Surendra Bikram Shah

Surendra Bikram Shah became King of Nepal in 1847. This happened after Jung Bahadur Rana forced his father to give up the throne. Surendra held the throne for more than three decades, as a largely ceremonial figure. Jung Bahadur and his Rana successors held real power, as hereditary Prime Ministers.

In 1856, he formally recognised the political power of Jung Bahadur’s family. He did this through a royal sanad, an official document granting rights and recognising authority. This cemented, or firmly secured, the arrangement that would keep the Shah monarchy as a figurehead for the following century.