हिंदीOn this day

Mallas of Nepal

For five and a half centuries the Malla kings filled the Kathmandu valley with pagoda temples, palace squares and festivals. While northern India fell under the Sultanate, the valley stayed a Hindu kingdom, and its three Durbar Squares are their work.

  1. Ari Mallac. 1201–1216
  2. Jayasthiti Malla1382–1395
  3. Yaksha Malla1428–1482
  4. Siddhinarasimha Malla (Patan)1619–1661
  5. Pratap Malla (Kantipur)1641–1674
  6. Bhupatindra Malla (Bhaktapur)1696–1722
  7. Jaya Prakash Malla (Kantipur)1735–1768
  8. +1
Period: 1201–1769 CERegion: The Kathmandu valley; from 1482 three kingdoms, Kantipur, Lalitpur and BhaktapurCapitals: Bhaktapur, Kantipur (Kathmandu), Lalitpur (Patan)
Photo: Bijay Chaurasia · CC BY-SA 4.0

01Jayasthiti Malla’s order

Ari Malla took the title Malla around 1201. The valley was raided by Sultan Shamsuddin Ilyas of Bengal in 1349, who burned temples and broke the linga at Pashupatinath; the Gopalarajavamshavali records it. Jayasthiti Malla, who ruled 1382–1395, restored order and is remembered for codifying the duties of the valley’s many occupational communities with the help of Brahmin scholars from India.

02Three kingdoms, three squares

Yaksha Malla ruled the whole valley from 1428 to 1482. After him his sons split it, and the valley became three rival kingdoms within a day’s walk of each other. Rivalry made them builders. Siddhinarasimha Malla of Patan built the stone Krishna Mandir in 1637. Pratap Malla of Kantipur, a poet who wrote in fifteen languages on a stone at Hanuman Dhoka, dug the Rani Pokhari tank in 1670. Bhupatindra Malla of Bhaktapur raised the five-storeyed Nyatapola in 1702, the tallest temple in the valley.

Pashupatinath
Place · Worshipped since at least Licchavi times; present pagoda late 17th century, Malla kingsPashupatinathThe holiest Shiva temple of Nepal, on the Bagmati in Kathmandu, where a four-faced linga of Pashupati is worshipped by priests from Karnataka.Read →

03Taleju and the Kumari

Each Malla palace had at its centre a temple of Taleju Bhavani, the royal goddess, open to few. The custom of worshipping a young girl as the living Kumari, and of the king receiving tika from her at Indra Jatra, comes down from the Malla courts. The festivals of the valley, Indra Jatra in Kathmandu, Bisket Jatra in Bhaktapur, the chariot of Rato Machhindranath in Patan, were all fixed in their calendar.

04The Gorkha conquest

Divided, the three kingdoms could not stand against Prithvi Narayan Shah of Gorkha, who blockaded the valley for years. On the day of Indra Jatra in 1768 his men entered Kantipur while Jaya Prakash Malla fled. Patan fell soon after, and Bhaktapur in 1769, ending Malla rule. Their palaces, temples and courtyards make up much of the Kathmandu Valley World Heritage site, listed by UNESCO in 1979.

Changu Narayan
Place · Pillar inscription of Manadeva I, 464 CE; present pagoda rebuilt c. 1702 after a fireChangu NarayanA Vishnu temple on a ridge above the Kathmandu valley, holding the oldest dated inscription of Nepal, set up by the Licchavi king Manadeva I in 464 CE.Read →

The rulers

  1. 1Ari MallaFirst to take the Malla titlec. 1201–1216
  2. 2Jayasthiti MallaRestored order; codified social duties1382–1395
  3. 3Yaksha MallaLast king of the whole valley1428–1482
  4. 4Siddhinarasimha Malla (Patan)Built the Krishna Mandir, 16371619–1661
  5. 5Pratap Malla (Kantipur)Poet king; Rani Pokhari, 16701641–1674
  6. 6Bhupatindra Malla (Bhaktapur)Built the Nyatapola, 17021696–1722
  7. 7Jaya Prakash Malla (Kantipur)Lost Kathmandu to Prithvi Narayan Shah1735–1768
  8. 8Ranajit Malla (Bhaktapur)Last Malla king1722–1769

What they left

  • The Durbar Squares of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur
  • The Nyatapola and the Krishna Mandir of Patan
  • The living Kumari and the Indra Jatra festival
  • Newar wood carving, metal casting and pagoda building

Places

PashupatinathStanding
The Gupta Age

Pashupatinath

The holiest Shiva temple of Nepal, on the Bagmati in Kathmandu, where a four-faced linga of Pashupati is worshipped by priests from Karnataka.

Changu NarayanRebuilt
The Gupta Age

Changu Narayan

A Vishnu temple on a ridge above the Kathmandu valley, holding the oldest dated inscription of Nepal, set up by the Licchavi king Manadeva I in 464 CE.

Taleju Temple, KathmanduStanding
The Mughal era and the resistance

Taleju Temple, Kathmandu

The temple of the Mallas’ own Devi in Hanuman Dhoka, Kathmandu Durbar Square, raised by Mahendra Malla in 1564 on a stepped plinth above every other roof of the square. Its doors open to the public one day a year, during Dashain.

Krishna Mandir, PatanRebuilt
The Mughal era and the resistance

Krishna Mandir, Patan

A stone shikhara temple of three storeys and twenty-one pinnacles on Patan Durbar Square, built by Siddhi Narasimha Malla in 1637. Its stone friezes carry the Mahabharata and the Ramayana in scenes cut with captions in Newari.

Dakshinkali Temple, PharpingStanding
The Mughal era and the resistance

Dakshinkali Temple, Pharping

The Kali of the south of the Kathmandu valley, worshipped in a wooded gorge where two streams meet below Pharping. On Tuesdays and Saturdays, and through Dashain, the courtyard is full of families bringing animals for bali.

Nyatapola Temple, BhaktapurStanding
The Mughal era and the resistance

Nyatapola Temple, Bhaktapur

The five-roofed pagoda of Taumadhi Square, about 33 metres high and the tallest temple in Nepal. Bhupatindra Malla built it in six months and it has stood through the earthquakes of 1934 and 2015.

On the timeline

  • 1702 CE

    Bhupatindra Malla raises NyatapolaFaith

    In Bhaktapur, Bhupatindra Malla built the five-roofed Nyatapola temple to the goddess Siddhi Lakshmi. It stood through the earthquakes of 1934 and 2015.