The Himalayan country named ''Nepala'' with its capital in Kathmandu Valley was well-known in the Indian sub-continent by at least 2,500 years ago. Historical discussions on the etymology of ''Nepal'' incorporated elements of Hindu and Buddhist myths; these legends are not considered academically credible. The origin of the term ''Nepal'' is an area of ongoing investigation. Multiple hypotheses have been put forward by modern scholars to varying level of support. It is generally accepted that ''Nepal'' and ''Newar''—the latter refers to the ethnic group indigenous to the Kathmandu Valley—are different forms of the same word.

Etymology of ''Nepal''

The precise origin of the term ''Nepāl'' is uncertain. Academic attempts to provide a plausible theory are hindered by the lack of a complete picture of history, and insufficient understanding of linguistics or relevant Indo-European and Tibeto-Burman languages. According to Hindu mythology, Nepal derives its name from an ancient Hindu sage called ''Ne'', referred to variously as ''Ne Muni'' or ''Nemi''. According to ''Pashupati Purana'', as a place protected by ''Ne'', the country in the heart of the Himalayas came to be known as ''Nepal''. The word ''pala'' in Pali language means ''to protect''. Consequently, ''Nepala'' translates to ''protected by Ne''. According to ''Nepal Mahatmya'', of 30 chapters about the Nepal ''Tirtha'' (pilgrimage) region, a regional text that claims to be a part of the ''Skanda Purana'', the largest ''Puranas#Mahapuranas, Mahāpurāṇa'', ''Nemi'' was charged with protection of the country by Pashupati. According to Buddhist mythology, Manjushri Bodhisattva drained a primordial lake of Nāga, serpents to create the Nepal valley and proclaimed that ''Adi-Buddha'' ''Ne'' would take care of the community that would settle it. As the cherished of ''Ne'', the valley would be called ''Nepal''. According to ''Gopalarajvamshavali'', the genealogy of ancient Gopal Bansa, Gopala dynasty compiled circa 1380s, Nepal is named after ''Nepa'' the cowherd, the founder of the Nepali scion of the Abhira tribe, Abhiras. In this account, the cow that issued milk to the spot, at which ''Nepa'' discovered the ''Jyotirlinga'' of Pashupatinath Temple, ''Pashupatinath'' upon investigation, was also named ''Ne''. Norway, Norwegian Indology, Indologist Christian Lassen had proposed that ''Nepala'' was a compound of ''Nipa'' (foot of a mountain) and ''-ala'' (short suffix for ''alaya'' meaning abode), and so ''Nepala'' meant "abode at the foot of the mountain". He considered ''Ne Muni'' to be a fabrication. Indologist Sylvain Levi found Lassen's theory untenable but had no theories of his own, only suggesting that either ''Newara'' is a vulgarism of sanskritic ''Nepala,'' or ''Nepala'' is Sanskritisation of the local ethnic; his view has found some support though it does not answer the question of etymology. It has also been proposed that ''Nepa'' is a Tibeto-Burman languages, Tibeto-Burman stem consisting of ''Ne'' (cattle) and ''Pa'' (keeper), reflecting the fact that early inhabitants of the valley were ''Gopalas'' (cowherds) and ''Mahispalas'' (buffalo-herds). Suniti Kumar Chatterji thought ''Nepal'' originated from Tibeto-Burman roots- ''Ne,'' of uncertain meaning (as multiple possibilities exist), and ''pala'' or ''bal'', whose meaning is lost entirely.

History

The Mahabharata refers to Nepal as ''Kiratadesa'', literally "the country of Kiratas", providing no other clue as to the location or extent of the country. Aside from that, ancient texts mention only of the people, the Kiratas, inhabiting the northern frontier of the Indian sub-continent, often associating them with the Chinese. These include the Rigveda, Ramayana, Manusmriti, the Chinese text P'ou-Yeo king (translated in 308) which refers to them by the name "Yi-Ti-Sai" (barbarians to the north), and the writings of Periplus and Ptolemy, both of whom place the Kirata country at the mouth of the Ganges. Kautilya's is the first known writing to mention the country by the name ''Nepala''. Since then, ''Nepala'' has continually referred to the Himalayan country with its capital in the Kathmandu Valley, though its extent fluctuated throughout history.

Names of modern Nepal

In its early days after unification, Nepal was known as the "Gorkha kingdom" or "Gorkha empire", having been founded by conquests of the Gorkha kingdom. In his Dibyopadesh, Prithvi Narayan Shah proclaimed Nepal "Asal Hindustan", or the true land of the Hindus, as a Hindu state which had not been conquered by the Mughals or the British. As a monarchy, Nepal was officially the "Kingdom of Nepal". After the 2006 Nepalese revolution, 2006 revolution, Nepal shed off the monarchy to become the "State of Nepal". It officially became the "Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal" with the promulgation of the new constitution in 2015.

References

{{Asia topic, Name of Country name etymology History of Nepal