A long long time ago Kathmandu was ruled by demons. They were not too different from the humans that currently inhabit the city now, except they were ten feet tall, could fly, and they had magical abilities. They could make things levitate, make objects appear from nowhere and make them disappear, they could attack their enemies with powerful bursts of energy. Powerful demons could combine their powers to shift mountains, shift rivers, dig up or fill lakes. That is how they had made Kathmandu inhabitable in the first place, by creating an opening for the water to flow out, and redirecting the river out so it didn't cut through too wide.
The King of the demons was called Baan Asur. He could make a thousand arms appear when he desired, he claimed he was the son of the demon King Bali who had defeated the King of Swarga and threatened the holy quaternity. It was commonly understood that his family had ruled over the lands much South of Kathmandu. He had moved, they said, after a misunderstanding with his family where they believed he had tried to murder them and take over the throne for himself. He had kept shifting and shifting and shifting for decades until he found a perfect place with the right weather and trees, just like he had at home. They said that Kathmandu reminded him the most of his homeland, which is how he ended up settling the town.
Baan Asur was an ardent devotee of Shiva. Every morning he dipped into the icy waters of Bagmati, held his breath for half an hour, rose up black and blue, thanked Shiva for saving his life, and dipped in again. He danced in the icy-blue flames of the Eternal Flames that swam on the banks of Bagmati, next to where Baan Asur had built a cattle shed for the hundred thousand heads of cows he kept, in the name of Shiva. He had made a temple around the fire in Shiva's name. The fire barely blistered his skin, he came out of the temple more radiant than he went in. He had constructed a large temple complex around the flame for Pashupati, the form of Shiva he was a devotee of.
Kathmandu thrived and prospered under the rule of Baan Asur. He was kind, generous and understanding of his subjects' problems. He held an open court once every week. Every evening he would go high on his palace roof and watch the chimney of every household. Any family that didn't have enough to cook itself a dinner would be supported by the palace. Any citizen of Kathmandu who happened to not own land or property would be supported by the palace, and the palace provided palace accommodation for their families once they had supported the King loyally for long enough.
His rule was so widely respected and Baan Asur was so beloved by all, his name came to stand for kindness and caring. There was a saying in the surrounding lands, A mother's womb cares a human for nine months, Baan's womb cares for him for the rest of his life.
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