On October 9, when the holy festival of Vijayadashami or ?Bada Dasain? is celebrated all over Nepal, Hindu priests installed a Shakyan Buddhist girl as the Kumari, the Hindu Goddess in whose name the kings of Nepal have ruled so far, known as the ?Kumari? the vestal virgin, all kings of Nepal compulsorily paid obeisance to her all these years and this year too the former king Gyjanendra did so, but after President Ram Baran Yadava, now the head of the State performed this ritual.
The previous Kumari, now eleven years old, has retired because she was approaching her puberty and if she did that before the installation of the new Kumari, it would have been a great catastrophe.
One may dismiss these rituals as superstitious, but the important point is that the Kumari must have Buddhist Shakyan parents, who are goldsmiths by profession now, but claim their descent from the Lord Buddha'sclan, a unique instance of fusion between the Hindus and the Buddhists of Kathmandu Valley.
The institution of the Kumari was probably started by King Jayasthiti Malla, who ruled in the 14th century, and restored order in the Hindu society dividing it in four ?varnas? and 36 castes, after taking charge in the aftermath of the destruction of Hindu temples by Sultan Shamshuddin of Bengal and the consequent destabilisation of the society.
The institution of the Kumari was perhaps devised by him in order to bind the Hindus and the Buddhists in strong bonds.
When King Prithvinarayan Shah attacked the Kathmandu Valley and won the fight because the local Newar residents were mostly inebriated during the Indra Yatra festival (they do it to a certain extent even today, during the Yatra every year), the victorious King quickly went to the temple of the Kumari and touching her feet, sought blessings. The Kumari had done it and this had bestowed ?legitimacy? to the Gorkha kings.
Till a few years ago, the State fund accounts were maintained at an office called the ?Kumari Chak.
