Documenta Nepalica

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

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A letter from the Guṭhī Bandobasta to the Jaṅgī Koṭavālī of Bhaktapur re the confiscation of the property of the priest Jogabāhādura (VS 1977)

ID: K_0262_0059

Edited and translated by Ramhari Timalsina
Created: ; Last modified: 2021-01-29
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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

A statue of Tripurasundarī having been stolen in Bhaktapur, this letter from the Guṭhī Bandobasta Aḍḍā orders the Jaṅgī Koṭavālī of Bhaktapur to confiscate property belonging to the priest Jogabāhādura Karmācārjye, accused of negligence leading to the theft.

Diplomatic edition

[1r]

1[...]

1⟪2110⟫

1⟪२५[...]⟫

1श्री५सर्कारतर्फगुठीवंदोवस्तवाट भादगाऊजंगीकोटवालीके
2पुर्जी

1ऊप्रातभादगाऊत्रीपुरसुंदरीकोसर्कारतर्फवाटवनाईस्थापनागरीवक्सेकोसुंकोमुर्तीचोरी
2भयाकोहुनाले१छापेपुर्जीवमोजींजीम्मालीनेपुजाहारीभादगाऊतुलाछेवस्नेजोगवाहादुर
3कर्माचार्ज्येलेभर्नाराख्नमंजुरनगरेकोभैजायेजातवाटऊपरगर्नुपरेकोहुनालेनीजकोघरधं
4मालश्रीसंपतीजगाज्मींजायेजातगरीसोचोरीभयाकोवीगोमोरु२५८।८७ऊपरगर्नुपर्दा
5जायेजाततायेदातगर्नलाईयेसअडाकोकारीन्दाहरीनारांस्मेतलाईषटाईपठाईदीयाकोछतेस
6अडास्मेत⟪जोचाहीनेमदतदीसाछीस्मेत⟫साछीवसीअैंसवालकोरीतपुर्‍याई⟪लुकाऊनदवाऊननपाऊनेगरीभयेकोवाट⟫जायेजाततायेजातगरीलीलांवीक्रीगर्नेस्मेतकां
7भयेवेसहोलाईतीसम्वत१९७७सालफागुं गतेरोज शु ¯¯ ¯¯¯¯

Translation

[1r]

Śrī

No. 251

A purjī from the Guṭhī Bandobasta [Aḍḍā] of Śrī 5 Sarkāra to the Bhādagāū Jaṅgī Koṭavālī

Uprānta: Since the golden statue 2 of glorious (Śrī) Tripurasundarī that was made and installed by the Sarkāra 3 was stolen, and since the priest Jogabāhādura Karmācārjye, a resident of Tulāche [in] Bhādagāū, who was responsible for taking care of it, refused to make restitution following [an order in] a 1-chāpe 4 purjī, [the amount] needs to be collected from his [share of] property. [Therefore,] in order to collect the value (bigo) of the stolen [statue amounting to] 258 morus and 87 paisās by confiscating his house, personal belongings, wealth and lands, Harīnārāṃ, an official of this office (i.e., the Guṭhī Bandobasta Aḍḍā), has been despatched there. It would be good if your (lit. that) office provided necessary help: standing witness so that Ain and Savāla5 rules are adhered to, carrying out the confiscation from among what [the priest] owns so that he is unable to hide or conceal [anything] and conducting the auction.

On …6 , the ...7 of Phāguṃ in the [Vikrama] era year [19]77 (1921 CE). Auspiciousness.

Commentary

See the commentary of K_0262_0056.

Notes

1. These numerals by a second hand were probably added when documents were either sorted or, more likely, when they were microfilmed. [⇑]

2. Document K_0262_0055 clarifies that the statue was made of 6 dhārnīs of copper overlaid with 6 tolās of gold. [⇑]

3. King Tribhuvana Śāha or Prime Minister Candra Śamśera is possibly being referred to here. [⇑]

4. The document was probably issued by Prime Minister Candra Śamśera. [⇑]

5. The document is alluding to Ain § 45.5 (see Fezas 2000: 238) and Kitāpī Savāla, savāla no. 101 (K_0347_0004 in Documenta Nepalica). [⇑]

6. The space for the day of the week has been left blank in the original. [⇑]

7. The space for the day of the month has been left blank in the original. [⇑]

Glossary

Word	Notes
ain	var. āin, aina; n. 1) laws, statutes, rules, regulations enacted by authority 2) law-code of Nepal, first promulgated in 1854 during the rule of Jaṅga Bahādura Rāṇā and amended several times before it was completely revised in VS 2022. The revised law-code was renamed as Mulukī Ain.
bigo	var. bīgo, vīgo, bīgā; a payment substitute equal to the amount in question (e.g. damage). bīgo often comes with daṇḍa, a fine additionally to be paid. "Claimed amount" (Karmacharya 2001: 320)
Choṭī Jaṅgī Kotavālī	var. Choṭī Jaṅgī Koṭavālī, Choṭī Jaṅgī Koṭvālī; n. regional army station.
dhārnī	[fr. Skt. dhāraṇī] var. dhārni; n. measure of weight equal to 12 pāus, “equivalent to 2.393 kg“ (cf. M.R. Pant 2002: 132 ).
eka-chāpe	n. lit. "single stampded"; a letter with the seal or signature of the Prime Minister.
Guṭhī Bandobasta Aḍḍā	var. Guṭhī Bandobasta Aḍā, Guṭhi Bandobasta Aḍā; n. "Guthi Administration Office", office responsible for the management of guṭhīs; established under Jaṅga Bahādura Rāṇā in 1852-1853 as replacement of the former Guṭhī Kacaharī. Its foundation marks the change from the guṭhīyāri system of the guṭhī management to the contractor based system; remained the central office to coordinate all offices subsequently established for handling different aspects of guṭhī management, including the Guṭhī Kharca Aḍḍā and others. Separate Guṭhī Bandobasta Aḍḍās managed the śrī 5 sarkāra guṭhīs and the śrī 3 sarkāra guṭhīs (cf. M.C. Regmi 1978: 713-715).
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.
purjī	[fr. P. purja] var. purji, pūrjī; n. 1) slip of paper, note. 2) formal letter written by a government institution or an official to another institution or to a person.
sarkāra	n. government; head of government; king; term used to refer indistinctly to the king and/or to his government (Lecomte-Tilouine 2015: 211).
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.
śrī 5 sarkāra	lit. "five-times venerable ruler"; commonly used to refer to the Śāha king (cp. Whelpton 2005: 266) and often indistinctively to his government (Lecomte-Tilouine 2015).
tolā	n. a unit of weight and standard measure for gold and silver comprising of 100 or 96 rati, 10 or 12 māsās and being 1/80th of a sera; the actual weight differed according to place and time, as weight of the Bombay or Sicca Rupee between 11.599–11.642; as standardised in 1833 in British India as 180 troy grains (11.663 8038 grams).
uprānta	var. uprāṃta, ūprāṃnta, ūprā̃nta, prāṃta; also yathocita uprānta; conj. after that, besides, in addition to, hereafter. In earlier prose and official documents, this word marked the beginning of a text or paragraph. It has no equivalent in English (Clark 1989: 231). In some (mostly Rāṇā period?) documents, it takes the form of yathocita uprānta.

Bibliography

Fezas, Jean. 2000. Le Code Népalais (AIN) de 1853: Tome I Introduction Et Texte (Chapitres 1-86). Torino: Comitato per la Pubblicazione del Corpus Juris Sanscriticum.