“They tell us that our ancestors were the first kings of Nepal. I am glad that we Gopalis still exist till date and we have our own settlement. In my village (Gopali Gaun in the backdrop) everyone is a Gopali. Everyone.”

– Sita Gopali, Gopali Gaun, Makawanpur

History:

The kings of Gopalbansi were the first to rule over Nepal. The term ‘Gopal’ refers to the people who rear cow or the community of milkman. In whatever way the water was drained out of the Kathmandu valley, it is obvious that after that only this valley became suitable for settlement. After that Gopals of ‘Nep’ caste started entering the valley from south. In the encounter of the Gopals with the native ‘Naag’ peoples around the valley, the Naag people were defeated and fled towards south. Then after Gopal people’s dominance was established in Nepal valley.
We can find different stories regarding the history of Nepal in genealogies. According to one of them, a cow named ‘Bahuhri’ of one of the Gopals of that time used to drop the milk out of her nipples in a place on the bank of Bagmati River. Surprised by seeing such an activity of the cow when the place was dug the Jyotirlinga of Pashupatinath revealed at the same place. According to another story a sage named ‘Ne’ who used to meditate on the river conjunction at Teku had crowned Bhuktaman (Bhumigupta) as the king of Gopal dynasty. He was not just the founder of Gopal Dynasty, but was also the first king of the country ‘Nepal’. According to the genealogy of the Gopal Dynasty, 8 kings including Bhumigupta, Jayagupta, Dharmagupta, Harshagupta, Bhaumagupta, Manigupta, Bishnugupta and Jeetgupta, respectively had ruled over Nepal.

According to genealogy of Gopal Dynasty the Mahispals had established their dynasty in Nepal by defeating the king of Gopal Dynasty Jitgupta in a battle. However, some historian have stated that similar to cow rearing people were entitled as ‘Gopal’ buffaloes rearing people were entitled as ‘Mahispal’ or ‘Avir’. Another belief sated that Gopal and Mahispal belonged to the same dynasty and they were divided into two communities only on the basis of rearing cow and buffalo. In the genealogy of Kirkpatrick it is written that Avirs were the milkmen of Rajput Dynasty, being equipped with arms and weapons they used to rear buffaloes in a large number in the plain land between Simrongadh and Janakpur and they even entered the valley and established their own regime by defeating the king of Gopal Dynasty. ‘Barsing’ is the first king of Mahispal Dynasty. According to the genealogy of Gopal Dynasty, three kings mainly: Barsingh, Jaya Singh and Bhuwan Singh ruled for 49 years, 71 years 2 months and 41 years respectively making a regime of total 161 years and 2 months of Mahispal Dynasty in Nepal.

However, some of the historians have stated that even though the genealogy of Gopal Dynasty has mentioned two different monarchical dynasties, they belonged to the same Avir Dynasty. Gopals who reared cow and Mahispal who reared buffaloes may only have professional division. Due to the lack of organized political system at that time, the different professionals of the same dynasty may fight together to become the ruler of the area and hence they might have been acknowledged as different dynasties.

Source : Political History of Nepal by Nirmala Pokhrel, Lecturer T.U Nepal