Manadeva's pillar and the Licchavi kings
The Licchavi kings ruled the valley from roughly the 4th or 5th to the 9th century CE, and Changunarayan is one of their most important surviving sites. In 464 CE King Manadeva set up a stone pillar here with a long Sanskrit inscription. It records how, after his father King Dharmadeva died, his mother wished to follow her husband in death, and Manadeva persuaded her to live.
The inscription is the oldest dated one known in Nepal and a key source for the history of the period. Around it, Licchavi sculptors carved Vishnu in his many forms: as Trivikrama striding across the universe, as the many-headed Vishwarupa, and as the man-lion Narasimha. A kneeling Garuda, Vishnu's mount, faces the temple door, and local tradition holds that its face is a portrait of Manadeva.
The temple itself has been rebuilt several times, most notably in the early 18th century after a fire. In 2015 the earthquake damaged the temple and destroyed many houses in the village below. The main temple has since been repaired, and the village has been rebuilt with help from heritage groups and residents. The stones of the courtyard, however, have stood through it all.
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