Kingdom of Nepal in the context of "Nepalese Civil War"

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 to the north, and India to the south, east, and west, while it is narrowly separated from Bangladesh by the Siliguri Corridor, and from Bhutan by the Indian state of Sikkim. Nepal has a diverse geography, including fertile plains, subalpine forested hills, and eight of the world's ten highest mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest point above mean sea level on Earth. Kathmandu is the nation's capital and its largest city. Nepal is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious, and multi-cultural state, with Nepali as the official language.

The name "Nepal" is first recorded in texts from the Vedic period of the Indian subcontinent, the era in ancient Nepal when Hinduism was founded, the predominant religion of the country. In the middle of the first millennium BC, Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born in Lumbini in southern Nepal. Parts of northern Nepal were intertwined with the culture of Tibet. The centrally located Kathmandu Valley is intertwined with the culture of Indo-Aryans, and was the seat of the prosperous Newar confederacy known as Nepal Mandala. The Himalayan branch of the ancient Silk Road was dominated by the valley's traders. The cosmopolitan region developed distinct traditional art and architecture. By the 18th century, the Gorkha Kingdom achieved the unification of Nepal. The Shah dynasty established the Kingdom of Nepal and later formed an alliance with the British Empire, under its Rana dynasty of premiers. The country was never colonised but served as a buffer state between Imperial China and British India. Parliamentary democracy was introduced in 1951 but was twice suspended by Nepalese monarchs, in 1960 and 2005. The Nepalese Civil War in the 1990s and early 2000s resulted in the establishment of a secular republic in 2008, ending the world's last Hindu monarchy. The Constitution of Nepal, adopted in 2015, affirms the country as a federal parliamentary republic divided into seven provinces. In September 2025, protests against a social media ban and economic inequality caused riots, resulting in casualties and resignation of the prime minister.

The Bengal Sultanate (Middle Bengali: শাহী বাঙ্গালাহ্, Classical Persian: سلطنت بنگاله) was a late medieval sultanate based in the Bengal region in eastern South Asia between the 14th and 16th century. It was the dominant power of the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta, with a network of mint towns spread across the region. The Bengal Sultanate had a circle of vassal states in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, including parts of Odisha in the southwest, parts of Bihar in the northwest, parts of Assam in the northeast, Arakan in the southeast, and Tripura in the east.

The Bengal Sultanate controlled large parts of eastern South Asia during its five dynastic periods, reaching its peak under Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah. Its raids and conquests reached Nepal in the north, Brahmaputra Valley (modern-day Assam) in the east, and Jaunpur and Varanasi in the west. It was reputed as a thriving trading nation. Its decline began with an interregnum by the Sur Empire, followed by Mughal conquest and disintegration into petty kingdoms. The Bengal Sultanate was a Sunni Muslim monarchy with Bengali, Turco-Persian, Afghan and Abyssinian elites. The most prominent dynasties were the Ilyas Shahi, House of Ganesha and Hussain Shahi. The kingdom was known for its religious pluralism where non-Muslim communities co-existed peacefully. While Persian was used as the primary official, diplomatic and commercial language, it was under the Sultans that Bengali first received court recognition as an official language. The cities of the Bengal Sultanate are termed as Mint Towns where the historical taka was minted. These cities were adorned with stately medieval buildings. In 1500, the royal capital of Gaur was the fifth-most populous city in the world. Other notable cities included the initial royal capital of Pandua, the economic hub of Sonargaon, the Mosque City of Bagerhat, and the seaport and trading hub of Chittagong. The Bengal Sultanate was connected to states in Asia, Africa, the Indian Ocean, and Europe through maritime links and overland trade routes. The Bengal Sultanate was a major trading center on the coast of the Bay of Bengal. It attracted immigrants and traders from different parts of the world. Bengali ships and merchants traded across the region, including in Malacca, China, and the Maldives.

Kathmandu (Nepali: [ˌkaʈʰmaɳˈɖu]) 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 million people in the surrounding metropolitan area. The city stands at an elevation of 1,324 metres (4,344 ft) above sea level.

Recognized as one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world, Kathmandu's history dates back to the 2nd century AD. Historically known as the Nepal Mandala, the valley has been the cultural and political hub for the Newar people, a significant urban civilization in the Himalayan region. Kathmandu served as the royal capital of the Kingdom of Nepal and is home to numerous palaces, temples, and gardens reflecting its rich heritage. Since 1985, it has hosted the headquarters of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

Nepali (नेपाली, Nepālī, [ˈnepali]), is an Indo-Aryan language, belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family, native to the Himalayan region of South Asia. It is the official and most-widely spoken language of Nepal, where it also serves as a lingua franca. Nepali has official status in the Indian state of Sikkim and in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration semi-autonomous region of West Bengal, where it is the majority language. It is also spoken by about a quarter of Bhutan's population. Nepali also has a significant number of speakers in the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Uttarakhand. In Myanmar it is spoken by the Burmese Gurkhas. The Nepali diaspora in the Middle East, Brunei, Australia and worldwide also use the language. Nepali is spoken by approximately 19 million native speakers and another 14 million as a second language.

Nepali is commonly classified within the Eastern Pahari group of the Northern zone of Indo-Aryan.The language originated from the Sinja Valley, Karnali Province then the capital city of the Khasa Kingdom around the 10th and 14th centuries. It developed proximity to a number of Indo-Aryan languages, most significantly to other Pahari languages. Nepali was originally spoken by the Khas people, an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group native to the Himalayan region of South Asia. The earliest inscription in the Nepali language is believed to be an inscription in Dullu, Dailekh District which was written around the reign of King Bhupal Damupal around the year 981. The institutionalisation of the Nepali language arose during the rule of the Kingdom of Gorkha (later became known as the Kingdom of Nepal) in the 16th century. Over the centuries, different dialects of the Nepali language with distinct influences from Sanskrit, Maithili, Hindi, and Bengali are believed to have emerged across different regions of the current-day Nepal and Uttarakhand, making Nepali the lingua franca.

The following list enumerates Hindu monarchies in chronological order of establishment dates. These monarchies were widespread in South Asia since about 1500 BC, went into slow decline in the medieval times, with most gone by the end of the 17th century, although the last one, the Kingdom of Nepal, dissolved only in the 2008.

The India–Nepal border is an open international boundary running between the countries of India and Nepal. The 1,751 km (1,088.02 mi) long border includes the Himalayan territories as well as Indo-Gangetic Plain of the subcontinent. The current border was delimited after the Sugauli treaty of 1816 between Nepal and the British Raj. Following Indian independence, the prevailing border was recognised as the international border between the Kingdom of Nepal and the Dominion of India.

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 Shah dynasty (Nepali: शाह वंश), also known as the Shahs of Gorkha or the Royal House of Gorkha, was the ruling Chaubise Thakuri dynasty and the founder of the Gorkha Kingdom from 1559 to 1768 and later the unified Kingdom of Nepal from 1768 to 28 May 2008.

The Shah dynasty traces its historical ancestor to King of Kaski, Kulamandan Shah Khand, whose grandson Dravya Shah captured the throne of Ligligkot from Magars King (Dalsur Ghale Magar) with the help of accomplices from six resident clans of Majhkot and Ligligkot. Dravya Shah named his new kingdom Gorkha.

The Rana dynasty (Nepali: राणा वंश, romanized: Rāṇā vaṃśa, Sanskrit: [raːɳaː ʋɐ̃ɕɐ], Nepali: [raɳa bʌŋsʌ]) was a Chhetri dynasty that imposed authoritarianism in the Kingdom of Nepal from 1846 until 1951, reducing the Shah monarch to a figurehead, and making the Prime Minister and other government positions held by the Ranas hereditary. The Rana dynasty is historically known for their iron-fisted rule in Nepal. This changed after the Revolution of 1951 with the promulgation of a new constitution, when power shifted back to the monarchy of King Tribhuvan.

The Rana dynasty were descended from the Kunwar family, a nobility of the Gorkha Kingdom. Due to their marital lineages with the politically reigning Thapa dynasty (of Mukhtiyar Bhimsen Thapa) from the early 19th century, the Ranas gained entry to central Darbar politics. The Ranas were also linked to a minor faction of the Pande dynasty of Gorkha through the Thapa dynasty.