GURKHA, a race in Nepal, with broad Chinese or Tartar-like physiognomy, small eyes, flat nose, and meagre whiskers, as well as of stout square make and sturdy limbs. The Gurkha, in every description of costume, and in all degrees of raggedness, are to bo seen mingled with inhabitants of Kamaon, Sirmore, and Garhwal. The name is said to be derived from the Sanskrit Goraksha, or from Gao and Rakha, cowkeeper, and that the founder of the dynasty emigrated in the 14th century A.D. from Tirhut.
The present inhabitants of Nepal are the descendants of successive tides of invaders front beyond the Himalayan range, and of fugitives from the plains of Rajputana and of Oudh. But when the Mahomedan invasions of India began in the 11th century of our era, many Hindu princes fled beyond the Terai, to find a safe place of shelter in the valleys and recesses of the c,ountry round the sources of the rivers Gogra and Kosi. It is from the alliance of these Hindus with the women of the Gurung, Magar, and other Mongol tribes, that the warlike race of Nepal, the celebrated Khas or Gurkha, is supposed to have sprung. They bad been settled at the town of Gurkha considerably to the west of Khatmandu for some centuries before the year 1768, when the crisis in their history arrived. Their chief was on terms of friendship with, and nominally subordinate to, the kings of Nepal. He appears to have taken his share in the defence of the state when Muhammad Taghalaq strove to subject it to his dominion. On this occasion a Chinese army appeared upon the scene, and thoroughly discom fited the invading force. The division of the kingdom into several indipendent districts by the la.st of the great princes of the Mal dynasty, about the year 1600, had paved the way for thc ultimate success of the Gurkhas, but it was not until more than a century and a half after this occurrence that the opportunity presented iteelf. The interval had been taken up by feuds between the rival chiefs or kings of Bhartgaon, Khatinandu, and Lalita. Putan, from all of which the Gurkhas had kept studiously aloof. At this conjuncture Prithi Narayan, who claimed descent from tho ranas of Udaipur, watt chief of Gurkha, and his authority was also recognised in Kamaon and Nayakot. The king of Bliartgaon, hard pressed by his opponents, came to him with a request for assist ance, and this Prithi Narayan willingly consented to give. 13ut the Bliartgaon chief soon found that Prithi Narayan aspired to be his master rather than his ally, and the three kings made up their feuds, and opposed the Gurkha invader as the common enemy of all. One capital after the
other, however, surrendered to Prithi Narayan. One of the kings was slain ou the field of battle, a second died in prison, and the third fled to India. A small force was sent by the Governor General to their assistance, hut was recalled with out effecting any result. After Prithi Narayan's death the task of conquering the whole of the country was brought to a satisfactory conclusion by Bahadur Shah, tho regent of that ruler's youth ful grandson, and. from that time down to the present the supreme administrative authority in the kingdom has been in the hands of a regent rather than in those of the king.
13aliaclur Shah, the regent, undertook an invasion of Tibet in the year 1791. A Gurkha army of at least 20,000 well-trained soldiers crossed the Himalaya aud advanced towards the Sanpu. It captured and plundered Teshu Lumbo, but beat a hasty retreat on the approach of a large Chinese army. The Gurkhas were beaten in several battles, pursued to within sight of Khatmandu, and compelled to acknowledge themselves vassals of the Chinese emperor. The Gurkhas then turned their attention to the districts south of the mountains, when their encroachments in the direction of Sikkim brought them into collision. War broke out between the 13ritish and. the Gurkhas in 1814, and at first the advantage was with the latter. 13ut Sir David Ouchterlony, during the following year, restored the balance, and in February 1816 a treaty of peace was signed, by the terms of which Nepal was deprived of its more recent conquests, and reduced to its present dimensions. The Chinese sent an army on this occasion to assist the Gurkhas, but it arrived too la,te. Ono of the stipulations of this treaty was that the British were to have the right to station a resident at Khatmaudu. During the Afghan wars of 1810-42, the resident, Mr. Brian Hodgson, averted a collision at the time when the Sikh question had reached a crisis. On tho accession to power, in the year 1846, of Sir Jung Bahadur, who was tho great-nephew of tho regent, 13hini Sen Tappa, a more friendly attitude was observed towards the British Government, and stanch sup port was rendered during the Indian mutiny, and was rewarded in 1860 by the cession to Nepal of the Oudh Terai.