The name Nepal was properly applicable to a valley of circumscribed extent embosomed in the Himalaya mountains having on its south the first and lowest ranges of the chain but girdled on the north by some of its loftiest and most majestic elevations amid which through passes scarcely lower than the limits of eternal congelation a communication during the summer months lay open with Tibet.

The people of Nepal are mostly of the Bhot family but they are intermixed with Indian Hindus of who emigrated from the plains specially Bihar and Northern India at periods within the memory of tradition. The leaders of the valley seem to have been Rajputs and with their ordinary superiority in energy and courage they soon established themselves as princes or Rajas in various parts of the valley. In the course of time the number of independent chiefs decreased the stronger devoured the weaker and in the middle of the eighteenth century 1765 the valley of Nepal was partitioned among the three Hindu Rajas of Khatmandu, Lalita patan and Bhatgaon.

Taking advantage of the feuds which arrayed these petty potentates against each other Prithi Narayan chief of a mountain tribe termed Gorkha overpowered the triumvirate and made himself sole master of Nepal. He transmitted his sovereignty to his descendants and they still reign over the country. The designation of the tribe of which the prince was a member came to be regarded as the national denomination the term “Gorkha” (Gurkha) was applied to the government and the military population of Nepal.

Pashupatinath temple is the Nepal's most sacred Hindu temple.