Archaeotectural Morphology of Khujakot A

8/16/2019 Archaeotectural Morphology of Khujakot A

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Bhupendra Jung Keshari Chand

B. Arch. Student at

Department of Architecture and Urban Planning

Tribhuvan University Institute of Engineering

Central Campus, Pulchowk

Lalitpur, Nepal

Email: [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Archaeotectural Morphology of Khujakot, a 13th

Century Khasa Kingdom:

The Legend of Nagi Malla

It was around mid-13th

century when Nagi Malla, one of the powerful Khasa Malla kings of Doti

Kingdom in Nepal, fled to a secret hill, Khujakot, in Dadeldhura. There is an interesting myth in

the folk culture that he had a fight with God Bhageshwor, the local guardian deity of Dadeldhura.

With defeat, Nagi Malla lost his kingdom and fled away to Khujakot hill along with some of his

parties. The Khasa kings from Western Nepal were believed to mostly having insuperable war

skills. Yet, there are numerous landscapes of archaeological sites and various socio-cultural as

well as ethnological edifices in present days, from the reign of Khasa kings. And Nagi Malla is

known to have contributed a lot in socio-cultural development of his kingdom. We see, even

after centuries, there are important structures and traces of the then civic society built during the

time period of Nagi Malla, which remains in dilapidated condition today. From the

archaeological perspective, there are several unexplored artifacts, art and cultural relics, treasure

hunts and many more which may be interesting in analyzing Harris matrix of Khujakot, carrying

excavations around, etc. However, way ahead of this there are more meaningful discussions that

may account in the repercussions of sociological, ethnological, religious or cultural, political and

architectural elements of our present society.

If we delve into the characteristic mechanism of our society, it has been functioning till now with

the very similar apparatus since the ancient period. The natures of challenges we have been

facing today were also the same in the past, and that’s why we often find ourselves in identical

circumstances which are relevant to our past. May it be technology, or the manifestation of art

and literature; it can also be the lifestyle today, or the political structure, they are always in the


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verge of connecting our achievements in the timeline of human civilization. In this sort of

sophisticated context, if we seek for a strong reconciliation, there can’t be anything more

illustrious than the study of archaeological and ancient history itself. It doesn’t signify the history

alone, but any piece of archaeology, art/literature or architecture, science/technology,

philosophy, or politics that is historical, share an equal value to understand that mechanism. And

archaeology is such a high realm where one can find his/her answer to almost every defining

element of our civilization. But again, archaeology as a single subject is insufficient to justify its

significance. If we carry archaeology to the much wider arena of associated and interdisciplinary

subjects including science and literature, art and philosophy, sociology, economics and politics,

it becomes simple and easier to explore the underlying meaning of our societal mechanism.

Every theme has its own critical regional context, and so is with the story of Khujakot along with

the legend of Nagi Malla. We have learnt much about the Greek and Roman civilizations, in

contrary, there is a little known about the contemporary or succeeding developments including

the Indus Valley Civilization. Actually the story of Khujakot and the legend of Nagi Malla aren’t

less interesting than the Greeks or Romans. If we go on tracing the movement and establishment

of Khasa kingdom in Western Nepal, they have origins from the Babylonian civilization of

Persia of Iran who shifted from Kazakhstan, eventually moving east from Afghanistan, Pakistan

and India, and south from Tibet to Western Nepal finally. It took them a long course of centuries

whereby they evolved as mutually tolerant tribes. Today, the hills of Western Nepal consist of

Hindu-Buddhist culture and have archaeotecturally rich edifices as a souvenir from the Khasa

kings.


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The reign of Nagi Malla was prosperous in the field of art and architecture. We can see the

famous Ajayameru Fort and the Palace ruins in Dadeldhura; Kotbhairav Palace and a Nine-

storey temple in Doti, believed to have been built during the period of Nagi Malla. But, the reign

of Nagi Malla also saw a disastrous epidemic in his kingdom, which finally led his kingship to

fall. The fall of Nagi Malla’s kingship has several socio-cultural implications in the society of

Western Nepal today. The mysterious escape of Nagi Malla to Khujakot hill isn’t much sought in

history, but the landscape archaeology of Khujakot suggests a lot about the people of society

located ther e. Nagi Malla didn’t escape to Khujakot hill just for hiding; his escape turned

establishing a society there, where people would live in harmony with justice. The preliminary

archaeological survey of Khujakot carried out some decades ago by Department of Archaeology

(DOA) under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation of Nepal Government reported

that Khujakot was a Kingdom Palace of Nagi Malla after he fled away from Doti.

It is seen that almost within every subject of research, there’s always a dominating story of riches

only; the researchers don’t look into the other side of poor’s. Most often, social scientists try to

talk about the underprivileged groups of people in a society; even they are also linked to some

figures and images. Well, to put it clear, I would like to suggest that those having stories and

interesting contexts in a society are mostly the riches. We can also tell something from the study

of poor’s, but their stories are dominated by the riches; and that’s exactly where the connection

to some legendary figures and images arrive. Basically, it’s difficult to reach towards conclusive

findings with mere study of stifled faction of a society. Let the help kept aside, sometimes there

are annoying obstacles from the people themselves in examining the possible findings from a

society. Here also, in the case of Khujakot, the story is being tried to tell based on the legend of


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The Nagaraja Dynasty used to be power center of Khasa kingdom, and other small associate

kingdoms were under the control of Karnali. As the Nagaraja Dynasty went through its

disintegration, Nagi Malla of Doti kingdom was the first king to declare his state as an

independent state. During the reign of Nagi Malla, the Doti kingdom emerged as a power center

displacing Karnali. The socio-cultural life of people in Doti was prosperous then. During the

period, Nagi Malla built his palace in Ajayameru in Dadeldhura, which remains as one of the

important heritage of Far-Western Nepal today. The architecture of Ajayameru Palace has a

characteristic feature of fort architecture or defense architecture. Some historians believe that

Ajayameru Palace was actually a fort built to defend the territory of Doti kingdom. The palace

was later attacked and destroyed by Moghul invasion. The kingdom Palace was then shifted to

Dipayal at Kotbhairav Palace. Today, the Ajayameru Palace site has some of the

archaeotecturally rich edifices such as ‘the Chipur RajSabha’ and many socio-cultural entities

represented by the stone water conduits, religious shrines and temples. All of these historical

elements of Doti kingdom have been categorized as the regional heritage of Far-Western Nepal

by DOA. With the downfall of his reign, Nagi Malla left these heritages and secretly fled away

to Khujakot in Dadeldhura, where he built him and for his people a new kingdom.

Khujakot Palace rests in the highland of Khujakot hill, which used to be surrounded by the

village community of residing people. Today, the whole area is unexplored, remaining in the

bushes and dense forest. The Palace area now is a property of local people of Shirsha VDC in

Dadeldhura as a part of community forest. The area is abandoned by locals and the DOA

authority in dilapidated condition. In the east, the Khujakot hill is drawn in curve at base by the

Mahakali River, differentiating the Indo-Nepal border. The other sides of Khujakot hill are


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now ruined to half walls only. The building structures around the Palace not only display their

form and construction, but they also exhibit the socio-cultural elements along with them, which

are still a characteristic feature of traditional architecture of neighboring Shirsha VDC in

Dadeldhura. For example, we can see recessed niches and covered verandahs in the ruined

buildings of Khujakot, and these elements are still in use in traditional architecture of Far-

Western Nepal as a characteristic feature. Today, it is hard to locate any agricultural activities in

Khujakot since it has been centuries and is covered in dense forest, and even DOA hasn’t carried

any excavation works. But, as the Mahakali River is at the base of Khujakot with several streams

in the jungle, it can be said that the people of Khujakot must have developed some technology

for agricultural activities in the hill. This can be referenced to an interesting part of Khujakot,

which is that there’s a stepped way in stone to top of Khujakot Palace from base of the

Siddhanath Community Forest. The stepped way is almost an hour of ascending walk to uphill,

which is designed in such a manner that it seems like as if it was built in present day. People also

believe that the stepped way has been designed from the base of the Mahakali River in

Parshuram Kshetra of Parigaun, a valley village, up the Khujakot hill. It is also said that Nagi

Malla used to come down to the Mahakali River from Khujakot hill via a secret tunnel track for

sacred bathing. This story provides at least a hypothetical assumption that the people of Khujakot

might have learned technology.

The story behind the Khujakot Palace seems conjectural, but there are various mysterious

incidents regarding the wealth and treasure hiding of Khujakot. Such incidents have happened in

present days and the local people of Shirsha VDC are the living witness of it. To justify it, there

is a stimulating happening occurred with a local resident of Parigaun village. It was around


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1990’s when a local priest of Parigaun had in his dreams that there was hiding of invaluable

treasure in the Khujakot Palace and at the Basin of Mahakali River. The priest, in his dreams, got

the hints to exact hideout place of the treasure. The next day, he went out for treasure hunt,

without notifying his whereabouts to his family. With the instincts he got from his mysterious

dreams, he first went to Khujakot Palace taking a walk of 4-5 hours, and started to search for the

treasure. To his astonishment, he was in awe when his dugout gave his hands to touch the rich

treasure from ancient Palace. He collected a plenty of gold, silver and copper currency along

with ancient writings. The despicable priest packed all he could and headed towards the next

hideout, the Basin of Mahakali River. This next hideout was located beneath the Peepal tree, a

sacred shrine of local deity near the Mahakali River. He curiously dug the shrine, and once

again, he was wondered when he saw a glooming folder of gold and silver coins. He was

overwhelmed to have such a more than handful of precious wealth and treasure, which he had

held to be his only. He then returned to his way back home filled with joy.

When he got his home, there was a crowd of people mourning and crying outside his house. He

was shocked, and hid his pack of treasure, and then asked that what the hell was going on. He

came to know that his wife and children, who were all well and fit the earlier night, were

struggling to death. The priest went out cold with the instinct that the treasure had some black

forecast. In unadorned stiffness, as he was about to enter his house, the whole building shook. He

was now in surprise. By now, it was all clear to him that he had badly done something unwanted

with the black treasure hunt at the Khujakot Palace. He went straightaway to consult the other

distinguished priests of different shrines of local deities. He explained them everything about his

dreams and each detail that has happened to him after the treasure hunt. The priests figured out


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that it was surely a bad omen, and would cause harm to the entire village if something isn’t

sorted out to fix it. Thereafter, all the villagers gathered and worshipped the local deities, and the

treasure was placed back intact with holy rites and offerings. And then, the beloved family of the

despicable priest was all fine. After the incident, no one had ever tried to search for any treasure

at the Khujakot Palace. People are even frightened to visit the site at all.

The story of priest might also seem theoretical again, but there is also a historical fact regarding

the Moghul invasion over the Ajayaneru Palace. It was around 16th

century, during the reign of

the great Akbar in India, when Ajayameru Palace was attacked and destroyed by the Moghuls. It

is said that the Army Chief of Akbar in Lucknow, Hussain Khan, led the army and invaded

Ajayameru. Historians also say that Hussain Khan was actually tempted by the possibility of

capturing wealth and treasury of Khasa kingdom. During the period of attack, Doti kingdom was

in spoils, regardless of that, the Moghuls were unable to conquer and loot the treasury. It is

believed that the wealth and treasury of Ajayameru was secretly replaced to Khujakot, with the

early information of Moghuls arriving to Ajayameru. In the history of Nepal, Moghuls also

invaded the Kathmandu Valley during 14th

century, where they looted a lot and destroyed several

religious structures of the Valley in disaster at the time of Malla regime. This incident also

proves that the Khasa kings and people were powerful enough not to be completely defeated by

the mighty Moghuls, even in the state of downfall. Some explorative landscape archaeology and

excavation works at Khujakot Palace would certainly help in investigating the sociology,

anthropology and cultural science of Khasa kingdom and people.


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In societal behavior, the rises of civility have implications on achievements; and in a similar

way, the downfalls also have certain inferences on failures along narrated timeline. In case of

Khujakot hill, which is invariantly associated with Nagi Malla, it has also both consequences.

Khujakot is actually related to the downfall of Nagi Malla, but it does tell us about the up and

downs in the civic life of concerned people. Again, it is the people who believe that Nagi Malla,

after spending a life in Khujakot, joined the very Hindu philosophy of detached life. He

abandoned his kingdom and started wandering around the unknown hills of Far-Western Nepal.

It is said that Nagi Malla couldn’t awake himself from the tragedy of Ajayameru and Kotbhairav,

and finally gave up his kingship, that too in a mysterious way. Nagi Malla used to roam around

the villages as a Saint in strange look so that no one could recognize him. Here, the Khujakot had

lost his king, and the King himself, Nagi Malla, was lost in Achham, a district neighboring to

Doti. Achham is also closely related to the later life of Nagi Malla, where he left his son, a

successor to Doti kingdom, but unknown to people.

There is again an interesting story behind the birth of Prince Ripu Malla, son of Nagi Malla.

Nagi Malla was near to his last days in earth, and he happened to live in a Brahmin house with a

widow and her only daughter. One day, Nagi Malla was in ill health and couldn’t even feed

himself. He asked the unmarried Brahmin daughter to feed him rice pudding. The widow was

astonished that a Saint was asking for rice pudding to eat, that too to be fed by her unmarried

daughter. The widow denied. As Nagi Malla insisted, the widow let her daughter feed him with a

single finger. There is a famous proverb said then by the widow that, ‘This Saint couldn’t know

how to eat rice pudding and there was one king, Nagi Malla, who wouldn’t know how to govern

his kingdom’. She couldn’t know then that the same Saint before her was Nagi Malla himself.


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After the few months of this incident, the widow noticed that the mensuration cycle of her

daughter has stopped. The widow then asked Nagi Malla to tell the truth that her daughter was

pregnant after the rice pudding incident. Now, Nagi Malla, in his last days, could do nothing but

speak the ultimate truth that he is the king Nagi Malla himself. He also told that if a daughter is

born, marry her to any Khasa king in Karnali; and if a son is born, my parties will come here

searching for the Prince. As he spoke the truth, Nagi Malla left this material world making his

journey to heaven probably. His last rituals were performed at the Parshuram Kshetra alongside

the Mahakali River near Khujakot as he had desired to.

Parshuram Kshetra today also has a bathing disc of Nagi Malla, which has now been covered by

Mahakali River. During mid-January of every year on the occasion of eclipse, a grand religious

feast is organized at Parshuram Kshetra, whereby people came long from India for religious

purpose. On the auspicious occasion, everyone is curious to observe the special bathing disc of

Nagi Malla. People can only imagine of taking a holy bath in the disc as it is submerged in

Mahakali River, which is seen only during the winter as the level of Mahakali River moves to

center from sideways. During the feast, religious processions of local deity gods from various

districts are brought to bathe them in Mahakali River. People also engage in rhyming folk songs,

which are mostly the narration and depiction of life of Nagi Malla and his kingdom. These socio-

cultural activities of locals also signify the actuality of Khasa kingdom, Khujakot and the legend

of Nagi Malla.

After the death of Nagi Malla, a son was born to the Brahmin daughter, now the Mother Queen

of Doti Kingdom. As told by Nagi Malla, the kingdom officials were at the door of Brahmin


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house in service. And Ripu Malla again had controversial implications in the history of Nepal.

There is a record by UNESCO World Heritage Site that Ripu Malla from Khasa kingdom in

1312 AD was the last visitor to Ashokan Pillar in Lumbini. Some believe that he was the son of

Nagi Malla, and some argue that he was Ripu Malla, but another king from Karnali. Actually,

Ripu Malla inscribed his name in the Ashokan Pillar during his return from Kathmandu Valley

after attacking there. There is a historical evidence of Khasa kings attacking Kathmandu Valley

repeatedly for six times. They attacked the Valley, but didn’t harm the people nor did they

destroy the religious sites in the Valley. Despite, they performed rituals at Bungamati,

Pashupatinath and Swayambhunath sites and returned back. May the Ripu Malla who attacked

Kathmandu Valley be the son of Nagi Malla or be the Khasa king from Karnali, it shows that the

Khasa kings and people respected the religion and culture of people of other societies.

Khasa literature also has an impact in the development of national language of Nepal. The Nepali

language of Nepalese today is actually a modified form of Khasa language. Even after the

unification of Nepal by King Prithivi Narayan Shah from Gorkha, the founder king of Nepal, the

official language of Nepal kingdom was Khasa language. It was later modified and the Nepali

language today is a derivative of Khasa literature. This influence has linkages to the Khasa

kingdom, obviously to the legend of Nagi Malla, and to the people of Western Nepal. There still

exists controversy in the grammar and originality of Nepali language. In this case, understanding

the anthropology of Khasa people could help linguistic experts to explore the problems in Nepali

language today. And, in this context, the archaeological findings from Khujakot could support

the effort, as Khujakot, unanimously, is one of the important part of Khasa kingdom.


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While talking about the archaeological values of Khujakot, which can be significant in

identifying the sociological, anthropological, cultural and political history of Nepal, there are not

only possibilities alone. Much has been discussed about the legend of Nagi Malla, but there

remain some major challenges to the authenticity of Khujakot. One of the direct challenges is the

people themselves. Even in the days of 21st century, the people living in rural Nepal are

surviving through basic needs. They are busy with their individual businesses, but are totally

unaware of collective responsibilities. These responsibilities are also only acknowledged by

historians, social scientists, archaeologists and other associated experts. This is where the crisis

of public awareness comes in between the local people and the experts. The value of

archaeological or historical Khujakot remains among people in intangible form of folk culture

and occasional religious activities only. The experts, who are supposed to identify the tangible

form of art/literature, architecture and technology of such edifices, are busy in preparing

abstracts only. The experts, who also carry the collective responsibility of transforming

intangible values among people into justifiable documentation, again face their back to the

regional context, and are busy in research of centralized projects only. Khujakot has already been

listed as the regional heritage of Far-Western Nepal by DOA, and DOA has nothing but a single

piece of blurred photo in their reports for documentation. The local people of Parigaun say that

decades ago a team of archaeologists came there to prepare an inventory, and returned back to

Head Office with a silver coin from Khujakot in their pocket.

Much of the ancient writings and documents of Khasa kingdom were destroyed or forfeited

outside during the course of repeated attacks from Moghuls, during defeat with army of King

Prithivi Narayan Shah for unification of Nepal, and lastly during the 19th

century Indo-Nepal war


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with British Army of East India Company. Moghuls attacked Khasa kingdom lured by the rich

wealth and treasury of Raik as, and as they couldn’t get it, they destroyed the major architectural

structures along with other important piece of art and writings. During the unification campaign

of King Prithivi Narayan Shah, some of the secret documents and writings were lost within the

war. And, during the Indo-Nepal war, most of the documentations and other secret writings

related to religious and socio-cultural practices were seized by the British.

Some experts and historians believe that those documents are still in the hand of Indian and

British researchers. This isn’t an attempt to accuse anybody, but it has been proved that the

archaeological and architectural timeline of Nepalese history has been tried to manipulate for

several times to have been developed within the Indian Empire. This devious assumption has

also been defied by other Italian and some native experts with references from the excavations at

Lumbini and Kathmandu Valley that the archaeological and architectural timeline of Nepalese

history has a contemporary but an independent development. If only we could carry some

archaeology at the Khasa kingdoms including Khujakot, Ajayameru, Achham and Karnali, we

could get some supporting and significant results in the field of study of sociology, anthropology,

culture and political history of Nepal. And such findings would certainly provide some

references to our present, which would become the archaeology for the people.

In the Jogbuda VDC of Dadeldhura, a valley adjacent to Shirsha VDC where Khujakot lies, there

is a habitation of Raute Community, who has been characterized by the Government of Nepal as

endangered community. The Raute Community also has close relation to the ancient settlements

of Khasa kingdom in Doti. One can’t find any other group of Raute Community in other parts of


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Far-Western Nepal, but they do live in some parts of Mid-Western Nepal, which used to be

under the control of Khasa kingdom in Karnali. As the juxtaposed settlements of Raute

Community near Khujakot have socio-cultural relation to the Khasa kingdom, the endangered

community of Rautes could have some sociological and anthropological answers to the ethnic

identity of people and society of Far-Western Nepal. It is seen that Rautes are afraid of coming in

front of modern society. Their lifestyle is also kind of aboriginal, yet they have their own socio-

cultural values and traditions. They even disregard to have a modern lifestyle. The Rautes seem

nomadic, but they are skilled with authentic technology of farming, making of agricultural

products and other essentials which are fine and have industrial characteristic. The Government

of Nepal has also employed them in preserving the forest and biodiversity of local regions. If we

could identify the relation between the Raute Community and Khujakot from possible

archaeotectural studies, it would help us in understanding more about the people of Khasa

kingdom.

Since the origin of human civilization, several philosophers and scientists have contributed a lot

to humankind in their respective fields. May it be the democratic philosophy of Socrates, or

artistic gesture of Plato, message of Lord Buddha, the social dialogue from Rousseau,

metaphysical thinking of Kant and Nietzsche, psychological interpretation by Freud, the

characteristic of universe described by Einstein, and also the living scholars today; they did

research in their field, but delivered whatever they discovered to the general people in a sublime

language. That’s why our society is indebted to those luminaries. Today also, with the

advancement in methods and approaches, scholars from different fields are working in their

subject. However, their works are or have been limited to the papers only; the general public is


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Archaeotectural Morphology of Khujakot A

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