Mythological Age of Kirati History

Anecdotal accounts occupy a great deal of space of Kirati lore. Some of them freely mix myths with actual historical events creating a hypothetical situation while some can be classified as mere figments of over simulated imaginations.

Longevity of Kirati Royalty

Kiratis used to maintain their geneological records in a written form known as 'bungsawali'. However, in a state of gross ignorance and misplaced confidence most of them have either been lost or destroyed but enough of their memory survives to enable us to recount how the Kiratis regarded the longevity of their Hangs (Kings) to be synonymous to their godliness.

One may refer to the Holy Bible to find that the patriarchs of biblical era too lived very very long and blessed life.

According to the bungsawali, Yellung Hang founded the Kiratdom of Kathmandu and reigned over it for 90 years and 3 months. He is found variously referred to as Yellung Kerraut (or Kirat) or simply as Yellumber.

Yellung Hang was succeeded by several generations of his able progenies whose combined regnal period lasted for centuries. An event of historical significance is recorded in the bungsawali when in 528 B.C. during the reign of Kirati King Jite Dasty, the Sage of the Sakya, the Enlightened One came to Kathmandu. In direct line of succession, Jite Dasty is the ninth King to occupy the Kirati throne founded by Yellung Hang.

Tradition has it that the Buddha had made the pilgrimage to Kathmandu to worship Swayambhunath, the Adi-Buddha, which had been mentioned in the previous chapter. Working from the Buddha's visit as the reference point and going backwards through 356 years of eight Kirati Hangs' combined regnal period, we can place with reasonable accuracy the founding of Kiratdom of Kathmandu by Yellung Hang in or around 975 B.C.

Kirati Mythological Anecdotes

It will be a matter of some mythological interest to understand how Yellung Hang was deified by his subjects. A terra cotta statue of antiquity has been identified as that of Yellung Hang which shows the sculpture in unfinished form; the feet are not sculpted out. Legend has it that the Kirati god-kings of antiquity used to walk off to the heaven whenever they became dissatisfied with humans. But, the Kiratis loved Yellung Hang dearly and to ensure that he remained with them forever, they decided to leave sculpting of the divine legs incomplete thus denying Yellung Hang the option.

During his pilgrimage to Kathmandu, the Buddha converted King Jite Dasty and his Kirati subjects to the path of nirwan thus establishing a second Enlightened Kingdom on the wake of conversion of his own father Suddhodhan of Kapilbastu. The Buddha's visit also became a catalyst to several of his kinsmen, the Sakyas to settle down among the Kiratis of Kathmandu. By a strange twist of misreading of the ancient script the word Sakya became Yak-kha the forebears of a branch of the Kiratis of eastern Nepal of today.