Rana Bahadur Shah
| Rana Bahadur Shah | |
|---|---|
| King of Nepal | |
 |
|
| Reign | 17 November 1777 – 8 March 1799 |
| Coronation | January 1778 |
| Predecessor | Pratap Singh Shah |
| Successor | Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah |
| Born | 25 May 1775 Basantapur, Nepal |
| Died | 25 April 1806 (aged 30) (Stabbed) Basantapur, Nepal |
| Spouse |
Raj Rajeshwari Devi (m.1789-1806; his death) Subarna Prabha Devi (m.1791-1806; his death) Kantavati Devi (m.1797-1799; her death) Lalit Tripura Sundari Devi (m.1804-1806; his death) |
| Issue |
Ranodyot Bikram Shah Samarsher Shah King Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah Tillotoma Devi Amar Laxmi Devi Vilasvati Laxmi Devi Dhanashahi Laxmi Devi |
| Dynasty | Shah dynasty |
| Father | Pratap Singh Shah |
| Mother | Rajendra Rajya Laxmi Devi |
| Religion | Hinduism |
Rana Bahadur Shah, King of Nepal (Nepali: रण बहादुर शाह) (1775–1806) was the King of Nepal from 1777 to 1806. In 1777, he succeeded to the throne after the death of his father, Pratap Singh Shah. He ruled under the regencies of his mother, Queen Rajendra Rajya Laxmi Devi (died on 13 July 1785 from tuberculosis), and then of his uncle, Bahadur Shah. During this time, the kingdom expanded by conquest to include the Garhwal and Kumaon regions, now part of India. He sent his uncle Bahadur Shah to jail, who later died in jail.
The premature death of Pratap Singh Shah (reigned 1775–77), the eldest son of Prithvi Narayan Shah, left a huge power vacuum that remained unfilled for decades, seriously debilitating the emerging Nepalese state. Pratap Singh Shah's successor was his son, Rana Bahadur Shah (reigned 1777–99), aged two and one-half years at his accession. The acting regent until 1785 was Queen Rajendralakshmi, followed by Bahadur Shah (reigned 1785–94), the second son of Prithvi Narayan Shah. Court life was consumed by rivalry centered on alignments with these two regents rather than on issues of national administration, and it set a bad precedent for future competition among contending regents. The exigencies of Sino-Nepalese War in 1788–92 had forced Bahadur Shah to temporarily take a pro-British stance, which had led to a commercial treaty with the British in 1792.
Meanwhile, Rana Bahadur's youth had been spent in pampered luxury. In 1794 King Rana Bahadur Shah came of age, and his first act was to re-constitute the government such that his uncle, Bahadur Shah, had no official part to play. In mid 1795, he became infatuated with a Maithili Brahman widow, Kantavati Jha, and married her on the oath of making their illegitimate half-caste son (as per the Hindu law of that time) the heir apparent, by excluding the legitimate heir from his previous marriage. By 1797, his relationship with his uncle, who was living a retired life, and who wanted to seek refuge in China on the pretext of meeting the new emperor, had deteriorated to the extent that he ordered his imprisonment (on 19 February 1797) and his subsequent murder (on 23 June 1797). Such acts earned Rana Bahadur notoriety both among courtiers and common people, especially among Brahmins. Being ranodatta was the eldest son but not made king of Nepal
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