A letter from Aravindanātha Gajuryāla to the queen dowager Lalitatripurasundarī requesting the continuation of a study allowance (VS 1878)
ID: DNA_0004_0038
Edited and
translated by Rajan Khatiwoda
in collaboration with
Ramhari Timalsina
Created: 2018-08-15;
Last modified: 2024-01-16
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Abstract
In this letter to the queen dowager Lalitatrīpurasundarī, who had relieved him of previous duties, Aravindanātha Gajuryāla requests a further allowance to enable him to continue his studies at Kāśī.
Diplomatic edition
[1r]
1श्रीदुर्गा\⟪1नं३७७⟫1श्रीसंकटा१1श्रीहजूर२1स्वस्तिश्रीमज्जनकजननीकुलसरित्पतिकमलावतारस्वच्छसौशील्यादिसमस्तपतिव्रताध2र्माचरणसंतोषितपार्वतीसुशीलानुसूयादिचरणस्थिरीकृतसौभाग्यसंपत्तिसुश्री
3श्रीश्रीश्रीश्रीश्रीमहाराज्ञीषुज्योतिर्विदअरविन्दनाथगजुर्यालकोआशीर्वादसहस्र
4म्चरणारविन्दकाकुशलतालेहाम्रोप्रतिपालभैआयाकोछउप्रान्त¯२¯ ¯कानिमि
5त्त¯१¯ ¯कोजपपूजागर्नुअध्ययनपनीगर्नुभनि¯२¯ ¯वाटकामवक्सनुभयामा
6फिक्ञाहाआईनिरंतरअनुष्ठानपनीअध्ययनपनिगर्दैथिञाअनुष्ठान७६सालका
7फाल्गुनदेषीउप्रान्तगर्नुपर्दैनभनिमर्जिभयाकोछभनिपुरोहितरघुनाथज्यूवाट
8आज्ञाभयोतपनिआफ्नुकृत्यछोड्न्याहोइनजयमनाउनुहाम्रोकामैहोभनिछोड्या
9कोछैनअध्ययनकाअर्थकनसिद्धान्तकौमुदीसूर्यसिद्धान्तलीलावतीवीजग
10णितरत्नमालामुहूर्त्तचिन्तामणिमकरन्दजातकार्णवकुतूहलसिद्धान्तशिरोम
11णिताँहिभयाकाथियाञाहाआयापछिसिद्धान्ततत्त्वविवेकमनोरमाशव्देन्दुशे
12षरसम्राट्सिद्धान्तवशिष्ठसिद्धान्तव्रह्मसिद्धान्तसोमसिद्धान्तमुक्तावलीएतिभया
13सो¯२¯ ¯कामेहेर्वाटभयाकोवाकि¯२¯ ¯वाटजोवर्षाशनवक्सनुभयाकोथि
14योसोवीचमायद्यपिविछिन्नभयोतपनि¯२¯ ¯देषीअन्यत्रहामिलेयाचन्गर्न्याहोइ
15नभनिऋणगरीपनीआजसम्मयथाकथंचित्वर्त्तमानगर्दाऋणपनिभैरहेछ
16आजसम्मपनि¯२¯ ¯काचरणवाटहाम्रोपालनाभैआयाकोछअवउप्रान्तप
17निहाम्रागुणकोप्रकासरहाम्रोउद्धार¯२¯ ¯काचरणकामेहेर्लेहुन्याछआ
18जतक्पालनाभैआयाकोछहामिजस्ताअनन्यगतिकाशरण्य¯२¯ ¯हुनुहुंछ
19२।४अपूर्वग्रंथकोसंग्रहगर्नुछद्रव्यविनासंग्रहभैसकिदैनजोमर्जिलेखनाकोसर
20अपसरमाफ्भयाजालासंवत्१८७८आश्विनवदि६रोज२मुकामकाशीशुभम्
21भवतामहमिववहवोममतुभवानिवभवानेकः ॥ कुमुदिन्यःकतिनविधो विधुरिव
22विधुरेकःकुमुदिनीनाम् ॥
Translation
[1r]
Glorious Durgā!
No. 3771
Glorious Saṃkaṭā 12
Your Venerable Majesty3 (i.e., the queen dowager Lalitatripurasundarī) 2
Hail! Thousands of [auspicious] blessings from Aravindanātha Gajuryāla, an astrologer, to the fivefold venerable great queen whose venerable father's and mother's clans are [like] oceans, who is an incarnation of Kamalā (i.e., the goddess Lakṣmī), who, by displaying the conduct of a faithful wife to her husband (pativratādharma)—purity, amiability and so forth—has pleased the goddess Pārvatī, Suśīlā,4 Anusūyā5 and so forth, and whose property is [in the form of] steadfast good fortune.
We have been protected because of the well-being of your lotus-feet.
Uprānta: Since coming here (to Vārāṇasī) I have been continuously studying and performing the anuṣṭhāna6 as instructed by [you], -2- (i.e., queen dowager Lalitatripurasundarī), who said that [I] should mutter the names and perform the worship of -1- (i.e., Glorious Saṅkaṭā) for [you], -2- (i.e., queen dowager Lalitatripurasundarī), and [that I] should also study. Although the estimable purohitaRaghunātha told me that [you] ordered me not to perform the anuṣṭhāna from [the month of] Phālguna of [Vikrama era] year [18]76 onward, [we] have not left off doing so, thinking that one should not leave one's task and that it is our duty to celebrate your victories. Regarding [our] studies, [the texts we studied] there (i.e., in Kathmandu) are: the Siddhāntakaumudī, Śrīsūryasiddhānta, Līlāvatī, Bījagaṇita, Ratnamālā, Muhūrttacintāmaṇi, Makarandajātakārṇavakutūhala [and] Siddhāntaśiromaṇi. [We] have been studying [the following texts] since coming here: the Siddhāntatattvaviveka, Manoramā, Śabdenduśekhara, Samrāṭsiddhānta, Vaśiṣṭhasiddhānta, Brahmasiddhānta, Somasiddhānta and Muktāvalī. The annual sum [you] -2- (i.e., queen dowager Lalitatripurasundarī) granted through [your] -2- (i.e., queen dowager Lalitatripurasundarī) compassion has meanwhile been discontinued. Nevertheless, thinking that I should not ask [for support] from anybody else than [you], -2- (i.e., queen dowager Lalitatripurasundarī), and having taken a loan to sustain [myself] somehow until today, [I] find [myself] in debt. Your feet have been providing us protection up to today. From now onward, too, the lustre of our good qualities and our recovery will come about through the compassion of [your] -2- (i.e., queen dowager Lalitatripurasundarī) feet. Until now [I] have been protected. [You] -2- (i.e., queen dowager Lalitatripurasundarī) have afforded refuge to those like us who have no other refuge. [I] need to acquire 2-4 unique books. Without the resources this cannot be done. [I shall do] as you order. Forgiveness will doubtlessly be granted for any excesses and omissions in what [I] have written.
Monday, the 6th of the dark fortnight of Āśvina, in the [Vikrama] era year 1878 (1821 CE).
Residence: Kāśī. Auspiciousness.
For you there are many like me; [but] for me there is only one like you, [namely] you [yourself]. Are there not numerous water lilies for the moon? But for water lilies there is only one like the moon, [namely] the moon [itself].
Commentary
This document is one of an extant set of three letters sent by Aravindanātha Gajuryāla from Varanasi to benefactors in Nepal (see DNA_0001_0001 and DNA_0002_0069, both addressed to Bhīmasena Thāpā). The addressee of the present letter is the queen dowager. Although her name is not mentioned in the inscriptio, she is addressed as the fivefold venerable mahārānī. From the date of the letter it is clear that the person in question is Lalitatripurasundarī, the queen dowager and regent for her grandson King Rājendra. She was one of the wives of King Raṇabahādura (Regmi et al. 1981: 145-146). Lalitatripurasundarī was born in ca. 1794 and died in 1832 (Regmi et al. 1981: 89). After the assassination of Raṇabahādura in 1806 (Regmi et al. 1981: 145) and the self-immolation of Queen Rājeśvarī on the funeral pyre of her husband, Lalitatripurasūndarī became the regent of King Gīrvāṇayuddha, born to Queen Kāntivatī and crowned at the age of one and a half by his father Raṇabahādura in 1799 (Nepali VS 2022: 19; also see Regmi et al. 1981: 58). Lalitatripurasundarī continued her regency after the coronation of her grandson Rājendra in 1816 until her death in 1832 (Regmi et al. 1981: 90)—this in the absence of Gīrvāṇayuddha’s queens: Siddhilakṣmī and Kīrtirekhā, who immolated themselves on their husband’s funeral pyre, and Gorakṣarājyalakṣmī, who died of smallpox 14 days later (Regmi et al. 1981: 58; also see Vajrācārya VS 2019: 48). As stated in the present letter, Aravindanātha’s studies had once been sponsored by Lalitatripurasundarī, but this annual sum of 90 rupees had been discontinued by her. Nevertheless, it was again continued later that same year by Bhīmasena Thāpā, who had been informed of the matter by Aravindanātha (see DNA_0002_0069). This restoration of duties assigned to Aravindanātha (probably for one more year) and the release of his annual sum is an indication, however minor, that Bhīmasena Thāpā, as argued by C. Nepali (Nepali VS 2022: 27), exercised absolute power during his term of office including full control of the country’s treasury (Vajrācārya VS 2019: 50).
The set of three letters dispatched by the learned pandit Aravindanātha is interesting not only because it provides a number of historical facts about contemporaneous Nepalese political elites, but also because it preserves some of the remarkable linguistic features of 19th-century Nepali. As mentioned by M. Hutt (Hutt 1988: 57), few modern Nepali scholars support the Sanskritization of the Nepali language, while most consider it at most “to be a necessary evil,” equating it with Indianization, and arguing that many words could be taken from the existing Nepali dialects or from other indigenous languages. Whatever the merits of either side, and regardless of the fact that although the 19th-century Nepalese scribal elites probably did not purposely go about trying to Sanskritize Nepali, their writings testify that both trends, Sanskritic and vernacular, existed in the first half of the 19th century. If we look at the syntax, orthography and vocabulary of the present document, these, in contrast to many other contemporaneous documents,7 are considerably Sanskritized in nature. For example, consider the following sentence from the DNA_0002_0069 (ll. 13-14 of the main text), also appearing in the present letter: tapāñīkī ujjvalakīrti digaṃtamā phailiyākī chaṃ “Your luminous fame has spread endlessly”. The word kīrti is feminine, and the verb and possessive pronoun are formed accordingly. Further, except for one instance, the scribe of the present document, when using the palatal śa, has strictly followed the Sanskrit pattern. Nevertheless, future research on the historic development of Nepali language will have to show the extent to which Sanskrit patterns were mirrored in Nepali (through the writings of those who were mainly trained in Sanskrit) or else yielded to more contemporaneous ones already existing in the vernacular Indic languages of Sanskrit origin.