Documenta Nepalica

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

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A copy of a document from the Tauthalī Koṭa revenue office exempting Subedāra Kulamāna Siṃha Pradhāna, a priest under the Tripurasundarī guṭhī, from corvée (VS 1939)

ID: K_0076_0003C

Edited and translated by Ramhari Timalsina in collaboration with Yogesh Budathoki
Created: 2021-07-05; Last modified: 2023-01-23
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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, 2021. 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 document, issued by the Tauthalī Koṭa revenue office, exempts from corvée Subedāra Kulamāna Siṃha Pradhāna, who has been conducting the worship of Śrī Tripurasundarī in the traditional manner.

Diplomatic edition

[1r]

1श्रीत्रिपुरसुंदरि१

1स्वस्तिश्रीगुठितौथलिकोटमौलाअमालकस्यपत्रम्‌
2आगेगुठितौथलिसहरकोकोटमौलाकोअघिदेषिसु
3वेदारकुलमानसिंप्रधानकाज्यूज्यूवाज्याकापालादे
4षिरोजिघडेरिलिजेठाप्रधानिपगरिवाधिवडा
5दसैमा¯ ¯१¯कोकामकाजपुजाविसर्जन्‌गरिआ
6य़ाकोहुनालेरकम्‌कलम्‌माफभैआय़ाकोरहेछ
7साविक्‌काठेकदारहरुलेपनिमाफ्‌गरिदिय़ा
8कारह्याछन्‌रहामिलिपनिनिजसुवेदारलाई
9लागेकोघरगनिमोहररु॥.वेठिजानपैरु//घ्यूमा
10ना१समेत्रकम्‌माफ्‌गरिदिञुंनिजसुवेदा
11रलेपनिअघिदेषिगरिआय़ाका¯ ¯१¯कापु
12जारकाम्‌काजगर्न्याछन्‌इतिसम्वत्‌१९३९
13सालमितिकार्तिकसुदि९रोज१शुभ्म्‌¯¯¯ ¯¯¯ ¯¯¯

1सहि

1सकलवमोजिमनकलदुरुस्तछभनिसहिछापगर्न्यासुवेदा
2रकुलमानसिं

Translation

[1r]

Śrī Tripurasundarī (text: Trīpurasuṃdari) – 1

Hail.

A letter from the Śrī Guṭhī Tauthalī Koṭa Māla [text: Maulā] Amāla

Āge: Regarding the venerable Koṭa Maulā guṭhī of the town of Tauthalī, it has been learned that since the time of Subedāra Kulamāna Siṃha Pradhāna’s great-grandfather [his lineage] has been taking responsibility for performing ritual worship of -1- (i.e. glorious Tripurasundarī1 ) during Baḍā Dasaĩ and conducting [its] concluding worship, wearing the turban [worn by] a jeṭho pradhāna and enjoying a select ghaḍerī, so that he has been exempted from customary taxes and levies (rakamakalama). The customary contractors have exempted him [from them], whence we (i.e. the amālīs of the Śrī Guṭhī Tauthalī Koṭa Maulā Amāla) have also exempted the said subedāra from the [following levies:] the gharaganī homestead levy of 2 mohararupaiyā̃s, the beṭhī homestead levy of 2 pai[sā] ru[pee] ānās and 1 mānā of ghee2 . The said subedāra for his part will [continue to] conduct the worship of -1- (i.e. glorious Tripurasundarī) and perform other [related] activities.

Sunday, the 9th day of the dark fortnight of Kārtika in the [Vikrama] era year 1939 (1820 CE). Auspiciousness.

Signature

Signing in attestation that the copy is true to the original, Subedāra Kulamāna Siṃ

Commentary

The temple of Tripurasundarī referred to in the document is located in Tauthali village in present-day Sindhupalchok District.

Two years later, on the 15th day of Bhādra in VS 1941, Subedāra Kulamāna Siṃha Pradhāna submitted a petition requesting Prime Minister Raṇa Uddīpa Siṃha to issue a sanada exempting his household from customary taxes and levies in return for performing ritual worship of Tripurasundarī in Sindhupalchok and to provide justice for wrong done by amālīs. The document is preserved in the Guṭhī Saṃsthāna and was catalogued by the NGMPP under K_0076_0003A.

Notes

1. Taken from the space above. [⇑]

2. Probably this represents a tax on the farm's dairy products. Concerning the tax see Regmi 1963: 75. [⇑]

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).
ānā	[fr. S. āṇvaka- ?] n. 1) monetary unit worth one sixteenth of a rupee with four ānā*s constituting one sukā, equivalent to one ganḍā; in documents usually represented by one to three diagonal dashes, sometimes as a loop with two or three jags. 2) sixteenth part of land, property etc. (cf. Parājulī et al 1995: s.v. ānā).
beṭha / beṭhī	[fr. S. viṣṭi] var. beṭhi; n. usually written together with another term 'begāra'; 1) A type of unfree labour, generally employed in farms on a customary basis (cf. R. Shaha 1990/vol.1: 207, M.C. Regmi 1965: 53). 2) a tax levied on homesteads in the hill region; the commuted value of beṭha labor (M.C. Regmi 1978: 854). 3) a festival in the planting season (Parājulī et al. VS 2052: s.v.).
ghaḍerī	var. ghaḍyāri, gharyāḍī; n. a plot of land for erecting a building, category of land suitable for bulding houses.
gharagantī	var. gharaganī, gharagandī; n. lit. "counting houses", "generic term used to denote taxes and levies collected on homesteads.“ (M.C. Regmi 1970 (No. 6): 150).
jeṭho pradhāna	n. a village headman responsible for local affairs such as the maintenance of law and order.
mānā	n. a volumetric unit equivalent to 0.568 litres, or 1/8 of a pāthi.
mohararupaiyā̃	var. mohararupaiyām, mohararūpaiyā, moharaṭaṃkā (New.); often abbreviated as moru, morū, moharu, moharū, moharru, mohorru; n. monetary unit based on and equivalent to two eight-anna silver coins (moharas); in calculations usually broken down into four sukās, 16 ānās or 64 paisās (cf. Pant and Pierce 1989: 93) or 256 dāmas; the exchange ratio with paisās was calculated differently at different times and in different parts of the kingdom, depending on the relative values of silver and copper, ranging between 52 and 80 paisās (Regmi 1982: 73). In documents sums are represented in four numerical fractions, with the rupaiyā represented by numbers; the sukās by one to three daṇḍas or the avagraha sign representing zero; the ānās by one to three diagonal dashes, sometimes as a loop with two or three jags; the paisās again by daṇḍas or numbers; the dāmas by numbers or horizontal dashes.
paisā	n. 1) money. 2) in the early Śāha period: monetary unit, one-fourth of an ānā, consisting of four dāmas with 64 paisās in 1 rūpaiyā̃. 3) in the Rāṇā period: monetary unit with 100 paisās in 1 rūpaiyā̃.
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).
subedāra	n. commander of a military company (cf. M.C. Regmi 1999: 137) consisting of 100 soldiers (N.R. Pant et al. 1969: 383), often placed in charge of a district (M.R. Pant 2002: 136; M.C. Regmi 1978: 229). According to Stiller (1981: 382), he is [below the subbā] the second highest commissioned officer, and, according to Whelpton (1991: 286), he is immediately senior to the jamadāra.

Bibliography

Regmi, Mahesh C.. 1963. Land Tenure and Taxation in Nepal. Vol. 1: The State as Landlord: Raikar Tenure. Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, University of California.