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 successor of this ruler—Yaksa Malla—having several sons, on his death-bed divided the State into principalities, which he apportioned among them. In this manner, in 1480, originated the three historic capitals of Nepal, namely, Patan, Bhatgaon, and Katmandu, at the present time the three principal centres of interest in the valley. For the next three hundred years the history of the country is composed of three separate stories, each one dealing with the events appertaining to one of the three principalities into which the State had been resolved. For the purpose of this sketch, however, it is only necessary to observe that the Malla dynasty in this triplicate form continued without any very remarkable episode for over three centuries, when a most important change took place in the constitution of the country. This was the complete conquest of the State by the Gurkhas in the year 1768.

The Gurkhas claim descent from the rajas of Chitor in Rajputana. They were driven out of their own country by the Mohammedan invaders in the fourteenth century, and took