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dated May 3, 1956: Nepal's new King

Mahendra Vir Vikram Sha Deva was crowned King of Nepal on May 2 at the Hanuman Dhoka Palace in ancient Hindu traditions that have marked the coronations of all the Gurkha monarchs of this kingdom, nestling in the Himalayas. Exactly at 10.33 a.m., named as the most auspicious hour for the ceremony, the royal priests placed the crown on the head of King Mahendra, with Queen Ratna Devi by his side. Priests chanted Vedic hymns and sounded conch shells, the bands struck up the national anthem and guns boomed the royal salute to announce the enthronement of the son of the late King Tribhuvan. To Nepal's high dignitaries, the 87-year-old primate of the royal priesthood then proclaimed in archaic Sanskrit: "Oh people! This man is your King. He is Soma, the King of us Brahamanas". And from the thousands who crowded the Darbar Square outside the palace, cheers rose hailing the ushering in of the Mahendra reign in Nepal. The two-hour Vedic rites over, King Mahendra promised his people from the four-and-a-half century old palace: "I shall see to the growth of the country, regarding it as God Himself, this ever and always". Slowly but in a firm voice, the 36-year-old King then repeated in Sanskrit the pratijna administered by the primate: "Whatever law there is here and whatever is dictated by ethics, and whatever is not opposed by politics. I will act according to, unhesitatingly, and I will never be arbitrary".

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