Page:Picturesque Nepal.djvu/122

 kath being "wood," and mandu "edifice, house, or temple." Thus has been evolved its modern designation, but originally this city was called Manju Pattan after its founder, Manjusri. The most attractive building in Katmandu is the durbar palace, the stately pagoda roofs of which rise high above the walls and subsidiary edifices with which it is surrounded. In design it is a confused labyrinth of quadrangles, passages, and chambers—"a mighty maze without a plan," and consists of a collection of forty or fifty courts of different sizes, each having a separate name. Oldfield remarks that these courts "communicate one with another by small doorways only, which can easily be secured, so that, in case of danger or disturbance, by closing them the inmates of the palace may shut themselves into the different parts of the building, and defend themselves with ease against a large number of assailants."

Close to this palace on the north is the royal temple of Taleju, the most notable of the temples and pagodas in the durbar square, and devoted entirely to the use of royalty. The