Briddhi Lakshmi

Briddhi Lakshmi (Nepal Bhasa: ; ) was the queen consort of the Nepalese Kingdom of Bhaktapur (modern day Bhaktapur, Nepal) from 1722 as the first wife of Ranajit Malla and also a Newar language poet. For a brief period, she and her two-year-old son were the de jure monarch of an independent Thimi. She is today mostly remembered for the poems she composed. Additionally, there are six Newar Language poems written by Briddhi Lakshmi likely during her stay in Thimi or Kathmandu.

Background

Ranajit Malla who ascended the throne after his father's death in May 1722 had many concubines and one particular concubine, Jaya Lakshmi became the favourite of the king. From Jaya Lakshmi, Ranajit Malla had a son, named Ajitasimha Malla, whose birth date is not known yet, but he must have been the king's eldest male child as he is addressed as the crown prince in a document from 1728. Additionally, Jaya Lakshmi was addressed as the rājapatni ("royal consort") in an epigraphy from 1733. Throughout this time, Briddhi Lakshmi appears to have been childless.

However, on 20 July 1738, Briddhi Lakshmi gave birth to a son in Thimi. Briddhi Lakshmi, being the king's only legitimate wife was favoured by the public and naturally Ranajit Malla was pressured by the public to change the crown prince to Briddhi Lakshmi's son. There is a copper plate at the Brahmani temple of Bhaktapur dating to NS 859 kartika krishna 1 (November 1739 CE) that mentions a donation of six Dapha to the panchayat of the city from Ranajita Malla, Briddhi Lakshmi and the Sahebaju.

It seems Jaya Lakshmi wanted to maintain the status quo by retaining her son's position as the crown prince and pressured the king to not change his previous decision. However, there was significant public pressure that compelled the king to recognize the son of Briddhi Lakshmi as the heir.

However, Jaya Lakshmi having the support of the nobility as well as being a favourite of the monarch was able to excerise much power on the palace. In contrast, Bridhhi Lakshmi had no supporters among the nobility and courtiers of the palace, likely due to Jaya Lakshmi being from one of the noble families herself, except for a minister which Beligatti specified was from a "non-aristocratic family". In her poems, she describes being bullied and ridiculed in the palace by her rivals, for instance her poem "bhayirava taleju bihune varadāna" describe her situation as "I am being troubled like what a cow would feel united with a tiger". Beligatti also wrote in this journal that "the concubine had left no means untried to carry out her plan of destroying the little king"

Flight to Thimi Briddhi Lakshmi's Newar language copper plate inscription at Balkumari temple, Thimi dated to May 1740, mentions her taking refuge in the town. additionally wrote that Briddhi Lakshmi could not live in peace in the palace where her rival Jayalakshmi held all the power, and that she scented dangers ahead even for her child. Due to the public pressure regarding her safety, Ranajita Malla was compelled to appoint to a high-ranking office, which Beligatti calls Viceroy, a supporter of Briddhi Lakshmi who arranged the escape of the Queen and her infant son to Thimi in mid-April 1740.

Thimi being the second largest city in the kingdom, along with some smaller settlements around it like Nakadesh formed the appanage to the heir. Not long after her flight to Thimi, the people of Thimi, Nagesh and Nala declared her infant son as their king.

Ranajit Malla in order to solve this predicament called a general council for the people on 26 April 1740, whereby he would grant permission for anyone in the kingdom to enter his palace and were given permission to freely express their opinions directly to their king. who was the witness of this event, wrote the following in his journal:

"Due to this new turn of events, the King thought to convene a General Council on the quid agendum and summoned it for the evening of April 26th which, being in my opinion bizarre, I do not think it right to omit. About two hours after sunset, the King, together with the 4 principal Brahmins, and the Viceroy descended to one of the 12 courtyards of the king's mansion. All of them sat around a loggia and had all the torches removed so it was dark all around. Now, there were two gates that led from the square to the place where the King was with the aforesaid people, and having removed the guards at said gates allowed free entry to anyone who wished to enter and state their opinion. There were a great many of such people. All of them had their faces covered to hide their identity and spoke in an affected tone not to be recognized. Some scolded the king, even called him bad names; others threatened him with dire consequences and still a few more tendered what one would like to call a simple advice.

This went on until one hour after midnight had passed and those assembled then dispersed. The king deferred his judgment for the next day. Such night councils are not held except in similar cases, when the people are not satisfied with the King; and the King is hardly safe in his life, because these people are not bloodthirsty, principally toward their Kings, but when they are reduced to extremities they depose the King, and either confine him to an apartment of the court, or exile him from the Kingdom. What decision the King took after such a council, I never knew.

Many members of both factions came to us and broke our ears with their stories. Some wanted the Prefect to speak to the King, but the Prefect always refused, saying that we had not come here to support any party or take part in politics, but only to teach religion".

Briddhi Lakshmi set up a copper plate inscription in the Balkumari temple of Thimi as well as another in the village of Chitrapura, both dated to NS 860 vaisakha vadi 1 Thursday (May 1740 CE), where she mentions her taking refuge in Thimi along with the Sahebju. Both the copper plates also grant a tax exemption to the panchayat of the respective towns for providing protection to the queen and her son. there are no other mentions of any children from Briddhi Lakshmi. The copper plate inscription she set up at the temple of Bramhani in Bhaktapur in 1738, mentions his name as "Vira Narasimha Malla". Vira Narasimha Malla is also the name that appears in a stone inscription from 1752 (NS 873), where it states that he was co-ruling the kingdom with his father. However, one of Briddhi Lakshmi's poems from 1740 to 1742, mention her son's name as Dhana sāheba. while her Banepa inscription mention her son's name as Devendra Malla. Similarly, Devendra Malla's name also appears as a donor of a drum to Taleju, the tutelary goddess of the Mallas, in 1754. Early historians like Dilli Raman Regmi were unsure whether Devendra Malla and Vira Narasimha Malla referred to the same person or were the names of two brothers. However, modern historians like Dhaubhadel suppose that Vira Narasimha and Devendra refer to the same person.

Death It is unclear how or when Briddhi Lakshmi and her son died. After their Banepa inscription, Briddhi Lakshmi and her son, Vira Narasimha's name appears as the donors of various ceremonial items in the temples of Bhaktapur 1750 and 1754. For instance, in 1751 (NS 872), they donated statuettes of various deities at a Buddhist temple in Bhaktapur. Finally, their last reference is from a ceremonial item they donated to the temple of Bhairava at Bhaktapur, and the inscription in it contains the date 11 March 1754 (NS 874 Chaitra 2) and mention Briddhi Lakshmi and Devendra Malla as the donors.

In late December 1753, Ranajit Malla set up two gold plate inscriptions on the Golden Gate which he commissioned. Both of the inscription does not mention Vira Narasimha's and his mother Briddhi Lakshmi; however, it mentions Jaya Lakshmi as Ranajit Malla's wife. Literature from the late 19th century, like Daniel Wright's 1877 publication and Sylvain Lévi's publication mention that Vira Narasimha was assassinated by his stepbrothers (i.e. Ranajit Malla's sons from his concubines) using "dark magic".

When the Gorkhali forces invaded Bhaktapur in November 1769, it appears neither Briddhi Lakshmi nor her son were alive. The memoir of a servant of Ranajit Malla during the battle, mention that his three concubines (Newar: mathayāḥ) were his only wives left alive. Similarly, the memoir also does not mention Bira Narasimha or Devendra Malla, which suggests that her son had died by then too. Therefore, her (and her son's) death must have happened after March 1754 but before 1769.

Literary works A page from a songbook in the Asa Safu Kuthi containing one of her poems. While some of her poetries are preserved in Dapha songbooks, the 52-folio manuscript titled "gīta saṃgraha" at the National Archives of Nepal under catalogue number B 285/12 is the only surviving collection of her poetry. All of her poems from the "gīta saṃgraha" are laments describing her experience during the crisis of succession and her subsequent flight to Thimi and Kathmandu. However, only two of her works from the book, ka kha yā mye and bhayirava taleju bihune varadāna have been published so far; by Janak Lal Vaidya in 2000.

Out of the two that have been published, Premshanti Tuladhar, a professor of Newar, particularly has praised her ka kha yā mye (Nepal Bhasa: , ), an abecedarian poem based on the Newar alphabet. For the music video, Ranajit Malla was played by Karma Shakya and Briddhi Lakshmi was played by Rojina Suwal.

Gallery Following are the manuscript folios containing her poem, ka kha yā mye and bhayirava taleju bihune varadān: