Documenta Nepalica

Published by Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities: Documents on the History of Religion and Law of Pre-modern Nepal, Heidelberg, Germany, 2017. 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 .

Commentary

In the original, use is made of lines of differing length to fill the space between the particulars of single entries in order to furnish proper columns. This typical format feature has been reproduced here in the form of a computer-generated table.

This list records the buffalo sacrifices performed at the Mūlacoka (lit. "main courtyard") of the royal palace during the autumnal Dasaĩ festival. That it refers to the Hanumānḍhokā palace can be inferred from the fact that many of the documents microfilmed on the same and neighbouring reels emanated from the old royal palace of Kathmandu. Lists similar to the present one are extant for the subsequent years VS 1888 (E_2767_0049), 1900 (E_2775_0040), 1902 (E_2764_0036, E_2779_0019) and 1908 (E_2779_0005). As other documents (e.g. DNA_0002_0061) attest to, records of buffalo sacrifices had to be dispatched from major state temples and army units throughout the country.

The list records with running numbers the buffaloes sacrificed, the sacrificers’ names, the number of hands and type of blade used. Moreover, it records whether the animal was "cut." From what is known to be the sacrificial ideal, this in all likelihood refers to whether it was decapitated with a single stroke or not. The terms in the second column probably refer to certain types of buffaloes, given that the term satār occurs among them. According to Unbescheid (1996: 120–125, passim) and Tingey (1997: 99), among the animals sacrificed at the Gorkhā palace the satār (lit. "the big fat one"; in contrast to Tingey and the present document, the form Unbescheid gives for the term is satāhar) was of special importance. It was the biggest among its fellow bulls and stood for Mahiṣāsura, the demon enemy of the goddess Durgā. A special tune played during its sacrifice highlights this act. In contradistinction to all other buffaloes, which were to be decapitated with a single stroke, this one was to be killed with three strokes. This may also explain why, in the present document, all buffaloes are listed as having been slain (i.e. with a single stroke) except for no. 17, the satār.

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Notes