with the road to Kathmandu open before him.

02The fight below the fort

On 28 February 1816 a Company detachment occupied a ridge and village near the fort of Makwanpur Gadhi. The Gorkha garrison came down in strength to take it back, and the fight went on through the afternoon as both sides fed in more men. Company guns and a final bayonet charge drove the Gorkhas off the slope. The fort itself was not stormed, but the Gorkha army had been beaten in the open on the threshold of the valley.

03Sugauli ratified

Within days an envoy from Kathmandu brought the ratified treaty to Ochterlony’s camp, early in March 1816. Nepal gave up Sikkim’s lands, most of the Terai and everything west of the Kali, and accepted a British Resident in Kathmandu. Part of the Terai was handed back later in 1816. Nepal kept its independence, and the borders drawn then are close to the borders of Nepal today.