Documenta Nepalica

Documents on the History of Religion and Law of Pre-modern Nepal
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A receipt from the Patan Tahabila acknowledging payment of a fine by five headmen of Pācapārvā (VS 1913)

ID: Tsum_0001_0032


Edited and translated by Nadine Plachta and Rajendra Shakya
Created: 2017-05-19; Last modified: 2021-12-15
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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, . Published by the courtesy of the Nile Labrang, Tsum. The copyright of the facsimile remains with Nadine Plachta. 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 CCby-SA.

Abstract

This receipt was issued by Māhānaṃda Pādhyā and Balabīra Thāpā, two office attendant of the Patan account office (tahabila), to five headmen of Pācapārvā. It records the payment of an outstanding fine for not turning a deserter from the Tibetan army back over to it. The officials state that they received a sum of 146 rupees, which had remained after the headmen had deposited only part of the fine stipulated in an earlier order.



Diplomatic edition

[1r]

1श्री­१­

1श्री­५­जनरल­

1X

1X

1स्वस्ति­श्री­पाटं­तहवील्‌का­सिपाहि­माहानंद­पाध्या­∙वलवीर­थापा­
2आगे­∙नीमाटस्यां­भोट्यालाई­पक्री­भोटका­फौजमा­शुंपि­दिन­नजां
3न्याका­कुरामा­डंड­केरौमा­¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯साहेवका­हजुमा­वुझाई­वां
4कि­रह्याका­तमशुकि­रुपैय़ा­य़क­सय़­छयालीस्‌­१४६­पांचपार्वा
5को­घनसोम्‌­छाङ­डुन्‌डुप­दोर्जे­∙फुन्जो­नोर्वु­∙व़ाङज्यू­नाम्‌गाम्‌­ई­पा
6चजना­हस्ते­हामि­दुई­जनाले­सनद्‌­वमोजिम­वुझि­लिञ्यू­भरपाई­ले
7षिदिञ्यू­इति­सम्वत्‌­१९१३­साल­मिति­श्राव़न­वदि­१­रोज­६­शुभ्म्‌­¯¯¯¯

Translation

[1r]

Śrī 1

Śrī 5 General

Hail! Attendants (sipāhī) of Śrī Patan accounting office (tahabila) Māhānaṃda Pādhyā [and] Balabīra Thāpā.

Āge: After they paid to [Śrī 5 General] 1 sāheba in Kerung the fine [that was imposed on the five headmen of Pāṃcapārvā2 ] for not apprehending Nīmāṭasyaṃ Bhoṭyā 3 and handing him over to the Bhoṭa army, we (i.e. Māhānaṃda Pādhyā and Balavīra Thāpā) received thė remaining amount of one hundred and forty-six rupees, Rs 146, [mentioned in the] tamasuka, [and] in accordance with the sanada, from the following five ghanasoms4 : Chāṅa Ḍunḍupa, Dorje Phunjo, Norbu, Vāṅjyū and Nāmgām from Pāṃcapārvā. [We] have issued a receipt [for the same].

Friday, the 1st of the dark fortnight of Śrāvaṇa in the [Vikrama] era year 1913 (1856 CE). Auspiciousness.


Commentary

There is reason to assume that this document, written during the early reign of Jaṅga Bahādura Rāṇā (1846–1877), is a copy, as it does not bear any seal. It does contain, however, several interesting features.

Below the invocatio, it bears the inscription 'Śrī 5 Janarala'. This is confusing, because Śrī 5 usually is a title reserved for members of the Śāha family. Further on in the text this expression is followed by janarala sāheba. Sāheba is commonly used for the crown prince. But in this context cīpha sāheba refers to the commander-in-chief general (kamyāṇḍara ina cipha janarala) who, according to the Rāṇā Roll of Succession, was the next younger brother in line to serve as prime minister.

It was Jaṅga Bahādura who first held the title Śrī 3 Mahārājā. It was bestowed on him through a lālamohara by King Surendra in 1856, who subsequently made him Mahārāja of Kaski and Lamjung. Jaṅga Bahādura proceeded to gain absolute power over the kingdom, reducing the Śāha monarch to a figurehead and making the prime minister and other government positions hereditary (Agrawal 1976: 10).

Later on the title mukhtiyāra, which was used to refer to the prime minister during the Śāha dynasty, was bestowed upon the cīpha sāheba, the commander-in-chief, who headed the executive government and the military (Agrawal 1976: 32).

The commander-in-chief general was the second position within the governing hierarchy of the state, just below Śrī 3 Mahārājā. Male members of the Rāṇā family were in queue, well defined on the basis of agnatic seniority, to occupy the top positions. Most of them were brothers of Jaṅga Bahādura, followed by his sons.

The present document was written almost at the same time as Jaṅga Bahādura had the title Śrī 3 Mahārājā of Lamjung and Kaski conferred upon him.

Notes

1. Inserted from the space above. [⇑]

2. Pācapārvā commonly is the term Nepalese government officials used to describe Upper Tsum. It is the direct Nepalese translation of Tibetan tsho nga (lit. "five sectors"). Together with the eight sectors of Lower Tsum, the area was given the name Syāra. [⇑]

3. The standard form of the name of the person would have been Nyima Tashi (Tib. nyi ma bkra shis, Ne. Nimā Ṭāśī). [⇑]

4. The term ghanasom/ghanasuṃ is a deviation of the word ganchen (Tib. rgan chen) which in the local vernacular describes the various headman of one of Tsum. It is worth noting that historically Upper and Lower Tsum were split up into thirteen administrative sectors, called tsho (Tib. tsho). In this scheme, the villages of the upper valley were grouped into a cluster of five sectors. Chokhang, Paro, and Dzong were collectively named Drowasum. Together, the villages of Ngagyu, Leru, Ngak, and Burji represented another sector, as did Lar, Phurbe, and Pangdun, which were referred to as Baling. Located at the far end of the valley, Chule and Nile villages figured as the last two sectors. In Lower Tsum, 13 settlements were subdivided into a total of eight sectors, so that the entire geographical region went by the name tsum tsho bcu gsum, i.e. the 13 sectors of Tsum. Neither the lower nor upper valley sections were under a common superordinate ruler. Instead assemblies, called gangye (Tib. rgan rgya), had the final say over community affairs in the individual sectors. They were convened by a headman, called ganchen, and included another four persons, namely an executive assistant (shera) and three members (Tib. las 'dzin) who, in most villages if not in all, were appointed under an annually rotating system that included all households by turn. [⇑]