Hindu temples in Patan, capital of one of the three medieval
Newar kingdoms
After centuries of petty rivalry between the three kingdoms, in the mid-18th century,
Prithvi Narayan Shah, a
Gorkha King, set out to unify the kingdoms. Seeking arms and aid from India, and buying the neutrality of bordering Indian kingdoms, he embarked on his mission in 1765. After several bloody battles and sieges, he managed to unify the Kathmandu Valley and surrounding territory three years later in 1768. However, an actual battle never took place to conquer the Kathmandu valley; it was taken over by Prithvi Narayan and his troops without any effort, during Indra Jatra, a festival of
Newars, when all the valley's citizens were celebrating the festival. This event marked the birth of the modern nation of Nepal.
In 1788 the Nepalese overran
Sikkim and sent a punitive raid into
Tibet.
Kangra in northern India was also occupied by the Nepalese. In 1809,
Ranjit Singh the ruler of the
Sikh state in the
Punjab, had intervened and drove the Nepalese army east of the
Satluj river.
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