Ranipokhari – a historical glimpse

- Prem Khatry

Like all the prominent and unforgettable constructive works of King Pratap Malla the Ranipokhari has a great historical importance. Evidences have it that King had dug it in 1670 A.D. And even after three hundred years one remembers the famous Malla King of seventeenth century. It is now an object of glory not only for the Kathmandu Valley alone but for the whole country as it has become itself a history of the seventeenth century.

One legend has it that when Pratap Malla declared his son Chakravartindra Malla as King in NS 789 (1669 AD) a grand ceremony was observed to solemnize the occasion on which the child King was taken out in procession to have a look of the Gods and his people. But the elephant bearing the new king ran suddenly wild thereby causing the death of Chakravartindra Malla. King Pratap Malla was naturally shocked. The King dug the tank to console his consort, the mother of Chakravartindra Malla. The tank was so named because the lamentation of the Queen at the death of her beloved son was responsible for the construction of the tank.

The above-mentioned version of the local legend tallies with the contents of the King’s Ranipokhari inscription of 790 NS (1670 AD). It also mentions that the tank was to be dedicated to the Prince Chakravartindra, whose untimely death brought extreme agony to his mother. The inscription also tells us that the king, after having consulted the śāstras fetched holy water from many holy places of Nepal and India (ref. Sanskrit Sandesh, Vol. I) and caused the formation of that small and fine tank which is a place of interest even today. Besides, when completed, the tank was to provide a useful facility to the dwellers of the city besides presiding for paying oblation of Gods and Goddesses as well as their ancestors.

There are in that inscription few more noteworthy expressions which need out attention. Nobody was to commit suicide by drowning in the holy water. The witnesses for the inscribed document art the Sun, the Moon, Fire, the Earth, the Water, the Sky, the Air, the Soul, Day and Night, the Evening, five Brahmans (Pancha-Brahmana), five Pradhanas (Pancha-Pradhana), five Khasas, and five Magras. These last two ethnic groups appear for th first time in any Malla inscriptions so far I knew and indicate that they also formed the population of King Pratap Malla.

Let us turn to the naming of the tank. Our old documents, however, do not mention the name Ranipokhari for this tank, nor have they associated any Queen’s name with it. The inscription referred to above and few others mention the names of the King Pratap Malla and his son Chakravertindra. Below are some views mentioned in some old documents:-

(1) Daniel Wright’s Vamsavali mentions that King Pratap Malla had constructed the tank for the consolation of the Queen. He says- “The deceased son’s mother was inconsolable for the loss of her youngest born, the Raja, to console her caused a tank to be dug.” (p. 133).

(2) Sylvain Levi in his ‘Le Nepal’ (Vol. II) tells that the King had dug the tank to honour his Queen. He, however, omits the name and story which is repeated mentioned above.

(3) Bhasa Vamsavali (p. 89) records that the King made this tank filled with the water of holy places and named it “Nāga Talāo” (The serpent’s tank). Later, it continues, Queen Bhuvanlakshmi added to it. Thereafter it was named Ranipokhari.

Thus the sources are of divergent views. It is clear, however, that it did not have the name ‘Ranipokhari’ at the beginning as it was dedicated to the child King. But the name ‘Nāga talāo’ of Bhasa Vamsavali also seems not to have been in use. The association of Bhuvanlaksmi’s name with this tank also is only in this Vamsavali. Talking all these evidences into account it appear that the story of Chakravartindra Malla’s death and the Queen’s lamentation made the people of later days the tank as ‘Queen’s Tank’ (Ranipokhari) and the same term was handed down to posterity.

The names of the Tirtha’s (holy places) mentioned in the Ranipokhari Stale of 790 (1670 Oct.) art fifty in total. Of them eight are from India, thirty-one from the Kathmandu Valley itself and twelve from outside the Valley. The King himself says so and expresses his desire that the tank was to exact the highest regard so far as it sanctity was concerned. Thus he added water from holiest places of both India and Nepal to fill the tank. Because of the sanctity of the tank nobody could do any harm resulting in tis damage, whatsoever. The writer of the inscriptions is Shri Krishna Mishra.

As regards the maintenance of the tank it is believed that the King had made an arrangement of an outlet for dirty water to be drained out and it was kept neat and clean. But things have changed a lot now and three hundred years’ long period has cruelly impeded the fate of this historical tank. Now it exists and wears of course, new robes outwardly but its inside glory and its beauty have not been properly increased if not impaired. Besides the tank itself there are other temples and images in and outside or around it. These historical monuments further enhance the religious importance of the tank and beautify it.

[Reprint from: The Rising Nepal (English daily, Friday supplement) August 29, 1975, p. II]