Bakhtawar Singh Thapa

After the Bhandarkhal Massacre of 1806, the Samar Jung Company was selected as royal palace guard by Mukhtiyar Bhimsen Thapa.[5] Bakhtawar Singh was appointed as the commander of the company to be camped inside the palace for the protection of King Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah and Queen Tripurasundari of Nepal.[5] In the maturity of King Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah and Queen Tripurasundari of Nepal, Kaji Bakhtawar slowly gained confidence out of both from his role of their protector.[5] The death of King Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah and his two queens in 1816 had caused his hopes to be destroyed.[6] After the end of Anglo-Nepalese war, Kaji Bakhtawar was suspected by his brother Bhimsen Thapa to have joined the enemy factions.[7] At the time, he was living in the same family with his brother without the division of their ancestral property.[7] Bhimsen slowly brought Kaji Bakhtawar under his control but their mother pleaded only a light punishment for Bakhtawar.[7] He was dismissed from his position and was imprisoned in the Nuwakot prison[7] and the Bakhtawar's Samar Jung Company was heavily disfavored by the Mukhtiyar.[7]

Bakhtawar was the commander of Bijaypur-Sindhuli Gadhi axis during the first campaign of the Anglo-Nepalese war.[8] He was stationing the fort and the region by 2000 soldiers.[9] In the second campaign, he was commanding his headquarter at Makwanpur Gadhi.[8] He sent the final ratified document of Sugali Treaty to the British East India Company[8] after the Hitaura camp of Major General David Ochterlony[5] on 4 March 1816.[10]

A letter dated March 1824 to his brother Mukhtiyar Bhimsen Thapa shows Bakhtawar Singh as the governor of Palpa.[11] Members of the Thapa dynasty were appointed as the governor of Palpa because it controlled over 4 battalions of the Nepalese Army.[12] Bakhtawar Singh died in his office of Chief Administrator of Palpa in 1832 A.D.[13]

His son Trivikram Singh Thapa became Acting Chief Administrator of Palpa in 1832 A.D. on death of his father.[13] However, Bhimsen Thapa did not trust Trivikram Singh and instead appointed his brother Ranabir Singh Thapa as Chief Administrator of Palpa in March 1833.[13] Trivikram Singh was affectionately referred as Kaji Mama ("Kaji Uncle") by the Shamsher Ranas. After the Kot Massacre, he occupied the Lazimpat Durbar for 28 years until he left for Varanasi in 1875.[14]

The widow of Bakhtawar Singh on 1839 presented evidences against the former Mukhtiyar and her brother-in-law Bhimsen Thapa claiming the former Mukhtiyar responsible for poisoning of King Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah, whom it was widely known to have died from smallpox.[15]