CHAPTER XCIV.The Two Kings of Nepal.
Having made up my mind as to what I was going to do, I took a train back to Calcutta a few nights after. Money has its power in India, as elsewhere, and soon afterwards I was once more on my way to Nepāl.
By some means I was introduced to a Professor Keḍarnāṭh Chatterji, an old Bengalī gentleman who had once been the Principal of the Municipal School of Kātmāndu, Nepāl, and was then living in Calcutta and known to be in the good graces of the King of Nepāl. He readily, even cheerfully, complied with my request and gave me a letter of introduction to the King of Nepāl. I may observe that the natives of Tibet, Bhūṭan and Sikkim are allowed to travel in Nepāl, so long as they are in possession of a passport issued by the Commander-in-Chief of Beelganji; but no other foreigners are admitted into that country unless armed with the King’s own pass. Hence my negotiations with Professor Chatterji, to whom I presented myself as one anxious to make a pilgrimage to all the holy Buḍḍhist stations in Nepāl.
On January 10th, 1902, I left Calcutta by train and reached Raxaul, a station on the Nepālese border, at dusk of the following day. It was about six o’clock then and, hiring a coolie to carry my luggage, I crossed the Siman River which separated India from Nepāl. Landed on the other side, I was refused further progress by the officers of a police station there, on the ground that the King of Nepāl was soon coming home, and that, consequently, no one from beyond the borders could be allowed entrance into the country, until they had been subjected to thorough examination and found harmless. I noticed that the natives begged, begged, and were finally allowed to pass on. I thought that here too bribery had its logic. But, no, I was a foreigner and could under no circumstance be granted an immediate passage. I finally produced Chatterji’s letter of introduction to the King of Nepāl. The policeman on attendance, who until then had refused even to let me interview the chief of the station, now took me to that functionary. The upshot was that the station chief caused my letter of introduction, together with a very carefully prepared description of my person, to be forwarded to Beelganji and ordered me to wait for the result. At Beelganji was the Commander-in-Chief, who was then acting there as Regent in the absence of the King, and it was to this authority that the documents were sent.
The distance between the Siman police station and Beelganji is only about a mile. I had waited in vain till eleven o’clock at night for the expected instruction, and I had just set about making a hot cup of tea in order to keep myself warm, when a policeman belonging to the Royal Palace Force put in an appearance and ordered me to accompany him at once to Beelganji. At Beelganji I was taken to a cottage in front of the Local Hospital to lodge for the night. The next morning I presented myself at the Regent’s court and there had to wait till five in the afternoon before I could have an interview with His Excellency, who informed me that the King was coming home on the 14th and that he would then endeavor to secure for me an audience with his royal master.
I may here explain why I have given to the present chapter the heading: “The Two Kings of Nepāl.” Nepāl, indeed, possesses two Kings, a Kingde jureand a Kingde facto, in Nepālese respectively Pānch Sarkār and Tīn Sarkār. Thede factoKing is the real Ruler of Nepāl and thede jureKing is only the figure-head, maintaining his court by means of a civil list, or rather a pension allowedby the former. In name thede factoKing is the Prime Minister of the country, but the actual sovereignty is in his hands, and the nation knows only him as its King. The existence of the Kingde jureis known, it may be said, only by a circle of Government officials, the general mass having but a very vague idea about it. It was of the return home of thede factoKing that I was informed.
About sunset on the 14th, the Prime-Minister (the Kingde facto) did, indeed, arrive in Beelganji, preceded and followed by acortègeof great splendor, the most conspicuous feature of which was a train of enormous elephants, on which were seated the Princes and Princesses of the royal family. Nepāl is a polygamous country, and the number of royal scions is consequently very large. The entrance of the royal procession into Beelganji was announced with a salvo of thirteen guns. So the King returned, but the Regent advised me to wait another day, promising me that he would manage to obtain an audience for me at about ten o’clock the following morning, or more accurately, he would arrange the matter for me if I should present myself at the palace at about ten o’clock in the morning and patiently wait there till five o’clock in the afternoon. This I did.
It appeared that no person, as a rule, is granted an audience in the palace on the occasion of a first presentation. However I was taken into an inner court and was presented to the King as he came out on his evening walk. Then I had the singular satisfaction of his accepting from me a certain object of Japanese fine art. The Prime-Minister King seemed to be very well pleased with my present, and even offered to pay me its price. Whatever the King’s offer meant, I insisted on its being a present on my part. Then I was invited to go in with His Highness, who treated me like a ten years’ acquaintance.
THE PRIME MINISTER OF NEPAL, H. H. CHANDRA SHAMSIR.
THE PRIME MINISTER OF NEPAL, H. H. CHANDRA SHAMSIR.
THE PRIME MINISTER OF NEPAL, H. H. CHANDRA SHAMSIR.