was also a brief army mutiny in June 1840, as a reaction against the government's attempt to cut military salary, during which houses of several noblemen including Chautaria Pushkar Shah, in favor of this unpopular act were vandalized and burned. The mutiny was calmed only after King Rajendra publicly agreed not to implement the reform. Taking advantage of this mutiny, Resident Hodgson sent an incriminating report against the Nepalese government to his superiors in Calcutta. The Governor-General demanded the King to dissolve the incumbent government and appoint ministers more favorable towards the British. Thus, Pushkar Shah and his Pande associates were dismissed, and Fatte Jang Shah was appointed the Prime Minister in November 1840. Dismissal of Pushkar Shah curtailed Samrajya Laxmi's power. When Rajendra refused to abdicate in favor of their eldest son Surendra, the heir apparent, she left Kathmandu and settled at a border town in Terai. However, during the monsoon season, Samrajya Laxmi was afflicted with malaria from which she died in October 1841 at the age of twenty-seven. The death of the Senior Queen Samrajya Laxmi allowed the emergence of the Junior Queen Rajya Laxmi and Crown Prince Surendra onto the political stage. To consolidate her political influence and see her own son, rather than the heir apparent, Surendra, succeed on the throne, Rajya Laxmi had obtained pardon for Sher Jung Thapa and other jailed members of Thapa family. It was only after this that Bhimsen Thapa managed to get a symbolic funeral rite in August 1841. Thus, the Nepalese court was split into three factions centered around the King, the Queen, and the Crown Prince. Fatte Jung and his administration supported the King, the Thapas supported the Junior Queen, while the Pandes supported the Crown Prince. The resurgent Thapa coalition succeeded in sowing animosity between Fateh Jung's ministry and the Pande coalition, who were swiftly imprisoned. During his two years in power, Fatte Jung was able to maintain a rule of law in the country; however, after the incarceration of the Pandes, nobody could rein in the worsening sadistic tendencies, sometimes with fatal consequences, of Surendra, who was then still a minor. Under immense pressure from the Queen and the nobility, along with the backing from army and the general populace, the King in January 1843 handed the highest authority of the state to his Junior Queen, Rajya Laxmi, curtailing both his own and his son's