Mukthiyar General Sri Sri Sri Chautariya Pushkar Shah (August 16, 1784 – 1841) was the

Mukhtiyar Mukhtiyar () was the position of head of government, head of executive of Kingdom of Nepal between 1806 and 1843. It was equivalent to Prime Minister of Nepal. There were 7 Mukhtiyars appointed between 1806 and 1843. Meaning ''Mukhtiyar'' is for ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

from August 1838 to early 1839. He previously served as the governor of

Doti Doti (), also known as Dotigarh (डोटीगढ़) or the Far-Western Development Region was a development region of Nepal situated between River Kali bordering Kumaon division of Uttarakhand, India in the west and the Karnali river on t ...

from 1831 to 1837, and as Special Ambassador to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

from 1837 to 1838. He was the counselor of state from 1840 to 1841.

Secret Strategic Alliance with
Ranjit Singh Ranjit Singh (13 November 1780 – 27 June 1839) was the founder and first maharaja of the Sikh Empire, in the northwest Indian subcontinent, ruling from 1801 until his death in 1839. Born to Maha Singh, the leader of the Sukerchakia M ...
of Punjab

Chautariya Pushkar Shah was the Governor of

from 1831 to 1837. He was sent there by King Rajendra Bikram Shah to secretly forge an alliance between Nepal and Punjab against the British. Following Punjab's annexation, the British imprisoned the Rani Jind Kaur in Chunar fort near Varanasi. However, two years later in 1849, she managed to escape from the fort disguised as a maid and traveled 800 km north to reach Kathmandu. Initially, she stayed at the residence of Chatariya's son Amar Bikram Shah in the Narayanhiti are

Secret Strategic Alliance with the Emperor Daoguang (Qing Dynasty) of China

Diplomatic Team

sent its tenth

quinquennial An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded. Most countries celebrate national anniversaries, typically called national days. These could be the date of independence of the nation or the adoption o ...

mission to

in 1837, under the leadership of Chautariya Pushkar Shah. He was an important member of a collateral branch of the royal family. Chautariya was accompanied by a

retinue A retinue is a body of persons "retained" in the service of a noble, royal personage, or dignitary; a ''suite'' (French "what follows") of retainers. Etymology The word, recorded in English since circa 1375, stems from Old French ''retenue'', ...

consisting of

Sardar Sardar, also spelled as Sardaar (, , 'commander', literally 'headmaster'), is a title of royal family, royalty and nobility that was originally used to denote princes, noblemen, chiefs, kings and other Aristocracy (class), aristocrats. It ha ...

Captain Kirti Dhoj Pande (deputy leader of the mission), Rana Bikram Shah, Khardar Purna Nanda, Vansaraj Thapa (interpreter), Mahiman Karki, Amrit Mahat, Dal Bir Khatri, Gajadhar Padhya, Bhau Singh, Yaktabar (Shaktabar) Jaisi, Mammu Miya, Bhariya Nayak Padma Narayan, Gotha Rana and Dambar Thapa.

Preparation for the Second Anglo-Gorkha War

Departure to Peking

Chautariya Pushkar Shah's mission left

Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...

on 14 July 1837. As an observant

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

, Shah followed the religion's commandments strictly throughout his journey. For example, he did not accept tea offered by others during the journey and only ate food cooked by his own personal cook. Upon arrival, Chautariya was given a warm welcome in China by the

Chinese Emperor Throughout Chinese history, "Emperor" () was the superlative title held by the monarchs of imperial China's various dynasties. In traditional Chinese political theory, the emperor was the " Son of Heaven", an autocrat with the divine manda ...

. In December 1835, the political rival of Prime Minister

Bhimsen Thapa Bhimsen Thapa ( (August 1775 – 29 July 1839)) was a Nepalese statesman who served as the ''Mukhtiyar'' (equivalent to prime minister) and de facto ruler of Nepal from 1806 to 1837. He is widely known as the List of Prime Ministers of Nepal, l ...

had requested Chinese Amban's in

Lhasa Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China. Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...

to request King

Rajendra Bikram Shah Rajendra Bikram Shah (; 3 December 1813 – 10 July 1881) was King of Nepal. His reign saw the rise of the Ranas; in 1846, Jung Bahadur Rana came to power as prime minister and the next year, Rajendra was forced to abdicate in favor of his son ...

to send Ranajung Pande as the leader of the 10th quinquennial mission to China. As a result, the Chinese Amban wrote to the Nepalese King to personally nominate the leader of the next five-year mission to

Peking Beijing, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's most populous national capital city as well as China's second largest city by urban area after Shanghai. It is l ...

. The Chinese Amban strongly suggested that Rana Jang Pande be appointed leader of the mission.

King's Trusted Men

King

nominated his most trusted courtier Chautariya Pushkar Shah instead of Rana Jang Pande. One source however states that the Chinese Amban had also suggested King Rajendra not to send wicked Rana Jang Pande, but to nominate another good, virtuous person to lead the quinquennial mission to the Ching Emperor's Court. Despite this, Jagat Bam Pande was originally supposed to lead the 1837 mission. After Chautariya Pushkar Shah left for

there was a big political upheaval in Nepal with the dismissal and imprisonment of the Prime Minister

held the post of Prime Minister continuously for thirty one years. The Nepalese court informed the Chautariya about the political developments in Nepal and dispatched him a letter to hand over to the Ching Emperor. Due to the political turmoil in Nepal, the Chautariya tried to complete his mission and return to Nepal as early as possible. He completed the round-trip journey to

in less than fourteen months. The mission of 1837 recorded a detailed and systematic summary of the routes from Kathmandu to Peking as traveled by the Nepalese envoy to Peking.

Return Trip

The delegates returned home on 25 September 1838 with the Chinese Emperor's Parwana. The return trip from Peking to Kathmandu took nearly six months. During the return trip, two members of the Nepalese mission i.e. one

Subedar Subedar ( ) is a military rank in the militaries of South Asia roughly equivalent to that of a warrant officer. Historically classed in the British Indian Army as a Viceroy's commissioned officer, the rank was retained in the Indian Army an ...

and one

Sipahi The ''sipahi'' ( , ) were professional cavalrymen deployed by the Seljuk Turks and later by the Ottoman Empire. ''Sipahi'' units included the land grant–holding ('' timar'') provincial ''timarli sipahi'', which constituted most of the arm ...

died on the way. The diplomatic team had requested the Ching court to send troops or provide a subsidy of twenty million rupees to opposes the British as Nepal was planning to wage a second war with the colonial power. However, the Nepalese Delegation was met with a stern refusal of its petition for monetary aid, and were also requested not to go to war with the British. The Quing court did not support Nepal's call for help.

Importance of the mission

The 1837 mission was the first Nepalese quinquennial mission ever led by a prominent political personality like Chautariya Pushkar Shah. This mission was different from other Nepalese quinquennial missions in several ways. Firstly, the deputy leader of the 1837 mission was Captain Kirti Dhoj Pande, being the first time that the highest Nepalese military official was assigned the post of deputy leader of the mission. Secondly, the mission carried many expensive presents to the Ching Emperor. The Nepalese presents were so far the most expensive thus far. Thirdly, soon after his return from Peking as the leader of the Nepalese quinquennial mission to China, Chautariya Pushkar Shah was appointed to the post of Prime Minister in 1838.H. Ambrose Oldfield, Sketches from Nepal, Volume I, Delhi: Cosmo publications, Reptrint, 1981, p. 313 Thus Chautariya Pushkar Shah established his important role in the history of Sino-Nepalese relations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shah, Chautariya Puskhar 1784 births 1841 deaths Mukhtiyars People from Kathmandu Chautariya 19th-century prime ministers of Nepal Nepalese Hindus

Secret Strategic Alliance with Ranjit Singh Ranjit Singh (13 November 1780 – 27 June 1839) was the founder and first maharaja of the Sikh Empire, in the northwest Indian subcontinent, ruling from 1801 until his death in 1839. Born to Maha Singh, the leader of the Sukerchakia M ... of Punjab