If King Tribhuwan is remembered for having helped his people overthrow a despotic Rana regime, so is a common man, Sankhadhar Sakhwa (or Shakya), has gone down in history as an extraordinary philanthropist and redeemer of the people’s financial debts.
According to historian Suryabikram Gyawali, Sankhwa, a common businessman belonging to the lowly shudra community, had settled the debts of the Kathmandu and Bhaktapur inhabitants, thereby releasing them of almost all of their financial burdens. In order to commemorate this unusual gesture of a simple farmer, his subject, the then ruling king of Lalitpur, Raghava Dev, ordered the initiation of a new era known as Nepal Samvat. An inscription of Nepal Samvat 827 belonging to the reigning period of another king, Bhupatindra Mala, at a place called Jena Tole of Bhaktapur refers to this event. On his part, Sakhwa had his statue raised next to the Southern gate of Kathmandu’s famous Pashupatinath temple, which is extant to this day.
How Sakhwa amassed such a huge wealth that helped him redeem the debts of all his compatriots makes an incredible reading as well. It is said that he cleverly purchased bagfuls of sand from porters who used to take them for the construction of a royal palace, and the sand mysteriously turned into gold after four days. This newfound fortune inspired him to do something noble for the benefit of the people, sought the king’s permission to free all the people from their financial debts and had a new era started. The river from which laborers carried the sand to the palace was known as Lakhu, it is said. Scholars say that Lakhu was a derivative of Lun Khu, which means ‘river of gold’ in the local Newari language. The Sanskrit name of the river, Swarnamati, also carries the same meaning.
The Nepal Samvat, initiated by two persons, Sakhwa and king Raghav Dev, is probably the only era in the world to be named after a country. That Samvat which was commenced on October 20, 879 AD, remained the official era of the Nepal valley throughout the medieval period of its history. It was only after the fall of the Malla empire in the valley at the hands of king Prithvi Narayan Shah that the official use of that era also came to an end, although it is still in use by the people along with the Vikram Samvat and the Gregorian era in their day-to-day transactions wherever possible. The Vikram Samvat has remained Nepal’s official era since 1903 AD (Nepal Samvat 1023). To Professor Kilhorn goes the credit of converting Nepal Samvat into the Gregorian calendar and deriving the difference of time between the two eras.
The new year of the Nepal Samvat is observed on the first day of the bright lunar fortnight of the month of Kartik, which falls on the fourth day of the Tihar festival observed by the Nepali community throughout the world. That day also marks the Mha Puja or ‘worship of the self’ observed by the Newars for their good health and prosperity. That is possibly why the non-Newards designate it as the Newari era.
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