THE TREASURE GARDEN: A SURVIVAL OF NEPALESE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

Each of the medieval palace compounds which served as the royal residences for the Malla kings in the three principalities of the Kathmandu valley includes a large backyard interestingly named Bhandarkhal or treasure garden. In addition to these medieval gardens, yet another garden with the same name still exists at Deupatan, historically a significant small town situated short distance west of the Pasupatinath temple. This historical garden at Deupatan, as we will see shortly, appears to remain from a much older palace compound, and hence deserves special attention.

Feature of a Treasure Garden

Textual Reference

"A wise (king) should acquire wealth in order to protect the world. The place where valuable possessions are stored is called bhandagara. A good architect should endow such places with auspicious features. The treasure houses are classified as desya, built under ground in a compound, and paura, above ground. The compound of the underground (desya) treasury should be fortified and furnished with terrace, gates, doors and open shrines of goddesses. It should be square surrounded by three layers of ramparts and seven layers of walls. This type of treasury should be built inside the ground with underground rooms accessible by seven staircases. Good architects should start the construction work of the compound at a specially auspicious time. For the other treasure house known as paura a building is recommended." The shrines of goddesses, as prescribed by the text, still remain intact in the Nepalese Bhandarkhals. In the Patan Bhandarkhal several medieval inscriptions have been found close to the shrines of the goddesses. In an inscription found inside the shrine the goddess is addressed as Laksmi, the deity of wealth. These upon shrines that we see in the Nepalese treasure gardens immediately remind us of the textual description. For the identification of these Nepalese Bhandarkhals with the desya bhandagara of the text, we have, however, much stronger evidence. During our investigation in 1973 we found that the Kathmandu Bhandarkhal is still functioning as a royal treasure house. At the southwest corner of the treasure garden there is an unprecedented building guarded by the Royal Nepalese army. This garage-like superstructure, as I was informed, covers the opening of the underground treasure house accessible by narrow staircases. It is, indeed, amazing to find at least one of the Nepalese Bhandarkhals still functioning as desya bhandagara or treasure garden as described in the text. Admittedly, the continuity of traditions, both Brahmanic and Buddhist, always appears to be longer lasting in Nepal than in other parts of the Indian subcontinent.

The Deupatan Treasure Garden

There is no direct reference to a Bhandarakhal in the Licchavi inscriptions, Amsuvarman's Hadigaun edict , however, provides us with some information. The edict was issued for the maintenance of an ancient royal palace, as attested by edictal statements and the date of the inscription. The exact date is jyestha sukla sasthi, the sixth day of the bright half of the lunar month, jyestha (May, June). This date is the final day for cleaning and repairing royal palaces and forts. The same inscription refers to bhandanayaka, the officer in charge of the royal treasury as a palace staff. It also mentions Sridevi, the goddess of wealth, whose shrine was built in the Bhandarkhal as we know from the medieval examples.

If we closely examine the events recorded in the Gopala Vamsavali, the fourteenth century chronicle, we see that the treasure garden at Deupatan actually belongs to an ancient royal palace. During the early medieval period the monarchs of the early Malla dynasty had their royal residence in Bhaktapur, the capital, but, curiously, their coronation ceremonies were held not there but in an older palace in Deupatan. This tradition reminds us of the present day Shah kings coronation which is held in the older palace, Hamumndhoka, even though the palace no longer serves as a royal residence. In the chronicle the Deupatan palace is called Gvalam Rajalakhu, the royal palace of Gvala, the Newari name of the city. The chronicle also cites the exact place where the contemporary monarchs were crowned. This locale was called Endala; it was located to the north of and just outside the Deupatan Bhandarkhal as attested by a passage of a medieval inscription: sri thathu gola endala rache tora "in the area close to the street of Endala in upper Gvala". Unfortunately the inscription is missing, but a rubbing is well preserved in the National Archives of Nepal. These documents clearly indicate that Deupatan Bhandarkhal was originally the backyard treasure garden of the coronation palace, Gvalam Rajalakhu. As late as the eighteenth century an inhabitant of Deupatan called Malebhata Dhanju was quite aware that the Deupatan Bhandarkhal was a potential treasure garden. He even knew the exact location of the entrance leading to the underground treasure house. According to the Bhasa Vamsavali, a later chronicle written in Nepali, Malebhata Dhanju provided this information to the king Jayaprakas Malla, who was in desperate need of money to support a well trained army that he had brought from India to fight against Prithvinarayana Shah. Jayaprakas ordered the excavation of the underground treasure house, but as they were about to take the entire treasure from the first vault, Prithvinarayana's army entered the area and prevented them from doing so. This is event is also recorded in a contemporary account by a foreign visitor, Father Giuseppe, a Capuchin missionary in Kathmandu when this event took place. He describes it as follows:

To the eastward of Cathmandu at the distance of two or three miles, there is a place called Tolu, by which there flows a small river, the water of which is esteemed holy, according to their superstitious ideas; and thither they carry people of high rank, when they are thought to be at the point of death. At this place there is a temple, which is not inferior to the best and richest in any of the capital cities. They also have it in tradition, that at two or three places in Nepal, valuable treasures are concealed under ground. One of those places they believe is Tolu; but no one is permitted to make use of them except the King, and that only in cases of necessity. Those treasures, they say, have been accumulated in this manner:-

When any temple had become very rich from the offerings of the people it was destroyed and deep vaults dug under ground, one above another, in which the gold, silver, gilt, copper, jewels an every thing of value were deposited. When I was in Nepal, Gainprejas (Jayaprakasa) King of Cathmandu, being in the utmost distress for money to pay his troops, in order to support himself against Prithwinarayan, ordered search to be made for the treasures of Tolu; and having dug to a considerable depth under ground, they came to the first vault, from which his people took to the value of a lac of rupees in gilt copper, with which Gainprejas paid his troops ... The people of Gainprejas had not completely emptied the first vault, when the army of Prithwinarayan arrived at Tolu, possessed themselves of the place where the treasure was deposited and closed the door of the vault. Tolu is undoubtedly a misspelling for Gwala, the old Newari name for Deupatan, since we know from the description that the place is located on a river bank two or three miles east of Kathmandu. This is also attested by the Nepali chronicle which refers to the same event. The foreign visitor was told that several other underground treasure houses existed, containing property accumulated from rich temples; but that only the king could use them. All this information seems correct; however, the visitor could not link them with the treasure garden, since he was not familiar with its historical background and significance. Elsewhere he does mention the backyard garden of the Kathmandu royal palace which the contemporary Malla king permitted him to visit. He describes the garden enthusiastically, but he did not know that this place was one where valuable treasure was buried. Be this as it may, it is not surprising that a foreigner was ignorant about the location of hidden treasure.

Here we should mention the particular aspect which made the Bhandarkhal so ubiquitous that it became essential component of Nepalese palace compounds. From the very beginning of the documented history of Nepal the unity of the nation seems to have been always threatened until the beginning of the Shah period. Whenever the central government of Kathmandu became weak, the vassal kings who inherited their principalities from their ancestors always tried to be independent rulers. After the Licchavi period the monarchs who ruled from Kathmandu became too weak to control the vassal kings. On the contrary , the Khasas of the Karnali basin began to invade the Kathmandu valley (AD 1287-1334). Compared to other parts of Nepal, the valley was rich because of the Indo-Tibet trade route which went through the capital city, Around the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries not only the Khasas but also the kings of Mithila repeatedly invaded the valley. In AD 1349 even the Muslims led by Sultan Shums Ud-din Ilyas of Bengal devastated the ancient city. The motivation of all these invasions was not to expand their territory but to plunder the city of its treasures. Usually the invaders returned home with their booty within a few days or weeks. The royal family and inhabitants of the valley very often escaped to the nearby forest. After a few days when they felt safe, all the people including members of the ruling family returned home hoping that the invaders had not found all the treasures that they had concealed under ground before they fled. In this hide and seek game which lasted for several centuries the backyard treasure garden apparently played an important role. In this connection there is a legend popular among the Newar community of the Kathmandu valley. When Mukundasena, the king of Palpa,invaded Kathmandu, the inhabitants. the inhabitants of the valley hid all their possessions including rice and radishes and escaped to the forest as usual. When they came back after the invasion was over they discovered accidentally a new way to prepare rice and radishes. Both of them fermented and had an exotic taste and color due to being kept underground for several days or weeks. Since then the Newars have used the terms hakuva and sinki for fermented rice and radishes respectively.

Even more amusing is a statement from an unusual diary of a Nepalese gentleman who accompanied the first Rana Prime Minister Jangbahadur on his visit to England and other European countries. The writer describes the countries enthusiastically from his own point of view and cultural standard. He thought , for example, Europeans were good magician since they get either hot or cold water, whichever they desire from the same tap. According to his own criteria Bhandarkhal, the treasure garden, was so essential feature of a palace that he saw it even in Buckingham palace

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