Jayant Rana

Gorkhali troops storming Nuwakot Fort during the Battle of Nuwakot (1744).

King of Gorkha, Nara Bhupal Shah, made Jayant Rana commander of his army with Maheshwar Panta.[1] In 1736, the king sent both commanders to attack Nuwakot, territory controlled by the Kingdom of Kantipur but the attack was unsuccessful.[1] They made a retreat back to Gorkha, however, both commanders blamed each other for the defeat.[1] Fearing for his life, Rana quitted the army of Gorkha, subsequently joined the Kantipur army.[1] King of Kantipur, Jaya Prakash Malla, appointed Rana to defend attacks from Gorkha as he had inside information on their strengths and weaknesses.[2] Prithvi Narayan Shah ascended the throne of the Gorkha Kingdom in 1743 after the death of his father Nara Bhupal Shah.[3] Like his father, he attacked Nuwakot, but he failed to win, thus he began to improve military technology and manpower.[2]

When preparing for a war against Nuwakot, Prithvi Narayan Shah, wrote a letter to Jayant Rana to join Gorkha, mentioning his ex-relations, however, he declined to join his side, adding "I am yours, but I have already eaten the salt of Jaya Prakash. Now I would die for him".[4] Later, Jayant Rana became aware of an oncoming attack from Gorkha and he assigned his son Sankhamani Rana to defend Nuwakot, then Jayant went to Kantipur to get more soldiers.[5] However, Kantipur was celebrating a major festival of Indra Jatra, thus he failed to get any additional soldiers to defend Nuwakot.[5] Meanwhile, Prithvi Narayan Shah attacked Nuwakot, as soldiers were unprepared so they started to run away to Belkot.[6] Rana's son, Sankhamani was killed in action.[7] On 1 October 1744, Gorkha Kingdom won the war, subsequently, Jayant Rana was going back to Nuwakot but decided to stay at Belkot for a counterattack, and started to prepare for another battle with Gorkha.[8][4][9] Later Prithvi Narayan Shah attacked Belkot and won a nearly Pyrrhic victory, upon victory, Rana was captured.[4] In 1744, Shah brought Rana to Nuwakot and ordered him to be skinned alive with the presence of people from Gorkha, and Nuwakot.[8][10] Jayant Rana is remembered for being one of the "recorded act of violence" of Prithvi Narayan Shah.[10]