Bhimsen Thapa - Suicide

Suicide

At the beginning of 1839, Ranjang Pande was made the sole Prime Minister. The accusation of poisoning the young prince in 1837 was revived against Bhimsen Thapa and his party, and forged papers and evidence were produced professing to criminate him. Bhimsen, by then an old man, defended himself in open Durbar with great spirit, asking why, if this evidence were really true, it had not been produced in 1837; and denouncing the papers as forgeries, he demanded to be confronted with his accusers. His appeal was of no use; he was surrounded by enemies. The few chiefs who were in his favor, or convinced of his innocence, sat by in silence and in fear. The king denounced him as a traitor, and sent him back in chains to prison. Threats of every indignity to himself and the female members of his house were constantly made to him, with a view to induce him to commit suicide. The court physician, who attended the child (a Brahman, and whose life was sacred), was burnt on the forehead and cheeks till his brain and jaws were exposed. The under-physician, a Newar, was impaled alive, and his heart extracted while he was yet living. Still no evidence against Bhimsen or any of the accused could be extorted even by these horrible atrocities, which were perpetrated not only by the order, but in the presence of the king.

On the 20th of July 1839, driven to desperation, Bhimsen attempted suicide by cutting his throat with a kukri, of which wound he died nine days afterwards. His enemies refused even the ordinary funeral rites to his corpse. It was dismembered and exposed about the city, and afterwards the mangled remains were thrown on the Bishnumati river-side as food for vultures and jackals. His very bones were not allowed to be removed that they might be buried. His family and relatives were imprisoned, and their property confiscated. A decree was also issued that none of the Thapa class should receive public employment for seven generations.

It is believed that he killed himself when he was told that his wife would be dragged through the streets naked.