Chapter 4 - The Gorakhpur–Butwal Frontier

Summary

Should it therefore please your Lordship [the English governor-general] to order the delivery of those [disputed] places to the officers of the Gurkha government upon the same terms they are retained by the Raja of Palpa, they shall without hesitation submit to the affixed tribute, or if the retention of the different places in the possession of either state independent of each other is preferred, it would be just and proper since the object of either of those proposals is to remove all misunderstandings […] God almighty has conferred the extensive territories of Hindustan long governed by foreigners on the British Nation. In like manner has he bestowed the territories on the hills on the Gurkhas and both nations have at length reached the banks of the Sutlej to give stability to ancient customs.

—Girbana Juddha Bikram Shah, the raja of Gorkha to the governor-general, August 1814

Introduction

In the eighteenth century the Gorakhpur–Butwal frontier, which was formed of a patchy collection of forests, waste lands, marshes and cultivated fields, straddled the kingdoms of Awadh and the hill principalities to its north.