Unification of Nepal

On 25 September 1768, as the people of Kathmandu were celebrating the festival of Indra Jatra, the Gorkhali army marched into the city. Prithvi Narayan Shah sat on a throne put on the palace courtyard for the king of Kathmandu, proclaiming himself the king. Jaya Prakash

Malla somehow managed to escape and took asylum in Patan. When Patan was captured a few weeks later, both Jaya Prakash Malla and Tej Narsingh Malla, the king of Patan took refuge in Bhaktapur, which was captured on the night of 25 November 1769. The Kathmandu valley was thus conquered by King Prithvi Narayan Shah, who proclaimed himself King with Kathmandu as the royal capital of the Kingdom of Nepal.

King Prithvi Narayan Shah was successful in bringing together diverse religio-ethnic groups under one rule. He was a true nationalist in his outlook and was in favor of adopting a closeddoor policy with regards to the British. Not only his social and economic views guided the country's socio-economic course for a long time, his use of the imagery of "a yam between two boulders" in Nepal's geopolitical context formed the principal guideline of the country's foreign policy for future centuries.