Bhimsen's life is known for his dramatic rise and fall from power. Bhimsen rose to influence after helping the exiled ex-King Rana Bahadur Shah engineer his return to power in 1804. In gratitude, Rana Bahadur made Bhimsen a "Kaji" (equivalent to a minister) of the newly formed government. Rana Bahadur's assassination by his step-brother in 1806 led Bhimsen to massacre ninety-three people, after which he was able to claim the title of the "Mukhtiyar" (equivalent to prime minister). The death of King Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah in 1816 at the immature age of 17, with his heir, King Rajendra Bikram Shah being only 3 years old, along with the support from Queen Tripurasundari (the junior queen of Rana Bahadur Shah) allowed him to remain in power even after Nepal's defeat in the Anglo-Nepalese War. After the death of Queen Tripurasundari in 1832 and the adulthood of King Rajendra, the conspiracies and infighting with the British envoy Brian Houghton Hodgson, Senior Queen Samrajya Laxmi Devi and rival courtiers (especially the Kala Pandes, who held Bhimsen Thapa responsible for the death of Damodar Pande in 1804) finally led to his imprisonment and death by suicide in 1839.