Baise Rajya in the context of "Chaubisi Rajya"

The Gorkha Kingdom, also known as the Gorkha Confederation or the Gorkha Empire, was one of the Chaubisi states, situated at the junction of the Himalayas and the Indian subcontinent. In 1743, the kingdom began a campaign of military expansion, annexing several neighbors and laying the foundations of present-day Nepal.

Following the disintegration of the Magarat confederation—formerly ruled by the Magar—the region fragmented into the Baise Rajya (22 principalities) in the far west and the Chaubisi Rajya (24 principalities) in central Nepal.

The unification of Nepal (Nepali: नेपालको एकीकरण, romanized: Nēpālakō ēkīkaraṇa) was the process of building the modern Nepalese state, by invading fractured Malla kingdoms including the Baise Rajya's 22 kingdoms and the Chaubisi Rajya's 24 kingdoms. It began in 1743 CE (1799 BS), by Prithvi Narayan Shah, King of Gorkha. On 25 September 1768, he officially announced the creation of the Kingdom of Nepal and moved his capital from Gorkha to a city in Kathmandu Valley.

The Shah dynasty that Prithvi Narayan Shah founded would go on to absorb the various warring Malla kingdoms that once occupied parts of present-day Nepal into a nation-state that stretched up to the Sutlej River in the west and Sikkim-Jalpaiguri in the east. Before the Gorkha Empire, the Kathmandu Valley was known as Nepal after the Nepal Mandala, the region's name in Newar language.

The Chaubisi Rajya, Chaubise Rajya, or Chaubisye Rajya (Nepali: चौबीसी राज्य, चौबीसे राज्य; lit. ‘24 principalities’) were a group of sovereign and intermittently allied petty kingdoms located in the mid-hill regions of present-day central and western Nepal. These principalities were ruled by various local dynasties, including Thakuri, Khas, and Magar lineages, reflecting the ethnic and political diversity of the region. One of these kingdoms, Gorkha, under King Prithvi Narayan Shah, began a campaign of unification soon after his accession in 1743 AD. This process led to the gradual annexation of the Chaubisi states between 1744 and 1816 AD. To the west of the Gandaki Basin, a parallel confederation of 22 small kingdoms known as the Baise Rajya (Nepali: बाइसे राज्य) also existed, with similarly diverse ruling groups.

The Shah Kingdom was founded by Drabya Shah, the youngest son of Yasho Brahma Shah, king of Kaski and Lamjung, his eldest son became the king of Kaski and Lamjung which created a fight for supremacy. Palpa was one of the biggest and most powerful kingdoms; the rulers were able to create independent kingdoms in Tanahu, Makwanpur and Vijaypur. The first battle took place in Nuwakot. Prithvi Narayan Shah sent Kaji Biraj Thapa Magar to attack Kathmandu, but he returned without fighting, suggesting that they had misjudged the enemy’s strength and the valley’s defenses. Later, Shah sent Kaji Kalu Pande with a larger force. In 1757, during the first Battle of Kirtipur, Kalu Pande was killed, and the Gorkhali army suffered a heavy defeat, marking an important early setback in Shah’s campaign.