Documenta Nepalica

Documents on the History of Religion and Law of Pre-modern Nepal

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A rukkā from King Rājendra granting kipaṭa holdings at Kaṭaujyā under a contractual arrangement to Narasiṃ Rāi (VS 1894)

ID: DNA_0016_0048

Edited and translated by Julia Shrestha
Created: 2025-08-15; Last modified: 2025-12-09
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Published by Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities: Documents on the History of Religion and Law of Pre-modern Nepal, Heidelberg, Germany, 2025. Published by the courtesy of the National Archives, Kathmandu. The copyright of the facsimile remains with the Nepal Rashtriya Abhilekhalaya (National Archives, Government of Nepal). All use of the digital facsimiles requires prior written permission by the copyright holder. See Terms of Use.
The accompanying edition, translation/synopsis and/or commentary are available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Abstract

This rukkā confirms Narasiṃ Rāi’s right to administer his ancestral lands at Kaṭaujyā as kipaṭa under a contractual arrangement stipulating the payment of an annual sum of Rs. 80.

Diplomatic edition

[1r]

1श्रीदुर्गाज्यू\

1८१
2९

[royal seal]

1स्वस्तिश्रीमन्महाराजाधिराजकस्यरूक्का¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ 1
2आगेनर्सिंराईकेसिकतेलकाअम्वलमध्ये•कटौज्या•तेरावावुवरायज्युले
3षाईचर्चिआयाकोकिपटरहेछ९३सालजाचमादरियाकोघर२०को
4साऊन्याफागु•मर्‍योअपुतालीपातकीचाकचकुईभेडाभार•अमालमा
5तिर्नपर्न्यारकम्‌कलम्‌मारिमेटि•साल१कोरूपैया८०ठेकवंदिलाल
6मोहरगरिवक्स्यौ•सालवसालठेकवमोजिम्‌कारूपैयाअमालीसग
7दाषीलगरिकिपटजानिभोग्यगरईतिसम्वत्‌१८९४सालमितीचै
8[?][?]१[?][?]¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

[1v]

⟪1(३०)
2६९८⟫

मार्फत्‌श्रीरङ्गनाथपण्डितराज

Translation

[1r]

[in the upper right corner:]

Śrī Durgājyū

[royal seal]

Hail! This is an executive order (rukkā) from the supreme king of great kings.

Āge: To Narsiṃ Rāī.

Kaṭaujyā, within the administrative district (ambala) of Sikatela, has been traditionally enjoyed as kipaṭa by your forefathers. We have issued a lālamohara [with the] contractual settlement (ṭhekabandi) [against payment of] 80 rupees [for each] 1 year, having exempted the 20 households registered during the inspection of the year [VS 17]93 from having to pay the sāune phāgu, maryo aputālī, [fines on] incest (pātakī) and adultery (cākacakuī), bheḍābhāra, and customary revenues (rakamkalam)2 to the amāla. Know and enjoy your kipaṭa, annually submitting the money according to the contract together with the amālī.

... Caitra in the [Vikrama era] year of 1894 (1838 CE).3

[Auspiciousness]

[1v]

(30)

6984

Through Raṅganātha Paṇḍita Rāja

Commentary

The present document exemplifies the Shah kings' confirmation, through royal decree, of kipaṭa lands as being under the control of members of the local Kiranti population on the basis of ancestral first-settler or first-cultivator status. Rights to kipaṭa were based on patrilineal clan membership and exercised through the household (see Caplan 2000 [1970]: 24; 31).

Notes

1. From the date of the document, the issuing king must have been Rājendra (r. 1816–1847). [⇑]

2. Text: māri-meṭi, from mārnu and meṭnu, meaning “to erase,” “cross out,” or “remove,” here in the sense of exemption for the registered households. [⇑]

3. The lower part of the document containing the date is damaged, but it probably reads "roj 1" for the weekday and "Caitra" for the month; so it must have been issued on a Sunday in March or April 1838. [⇑]

4. This number, added by a second hand, refers to the manuscript number assigned by the National Archives, Kathmandu. The meaning of the other numbers, added on the front in the upper right corner and on the backside in brackets, remains unclear. [⇑]

Glossary

Word	Notes
āge	[fr. S. agre] adv. lit. "henceforeward" (Riccardi 1976: 150 n. 6), especially used in administrative and legal documents to mark the beginning of a text or paragraph. In its function it is similar to uprānta.
amāla	[Fr. A.] n. a village level revenue collection office with semi-judicial functions (cp. Adhikari 1984: 344). In the Mulukī Ain, adālatas, ṭhānās and amālas were the central institutions for judicial administration (see, for example, MA-KM 1854 1.5, 19 and 21).
amāli / amālī	[fr. A.] var. amāli, ambāli, amvalī, aṃvalī; also amālidāra; n. a revenue official or functionary of a regional administrative unit (Pant and Pierce 1989: 93, M.R. Pant 2002: 131). According to Krauskopff and Meyer he had only "minor judicial powers" (Krauskopff and Meyer 2000: 183). Kumar further notes that he was a "subordinate civil functionary in the tehsil" (Kumar 1967: 164). His office was called amala (cf. Adhikari 1984: 344, M.C. Regmi 1978: 853).
ambala	var. aṃbala, amavala, amala, amāla, ammala; n. 1) territory, administrative unit, district. 2) office, position, term of office, honour, respect (Turner 1931: s.v. amal); "territory in Gorkhali official discourse; land occupied by force, land from which the state has acquired right to collect revenue; generally conveys the same meaning as the term amal" (Michael 2012: 129). 3) a Limbu subbā's court or council in Pallo Kirāta (Caplan 2000: 225).
bhẽḍābhāra	var. bheḍābhāra, bhedabhada; n. 1) a tax levied on sheep loads (M.R. Pant 2002: 131 ), 2) a tax payable by kipaṭa holders in Pallo Kirāta (Regmi 1965: 105).
cākacakuī	var. cākacakui, cāṣa caṣui; n. often translated as "adultery" or "fine for adultery" (see e.g. M.C. Regmi 1982: 135; cf. Śarmā VS 2032: s.v. cākacakuī) and sometimes as "incest" (cf. Bhaṭṭarāī and Dāhāla VS 2041: s.v. cāka cakuī) the word also denotes forms of marriage among different ethnic groups which are not in accordance with the Hindu ideal of marriage (see Stiller 1976: 174). According to the Mulukī Ain, the punishment for members of Enslavable castes was the enslavement of the man (cāka) and the woman (cakuī or cakuī) (see Fezas 1986: 173 with reference to the Mulukī Ain, ch. 86"māsinyā jyū amālile lināko" [MA-KM VS 2022: 367-68], for further details, see note in DNA_0014_0028).
kipaṭa	var. kīpaṭa; n. a form of traditional land tenure, where communal authority overrides state authority and control over the land is exercised on the basis of family and clan group (cf. Regmi 1965: 82), traditionally practiced by several ethnic groups, particularly in eastern Nepal among the Kiranti groups (Whelpton 2005: 262).
kirā̃tī / kirātī	var. kirāti, kirāntī; n. "Limbu and Rai peoples of eastern Nepal" (Whelpton 2005: 262).
lālamohara	var. lālmohara, lālamohar, lālmohora; abbreviated mohara; n. royal document bearing the red seal.
maryo aputālī / moroaputālī	var. maryo aputāli, moroaputāli; also aputālī; n. escheatable property (on a discussion of the term, see Fezas 1986).
rakamakalama/kalamarakama	[fr. A.] n. 1) official matters. 2) an account containing different sections of revenue. 3) knowledge of official matters, officialdom (Turner 1931: s.v. rakam-kalam). 4) customary taxes and levies (Regmi 1976: 77).
rukkā	[fr. A. ruq'a] n. an executive order, short note, missive from the highest authority. The king, the crown prince, but also queens and the Rāṇā prime ministers issued rukkās.
sāune phāgu	var. sāunya phāgu, sāunyā phāgu, sāunya phāghu, sāūnyā phāgu; n. a homestead levy (valaka) collected in the hill districts, including Kathmandu Valley, during the months of Śrāvaṇa and Phālguna every year (cf. M.C. Regmi 1971: 230; M.R. Pant 2002: 136). According to M.C. Regmi (1995: 27-28) it originally served the supply of foodstuff to the royal household, and was converted into a cash payment in 1807. Normal households had to pay half the amount of landowners and local functionaries. The rates were revised in 1813.
śrī	[S.] n. word of blessing, can be used as apprecatio, in which case it means 'good fortune' (Pant and Pierce 1989: 12), can be used as a prefix to names of persons and gods, in which case it means 'venerable' or 'glorious' respectively. The number of śrīs used varies, depending on context.
ṭhekabandi	var. ṭhekavaṃdi; n. 1) system under which a lump-sum as an annual tax was assessed for a district, village, or other unit (Regmi 1999: 137), 2) contractual settlement with mukhiyās or other local functionaries for the collection of homestead and other revenues in the central hill region (Regmi 1978: 163; Michael 2012: 135; cf. Regmi 1988: 270).

Bibliography

Caplan, Lionel. 2000 [1970]. Land and Social Change in East Nepal: A study of Hindu-tribal relations. 2 ed. Kathmandu: Himal Books.