9 A. The factors behind the code (the syllabus's question)

1. Post-Kot consolidation — the new regime needed a single, predictable legal order binding all provinces to Kathmandu (and to the PM's court) — law as the sinew of the new centralised state; 2. Against arbitrary justice — the pre-code regime of caste-laden custom, feud-punishment and noble discretion had become an instrument of faction (Bhimsen Thapa's own destruction showed the nobility's legal exposure); a written code promised regularised punishment; 3. Janga Bahadur's Europe tour (1850–51) — the inspiration of the continental codification movement (the Code Napoléon above all): one territory, one written, ordered code administered by a hierarchy of state courts; 4. The dharma-shastra inheritance — the Jayasthiti tradition (Manav Nyaya Shastra, Unit 3) and the Gorkhali customary codes (Ram Shah's justice, Unit 4) as indigenous material — the Ain's genius is the fusion of both; 5. Revenue & administrative discipline — codified land-tenure, dues and procedure meant auditable, uniform extraction across the expanded realm; 6. Legitimation — the code-maker as dharmic law-giver: the upstart dynasty wearing the ancient robe.