Nepal Sambat
[3][4] During the period, Nepal Sambat appeared on coins, stone and copper plate inscriptions, royal decrees, chronicles, Hindu and Buddhist manuscripts, legal documents and correspondence.
[5] After the conquest of Nepal by the Shahs in 1769, the official calendar of the country was replaced with Shaka era and then later by the Vikram Samvat.
[9] Orientalist Sylvain Lévi suggests that Nepal Sambat was derived from the Shaka era by deducting 800 from the later because "(sic) the number 8 is considered inauspicious by the Nepalese".
A local merchant named Sankhadhar Sakhwa saw them resting with their baskets of sand at a traveler's shelter at Maru before returning to Bhaktapur.
In Gorkha, a stone inscription at the Bhairav Temple at Pokharithok Bazaar contains the date Nepal Sambat 704 (1584 CE).
[17] The Palanchok Bhagawati Temple situated to the east of Kathmandu contains an inscription recording a land donation dated Nepal Sambat 861 (1741 CE).
[18] Similarly, Nepali merchants based in Tibet (Lhasa Newars) used Nepal Sambat in their official documents, correspondence and inscriptions recording votive offerings.
[19] A copper plate recording the donation of a tympanum at the shrine of Chhwaskamini Ajima (Tibetan: Palden Lhamo) in the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa is dated Nepal Sambat 781 (1661 CE).
The victory of the Gorkha Kingdom resulted in the end of the Malla dynasty and the advent of The Shahs used Saka era.
For example, the treaty with Tibet signed during the reign of Pratap Singh Shah is dated Nepal Sambat 895 (1775 CE).
The movement was continued by language and cultural activists in Nepal with the advent of democracy following the ouster of the autocratic Rana dynasty in 1951.
Nepal Sambat has also emerged as a symbol to rally people against the suppression of their culture, language and literature by the politically dominant ruling classes.
[24][25] In 1987 in Kathmandu, a road running event organized to mark the New Year was broken up by police and the runners thrown in jail.
[26] The Nepal Sambat movement achieved its first success on 18 November 1999 when the government declared the founder of the calendar, Sankhadhar Sakhwa (संखधर साख्वा), a national hero.
[40] During this ceremony, family members sit cross-legged in a row on the floor in front of mandalas (sand paintings) drawn for each person.
Offerings are made to the mandala, and each family member is presented auspicious ritual food which includes boiled egg, smoked fish and rice wine during the Sagan ceremony.
Participants dressed in traditional Newar clothing like tapālan, suruwā and hāku patāsi parade on the streets.
Marking a break from tradition, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai gave his speech at the New Year's Day program in 2011 in Nepal Bhasa.
[35][38][36] The lunar phases are named as follows Following the official use of Nepal Sambat in Lalitpur Metropolitan City,[33] a solar version of calendar was devised from the year 1141 (C.E.
