Key Facts
- Founded
- 1559 CE by Prince Dravya Shah
- Duration
- 1559–1768 (approx. 209 years)
- Political context
- One of the Chaubisi Rajya (24 principalities)
- Expansion campaign began
- 1743
- Western border
- Marshyangdi River (border with Lamjung)
- Eastern border
- Trishuli River (border with Nepal Mandala)
Imperial Zenith Metrics
Historical Trajectory
Phase I: Rise
Prince Dravya Shah, second son of King Yasho Brahma Shah of Lamjung, founded the Gorkha Kingdom in 1559 by displacing the Magar ruler Mansingh Khadka Magar. Situated at the junction of the Himalayas and the Indian subcontinent, the kingdom occupied a strategic position between the Marshyangdi and Trishuli rivers, carving its territory from the fragmented landscape left by the collapse of the earlier Magarat confederation.
Phase II: Zenith
By the mid-eighteenth century the kingdom had consolidated sufficient military strength to project power across the surrounding hill principalities. From 1743 onward, Gorkha systematically annexed several neighboring Chaubisi and Baise states, extending its influence well beyond its original borders and establishing the administrative and military structures that would sustain further conquest under the Shah rulers.
Phase III: Decline
The Gorkha Kingdom effectively transformed into the unified Kingdom of Nepal in 1768 when Prithvi Narayan Shah conquered the Nepal Valley, ending the era of fragmented hill principalities. Rather than collapsing, Gorkha evolved into the nucleus of a new centralized state, with the Shah dynasty transferring its capital to Kathmandu and continuing to expand toward the broader Himalayan region.
Notable Imperial Reigns
Selected rulers mapping the empire’s trajectory