Widely considered one of the 19th century's most significant figures in Nepalese history, Bhimsen is seen as a patriotic, clever, and diplomatic statesman who played an important role in defending his country against then-widespread British colonial imperialism in South Asia.

[note 5][20][22] By 1797, his relationship with his uncle, who was living a retired life, and who wanted to seek refuge in China on the pretext of meeting the new emperor, had deteriorated to the extent that he ordered his imprisonment on 19 February 1797 and his subsequent murder on 23 June 1797.

A flurry of letters were exchanged between the ex-King and individual courtiers in which he tried to set them up against Damodar Pande and tried to woo them by promises of high government positions, which they could hold for their entire life, and which could be inherited by their progeny.

[42][43] Back in Kathmandu, the court politics turned complicated when Mulkaji (or chief minister) Kirtiman Singh Basnyat, a favorite of the Regent Subarnaprabha, was secretly assassinated on 28 September 1801, by the supporters of Rajrajeswori.

[33][43] After Rajrajeshwori took over the regency, she was pressured by Knox to pay the annual pension of 82,000 rupees to the ex-King as per the obligations of the treaty,[45] which paid off the vast debt that Rana Bahadur Shah had accumulated in Varanasi due to his spendthrift habits.

[69] After the power shuffle, in 1805, Bhimsen became the architect of an unpopular plan of seizing all the tax free land granted to temple guthis and as birta to Brahmin priests in order to fill the empty state coffers.

[78] Not only did Rana Bahadur carry out the Baisathi Haran under Bhimsen's advice, he was also able to banish all non-vaccinated children, as well as their parents, from the town during a smallpox outbreak, in order to prevent King Girvan from catching that disease.

[82] Tribhuvan Khawas (Pradhan), a member of Sher Bahadur's faction, was imprisoned on the re-opened charges of conspiracy with the British that led to the Knox's mission, but for which pardon had already been doled out, and was ordered to be executed.

[88][89] That very night members of Sher Bahadur's faction – Bidur Shah, Tribhuvan Khawas, and Narsingh Gurung – and even King Prithvipal Sen of Palpa, who was under house arrest in Patan Durbar, were swiftly rounded up and killed in Bhandarkhal.

The martial feelings of soldiery were every way encouraged; their rights and privileges were jealously preserved; but they were at the same time kept from that idleness which is so favourable to mutiny and intrigue, by strict attention to drill and discipline and by being employed in the construction of magazines, arsenals, cannon, foundry, &c., and by the establishment of two large cantonments-one for the artillery and one for the line-at Kathmandu.

[150] The trade policy of Bhimsen Thapa was influenced from King Prithvi Narayan Shah who believed foreign (in the context English) traders would weaken the economy of the country and impoverish the general people.

In 1826, a regulation was issued by him through Lalmohar (Red Seal) of Maharaja directing Kaji Dalbhanjan Pande to maintain the sanctity of judiciary and it further stated: irrespective of castes, creeds or position in the society, all are same in the eyes of law.

[162] Regulations issued in July 1809 was: In the areas west of Dharmasthali (in Kathmandu) and east of Bheri River, inspect whether or not Hulaki outposts for transport or mail have been established as mentioned in the previous order.

[6] Historian Nayaraj Panta considered that Bhimsen's action to suppress British influences on Nepal and strengthening of Nepalese military forces was important to save the fate of the only Hindu Kingdom in the world.

[180] From the standpoint of the average cultivator, the government remained a distant force, and the main authority figure was the landlord, who took part of the harvest, or (especially in the Tarai) the tax collector, who was often a private individual contracted to extort money or crops in return for a share.

[181] For the leaders in the administration and the army, as military options became limited and alternative sources of employment grew very slowly, career advancement depended less on attention to local conditions than on loyalty to factions fighting at court.

[187] King Rajendra was frivolous[188] and mostly indulged in pleasure,[189] so, he still feared the Mukhtiyar and the Thapa faction as "...a race of men who for the last fifty-five years have dragged the country and its princes at the wheels of military car.

"[190] It was no secret that Bhimsen was able to maintain his supremacy due to the large standing army under his and his family's command; and in the subsequent years, different factions would attempt to increase their influence based on the strength of the number of battalions under their grip.

[218] By 1834, Hodgson had come to a conclusion that he would not be able to have his way so long as Bhimsen was in control of the Nepalese administration;[167] thus he strongly sympathized with the Pande faction,[218] and he wished to install Fateh Jung Shah, who was more favorably disposed to him, as the Mukhtiyar.

Bhim Sen has all the powers in his hands...The Rajah is so uncomfortable in his honorary confinement that the probability is the Minister may work on him with success to make voluntary retirement of his throne in favour of his infant son and in the highest conformity with the sacred code of the Hindu, to which His Highness is proved.

[224][226] Until that time, it was widely believed by both the royal family as well as the common people that Bhimsen's good relationship with the high ranking British officials, since he was the only one allowed to communicate with them, was responsible for preventing the East India Company to take full control of Nepal.

[229] Beforehand, Karbir Pande and his three brothers including Rana Jang, were already called back from Terai region and were given the governmental posts by Bhimsen himself based on the directives issued on traditionally dated 1872 Bikram Samvat, Poush Sudi 12 Roj 6 (1815-16 CE).

[228] Such events led the courtiers to feel that Bhimsen's Mukhtiyari would not last very long; thus Ranbir Singh, in the hopes of becoming the next Mukhtiyar, wrote a letter to the King asking him to be recalled to Kathmandu from Palpa.

[251][258][259][257] King Rajendra, due to the fear of a possible rebellion, restricted the Bhimsen established Singhanath battalion, to move out of the Kathmandu valley through a Rokka issued in March 1838 (Chaitra 1894 Bikram Samvat).

[261] Fearful that the Pandes would re-establish their power, Fatte Jang Shah, Mukhtiyar Ranga Nath Poudel, and the Junior Queen Rajya Laxmi Devi obtained from the King the liberation of Bhimsen, Mathabar, and the rest of the faction, in March 1838 about eight months after they were incarcerated for the poisoning case.

However, knowledge about Ranajang's war preparations and his communication with other princely states of India, fomenting anti-British sentiments, alarmed the Governor-General of the time, Lord Auckland, who mobilized some British troops near the border of Nepal.

"[215] Bhimsen appealed for justice and tried to defend himself, but the King, blindly believing the forgeries, denounced him as a traitor and put him in house arrest in a room at the ground floor of his own Bagh Durbar.

[note 27] Except for Mathabar Singh, who was under British surveillance in India,[267] rest of the Thapa family were again arrested, their properties confiscated, were declared outcasts, and were proclaimed to be expelled from every public office for seven generations.

[292] There was also a brief army mutiny in June 1840, as a reaction against the government's attempt to cut military salary, during which houses of several noblemen including Chautaria Pushkar Shah, in favor of this unpopular act were vandalized and burned.

[327] Another folk legend stated that the corpse of Bhimsen suddenly disappeared from the place of his death; the descendants of Chautariya Fatte Jang Shah had kept the hands while the skull was kept in some secret location in London.