Hello friends in this lesson i am giving you information about the makawanpur fort in makawanpur district of nepal.Makawanpur fort is a largest fort in nepal.It is about 16 kilometers north-east from hetauda city the headquarters of makawanpur district through kanti highway.There is a four-way junction at Buddha chowk in hetauda city. From that hetauda junction leadingto the four direction of hetsuda buddha chowk you have to take the kanti highway heading east.Kanti highway is an old road but there is not much practical vehicle traffic.Therefore since it is a main road a fort may have been built there.Makawanpur fort is located in gadhi bazaar about 16 kilometers east of hetauda on kanti highway.Since a large fort was built here this place is also named gadhi bazaar.The nepali language word gadhi means fort in english lsnguage and bazaar means market in english language.The location of this makawanpur fort is located on the crest of a hill about 1017 meters above the sea level.After reaching the gadhi or fort market you should turn left 500 meters uphill.After reaching there you can see a large square.There is also a parking lot in that square.You can also see the entrance gate of the fort.There is a no fee for entering this fort and there is an uphill path.After entering the entrance gate you can see the stairs leading directly to the fort.As you go forward along the path with steps you can see a white elephant on the right.The main reason for the war in this fort is this white elephant.After going forward along the steps you can see the palace area above.There are also small and large hotels around it.The first battle took place here during the unification campaign of nepal.The fact that this makawanpur fort is very sensitive from the point of view of security can be easily guessed from its structure and location.This fort is located in the north-east direction of makawanpur district.The place where this fort is located is surrounded by mountains on all sides.Therefore the place where this fort is located seems to be safe.How such a palace could be built in the place where the makawanpur fort is located can be guessed from its structure.
Friends i have given this information about the external structure of this palace.Now i will give you information about the internal structure of this historical palace. Since this palace is more than 400 years old historical objects will be found in this palace.It must be said that our ancestors of thst time fought to the best of their ability to protect this palace.A deep ditch has been built on all sides to protect this palace from external attacks. Because it can be seen that it was built so that no enemy could attack by crossing the walls of the palace. So that the enemy could not enter by crossing the walls of the palace a large ditch was dug outside the wall. The width of the floor of the ditch outside the palace is ten feet.Sililarly the palace is surrounded by a wall 25 feet high and 7 feet wide.A ten feet deep ditch has been built to protect itself from enemies.A wooden bridge has been built to enter the palace in the fort.The length of this bridge is 19 feet.When we enter the palace area of makawanpur fort it is surrounded by large stone walls on all side.The height of the stone walls built there is 6 meters.Small holes have been drilled in the walls to accommodate cannons and guns. From those holes enemies from afar can be targeted.The enterior of this palace seems to be devided into two parts.It is known that the inner part of the palace is devided into two parts the area on the eastern side is the palace area and the area on the western side is where the soldiers live.Nepal is a country full of religious tolerance so a temple of the gopal dynasty can be seen built in the middle of the palace area.In the middle of that temple there is a very beautiful statue of the gopal dynasty five feet tall and standing with a flute in his hand.The statue can be seen tied with a long iron chain.Because in the earthquake of bikram sambat 1990 the statue fell and broken its arm.Therefore it was chained to prevent it from falling if another earthquake like this occurs.History shows that the head of this statue was stolen on 8th chaitra bikram sambat 2063.From the records here it can be learned that a new head was installed on the statue on 23rd falgun of bikram sambat 2064.In the south-west corner of this palace area is the temple of siddheshwor mahadeva.Similarly two pits have been made in the east corner and the west corner of the palace.It is said that these pits are about ten feet deep.Among these pits the pit on the west side was used to collect water for practical purposes.Similarly the pit on the east side was used as a prison for punishing criminals.
The senas ruled this fort area.In the 13th century when the sena kings were looking for a safe place to the north.At that time they found the makawanpur hills as a safe place on a high place.They built a fort there and ruled the kingdom.The question may arise as to how the sena kings who ruled from the makawanpur fort came to that area.The chola kings of the south ruled their kingdom.As long as the chola kings were powerful the shreniks of that kingdom remained as courtier.When the power of the chola kingdom weakened the cholas began to treat the castes as feudal classes.After the cholas kings attacked the kalinga kingdom.After attacking that kingdom they conquered the kalinga kingdom.The cholas initially treated the shreniks as courtier abd later treated them as a feudal class.Later the shrenis participated in the wars of the cholas and enter the north. Although the cholas kingdom was a local feudal class after entering the kalinga kingdom their family grew and began to treated as a efficient ruler.After many centuries chola kings began to be considered as the kings of the kalinga kingdom. After that it is found in history that the people started calling them sena from the words “shrenik.”Then in bikram sambat 1258 the muslims attacked the northern part of the kalinga kingdom and defeated the senas.Thus the senas kings who suffered defeated in the war went to east bengal to save their lives and started sitting there.The muslims there had created a hostile environment for the senas living in east bengal.Then for the safety of their life lives they searched for a safe place in the northern hills with their forces.In the meantime the kings of the senas dynasty made the high mound of makawanpur their main residence.After that they built a fort there and have been running the kingdom.After building a fort there and sitting there the sena kings went towards the kathmandu valley to fight from this fort.In the same process they expanded their to palpa and used to rule the kingdom from palpa itself.At that time mukunda sena ruled the kongdom of palpa.The king of palpa mukunda sena had four queens.In the meantime family feuds began among the sena king of palpa. After that the kingdom was divided among the four queens of mukunda sena of palpa to settle there family feuds.During the division of the kingdom the sons of the sena king born from the younger queen were rudra sena and lohang sena.The makawanpur kingdom fell into the hands of lhong sena through these two sons.As the generation of sena kings expanded in the makawanpur kingdom manik sena became the king of ragava sena.In this area the gopal dynasty the siddheshwor mahadeva temple were established on rent-free land for the administration of the kingdom.
Later hemkarna sena the son of manik sena was the king of makawanpur kingdom.He married his daughter indra kumari to prithavi narayan shah the son of nara bhupal shah the king of gorkha kingdom.Due to this he increased his relations with other states of the league.After the death of hem karna sena his son digbandhan sena became the king of makawanpur kingdom.Hemkarna sena married his daughter to prithvi narayan shah but the martial relationship was not very good. Prathvi narayan shah broke off the marriage relationship with indra kumari citing the reason of dowry.In the meantime the harmonium relationship between the son-in-law and the brother-in-law deteriorated. After the differences between brother-in-law digbandhan sena and the son-in-law prithvi narayan shah the hostility between the two states increased.After the relationship deteriorate prathvi narayan shah planned to attack the makawanpur kingdom and seize control of the makawanpur kingdom.After the relationship between the two brother-in-law and his son-in-law deteriorated prithvi narayan shah’s army attacked the the makawanpur fort on the 9th of the month of bhadra bikram sambat 1819.Prithvi narayan shah’s army easily attacked and won and took control of the makawanpur kingdom.This victory of prithvi narayan shah can be considered as the first victory of the unification of nepal.In this palace energency doors can also be seen for the safety of the kings who ruled in the makawanpur palace in case of emergency.This is so that if any enemies entered the palace through the main gate to attack it the rulers of this palace could easily escape through these emergency doors and saved their lives.Another small fort has also been built on the north-west side of the fort where it is known that the soldiers stationed for security in the palace area are said to have received training.All the structures used in the construction of this magnificent building are made of stone and soft clay.As soon as you enter the fort you can see an inscription from the sena period placed near the entrance.After winning the war and capturing the makawanpur fort the evidence of the sena period in that inscription was erased by the army of prithvi narayan shah.It is said that the later generation of the sena kingdom in that inscription were erased so that they could not know the history of this place from that inscription.Whether this place is to make history or to familiarize future generations with history this place shows the potential to bring tourists to nepal with excellent results.In fact the state needs to protect and promote the archaeological things related to the history of this place with special importance.It can be seen in history that there was a terrible war between the army of prithvi narayan shah and the army of makawanpur in the makawanpur kingdom.In the history of nepal it can be read that the neoali army acquired morden weapons from this war.This fort was not a battle with the british army but a battle between the sena kings for the unification of nepal.It seems necessary to built a museum of cannons,guns and materials used in the war to defeat the british army in orher forts in this fort.Before the unification of nepal in 1819 the sena dynasty ruled this place.The ruler of palpa mukunda sena devided his kongdom into four parts and handed it over to his sons.The makawanpur kingdom fell into the hands of his youngest lohang sena.This fort was built by another king of the sena dynasty tula sena.Looking at the history of this fort it is found that the kings of the sena dynasty ruled the makawanpur kingdom for about 400 years.
There are various stories in history about how the makawanpur kingdom was named.It is said that the name of the mightly king mukunda sena of the sena dynasty was corrupted into mukundapur,makandapur,makanpur and later became makawanpur in the vernacular.The first king of the sena dynasty was makunda sena’s son lohang sena and last king was digbandhan sena.The first king of the makawanpur kingdom was lohang sena,followed by raghava sena, harihar sena,shubha sena,manik sena,hemkarna sena and the last digbandhan sena.There is a history of seven generation of the sena dynasty ruling her for about 400 years.The sena king ruled here for about 400 years making this makawanpur fort their capital.This makawanpur fort is the largest fort in nepal.There are three forts here namely the big fort,small fort and the dhunge fort.There is a small fort 300 meters south-west of this makawanpur fort.Similarly there is a stone fort about two kilometers north-west.History shows that after the reign of king mukunda sena of the sena dynasty his sons ruled here. Lohang sena ruled the makawanpur kingdom believing that external relations would strengthen the kingdom.This makawanpur kingdom is very important.The makawanpur kingdom was the victory of prithvi narayan shah.Before the attack on this fort the nuwakot kingdom was attacked during the unification campaign.Prithvi narayan shah was defeated in his first attacked on the nuwakot kingdom.Prithvi narayan shah planned to attacked makawanpur kingdom only after he had attacked and defeated the nuwakot kingdom for the second time.Many people say that the makawanpur kingdom was as large as 22 of the current 77 districts.In fact the makawanpur kingdom was not limited to nakawanpur district. The makawanpur kingdom covered palpa,argakhnchi,gulmi,kapalvastu, lamjung,bara,parsa,rautahat,morang,sunsari,sarlahi,sindhuli,udayapur etc. The makawanpur kingdom was more powerful than the baise and chaubise kingdoms.This makawanpur kingdom was also a large food storehouse for the malla kings of the kathmandu valley. Therefore prithvi narayan shah had first attacked the makawanpur kingdom with the aim of unifying nepal.He had attacked the makawanpur kingdom because he had the intention that the kathmandu valley could be conquered only after attacking the makawanpur kingdom first.This palace is also the first son-in-law house of prithvi narayan shah. Prithvi narayan shah was married to indra kumari the 12-years-old daughter of hemkerna sena.Later the marriage did not succeed due to various reasons.Prithvi narsyan shah had agreed to give a white elephant with one tusk and a diamond chain as dowry in his marriage to indra kumari.However for various reasons the white elephant with tusk and a diamond chain were not given as dowry in the marriage.Because of this dowry the relationship between the son-in-law and brother-in-law began to deteriorate and the martiage between prithvi narayan shah and indra kumari also failed. Therefore prithvi narayan shah took his army and atttacked the makawanpur kingdom on the 9th day of bhadra month 1819 bikram sambat.
It can be seen in history that a terrible battle took place between prithvi narayan shah’s army and the makawanpur’s army in the makawanpur kingdom.Then the defeated sena kings and captaim kanak singh baniya fled to hariharpur fort located 180 kilometers east to here.Prithvi narayan shah’s army captured makawanpur fort after a fierce attack.The king and ministers there managed to escape but they went to hariharpur fort located 180 kilometers away from that fort to save their lives.Hariharpur fort was located at a very high place.Since the king of makawanpur palace had gone to live there the gorkhali army had to attacked that fort as well. Then the gorkhali army attacked the makawanpur army from the hariharpur fort and defeated and embarrassed them there as well.In that battle 55 gorkhali armies and 500 makawanpur armies were killed. After many of his armies were killed the king of makawanpur also fled from there.The gorkhali armies also captured the hariharpur fort.Then the sena kings who fled from the hariharpur fort went to mir qasim in bengal to take refuge.There the sena king sought military assistance from mir qasim against prithvi narayan shah’s armies.Mir qasim sent about 3000 bengali armies under the leadership of gurgin khan to defeat the gorkhali armies at makawanpur fort.A total of 3000 troops were present in the battle of makawanpur fort from the bengali troops.Out of the 3000 troops in the battle 2000 were in civilian cloths and 1000 were in combat.The 3000 troops present had come with war material under the leadership of the nawab of bengal mir qasim to defeat prithvi narayan shah’s armies.Their attack base was located in makawanpur foothills.They had made a night plan to attack makawanpur fort. Accordingly they came to attack through harnamadi.Makawanpur fort was located on the top of a hill about 9 kilometers from harnamadi.Among the troops present in the battle 1700 bengali troops were killed.Prithvi narayan shah had deployed only 1100 armies in the battle of makawanpur fort.On behalf of the gorkhali armies captain nandu shah was the main of this makawanpur fort’s battle.The army had sone guns and traditional home-made weapons for the war.The gorkhali army fought the war from 9th magh month 1819 bikram sambat.In the makawanpur kingdom war they seized the weapons of the bengali troops and drove the bengali troops from there. The battle of makawanpur kingdom lasted for 8 hours and the battle started from 9th of magh month and the bengali troops were defeated on 10th of magh month.After defeating mir Qasim’s bengali troops and leaving here the victory festival has started to be celebrated.Therefore there is a tradition of celebrating the victory festival in the presence of the nepali army on 10th magh month every year in memory of the defeated of the bengali troops at this place. Not only this the gorkhali army had found more than 500 guns and two cannons from mir qasim’s troops. History shows that ten generation of the sena dynasty ruled this place.The first sena king who entered here in the 13th century was mukunda sena and the last sena king was digbandhan sena.Friends how did you feel about the information about makawanpur fort? If you fund any error in this information please comnent in the box.
