8 C. The Mallas of the Valley — with the four named kings

General Malla administration: the king in his durbar with a council of the great officers — Mahapatra/Pradhananga (chief officer), Chautariya-grade nobles, Kaji, Bhandari(treasury), Dittha (judge/magistrate); city government by the classic Newar institutions — thakali (ward headmen) and local assemblies; guild (shreni) self-regulation; the pachali tradition continuing. Land: royal, temple, and private (afo bhumi) categories with customary dues; festivals doubled as civic charters. Justice: Dittha courts → the king; written deeds (tamsuk, lalmohar) increasingly standardised — Malla Nepal was a documentary state.1. Mahindra (Mahendra) Malla of Kathmandu (r. 1506–?) — the commercial sovereign: stabilised the kingdom; first Valley king to mint silver coinage in his own name (the "Mahendra-malli" tanka — numismatic landmark, Unit 1); regulated market dues and the Sikkim- Tibet trade interface; a king whose state ran on commerce and coin as much as land.2. Ram Shah of Gorkha (r. 1606–1636) — the lawgiver of the hills: the Chaubise's most just king, remembered in the proverb "if denied justice, appeal to Gorkha". His administration: a rudimentary but credible code of customary law (later written down as the RamShahi Ain tradition); standardised weights and measures (the Gorkha mana-pathi); fixed and published tax rates; the king's open court hearing appeals — access to justice as statepolicy (a rare thing in the 17th-century hills); disciplined officers (Kaji/Bhandari/Dittha with defined duties); beginnings of…