In ancient times there were numerous small states and kingdoms ruled by Kings and Priests. Such small states were always fighting with each other and were always in danger of attack from the neighbouring states. So, heavy fortification was important. 

 

Inside were the palaces, temples, squares and residential areas while outside was related with fertility, where farms of the local people were located. Large tracts of farm lands served the entire food requirement of the city and thus the gateways became important to facilitate the daily movement from the inside towards the outside and vice-versa.

 

Differentiating between the outside and the inside such fortified walls and especially gates were facilitated with a pati (rest house), sattal and a dhungedhara (stone water conduit) or ponds. Such that those travellers who could not enter the city after dark could stay in the rest houses and use the water for cooking, drinking and cleaning purposes.

 

The traditional cities are mostly projected as a Mandala with eight important points in cardinal directions segmenting the interior city space into eight parts, often protected by the Astamatrikas (eight mother goddesses). Most of the ancient towns possess eight gateways relating to each of the above mentioned points or segments along the exterior boundary. The extensive temples of the eight mother goddesses are found outside the city boundary.

The central part of the city almost always was occupied by the palace complexes and temples. High castes tended to cluster around this exalted nucleus, the lower castes lived progressively further away, and outside the city wall, were the outcastes. Finally, well beyond the city wall lay the realm of the dead, the smasana (Nepali, masan), the various cremation grounds and ghats. 

 

Powerful kingdoms like Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, and Patan also had fortifying walls and gateways. These gates not only acted as entrances but were also the centre for exhibiting traditional art forms. The richness and power were often expressed through the decoration and massiveness of the gateways such that it dwarfed the passersby.

 

However, almost all of them were allowed to decay, as they were no longer needed after the Gorkhali conquest where the new regime considered Kathmandu valley as a single city protected by the surrounding hills; except for Bhaktapur where lately the local municipality has reconstructed few of them.

 

Although Kathmandu city has expanded and the city walls and gateways are long gone, but the locals still figure out what is inside the city and what lies outside. “Place names like Kva-bahal (Fortress Vihara), Dhoka tol (gateway neighbourhood), Ikha-pukhu (boundary pond), or Bhosiko tol (lower border) also substantiate the emplacements of the earlier walls.”

Mary Slusser also mentions in her book Nepal Mandala that, the recurrent use of the word Ikha (boundary) in place names, for example Ikhalakhu-tol (Boundary Gate Neighbourhood) or Ikhachhen-tol (Boundary House Neighbourhood) is also helpful to predict the original city boundary of the ancient Yala (Patan) city.

“In Patan, only two among an unknown original number of Patan’s gateways are still standing, but according to residents many were still in place up to the 1934 earthquake. One of the extant gates is the well-known Patan Dhoka which, curiously, was the only one to be repaired after the quake. The other is near Alko-hiti. It is a simple gateway, seemingly more appropriate to a private compound than to a city wall, and it looks totally ineffective as a serious deterrent to aggression.”

 

These strong boundary walls often pierced with gateways are worth close observation and study to understand and connect the present with the long forgotten past.  A small report on the gateways of the four ancient cities of the Kathmandu valley and neighbouring areas are documented hereafter.