Documenta Nepalica

Commentary

In this note, the Guṭhī Bandobasta Aḍḍā requests information from an office under it, the Guṭhī Kharca Aḍḍā, regarding expenses for serving a festive meal at a public kitchen on the occasion of the autumnal Dasaĩ. It cites an order from the prime minister (sanada) to stop serving meat on this occasion. This order is the next one filed in the same batch of documents (K_0351_0072). From it, it is apparent that the public kitchen in question was that of Lakṣmeśvara. This pākaśālā was probably attached to the Lakṣmeśvaramahādeva temple on the banks of the Bāgmatī at Ṭeku. The temple goes back to an endowment by the third eldest royal bhitrenī of King Raṇabahādura on 19 April 1812.9 It is unknown whether the feeding of poor people was part of the original plan of this initial endowment. There is evidence in any event for the establishment of a separate guṭhī attached to the temple with the sole purpose of feeding people, made by King Rājendra on Saturday, 23 December 1843 (2nd of the bright fortnight of Pauṣa in VS 1900), following a series of saṃkalpas for the dedication of the designated plots of guṭhī land performed by members of the royal family in VS 1899 and 1900 (extant copy of a ">lālamohara, K_0018_0049). In this charter, the endowment is called a guṭhī for sadābarta. It is stipulated that 17 persons be fed on a daily basis and 360 on the new moon day of Phālguna, i.e. on the day following the Śivarātri festival. Basic food items covered by the regular budget included rice, dāla, salt, ghee, oil and turmeric. There is no mention of a pākaśālā, only of guṭhiyāras being put in charge, including a secretary (bahidāra), a treasurer or cook (bhaṇḍārī), a tax collector (mohīnāike) and an artisan (karmī); nor are there regulations for serving a special meal during the Baḍādasaĩ, let alone one containing meat; nor a specification of what people were fed. Not only the poor but also resident mendicants, Brahmins and pilgrims to the Śivarātri festival were potential consumers of meals under the purview of a sadābartaguṭhī.

Whatever the origins of serving meat during the Baḍādasaĩ at the Lakṣmeśvara temple were, the practice probably stopped in VS 1967. As a document issued in that year shows (K_0128_0057), even if the Guṭhī Kharca Aḍḍā did fulfil the request by its superintending office and a report on the expenses incurred for serving meat was prepared by the Guṭhī Bandobasta Aḍḍā in VS 1964, actually initiating the new procedure took several years. The documents themselves give no clues as to why this was so. Was the revision of the scheme for feeding the poor during Dasaĩ part of broader administrative reforms undertaken under the prime ministership of Candra Śamśera before 1908 (Regmi 1984)? These involved, among other things, the creation of new offices and the establishment of new administrative procedures (Regmi 1976). Such large reorganizations may have delayed pending matters. If this was indeed the case, the new administrative regulations—promulgated, according to their preamble, because of "the absence of initiative in exercising available powers" and "an increase in the volume of work and delay," and having as their goal "to ensure that work is done smoothly and without any delay" (ibid.: 55–56)—seem to have had the reverse effect, at least as regards the decision about food practices at public kitchens. Possibly, however, other unknown reasons delayed implementation.

It is apparent from a set of documents pertaining to the Pūrṇeśvarapākaśālā that the festive menu of not only the Lakṣmeśvarapākaśālā was reformed during this period. For the Pūrṇeśvarapākaśālā, too, it is the case that while meat (of gelded goats and, in one instance, sheep) was served from VS 1954 (K_0614_0041) to at least VS 1962 (K_0667_0036)10 , starting in VS 1967 sweets and yoghurt were served instead (K_0488_0012), even if the purchase of meat that year had earlier been ordered by Commander-in-Chief General Bhīma Śamśera (K_0488_0009).

It can only be speculated as to why the feeding practices were changed: That it was a move towards vegetarianism does not seem very likely. Even today Dasaĩ is one of the few occasions on which meat is invariably served and eaten, even in families with an otherwise vegetarian diet. Was there a shortage of goats or a rise in the market price? That "people have been freed from the obligation to supply goats and buffaloes free of cost" (M.C. Regmi 1984: 10) is reported as being one of Candra Śamśera’s pre-1908 reform measures. Did this change in the state-monitored supply of sacrificial animals (such as he-buffaloes and he-goats) affect the supply of meat for festivals (including the meat of gelded goats)?

Notes