Documenta Nepalica

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

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A purjī from Ḍaḍu Lāmā summoning jimmāvāla of Chokaṃ to assemble the salt traders that have to pay customs duties for trading (1951 VS)

ID: Tsum_0001_0010

Edited and translated by Nadine Plachta and Rajendra Shakya
Created: 2018-03-10; Last modified: 2024-01-17
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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, 2018. 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

Abstract

This purjī from Jimmāvāla Ḍaḍu Lāmā summons the jimmāvāla from Chokaṃ village to assemble the salt traders from all villages to hand over the transaction details of the salt trade and pay the duties.

Diplomatic edition

[1r]

[Unknown seal]

1स्वस्तिश्रीजीम्वव़ाल्‌डडुलामाकस्यछोकंजीम्वाव़ा
2ल्‌केपुर्जिउप्रन्तनुंन्‌कोमसुलहिसफागर्नाला
3ईसिर्तुवस्‌कोभंन्‌सरिरडीठापल्‌टेन्‌रहमि
4आउछुतिमिहेरुगाउगाउकोमुषिय़ागेपु
5गाउल्याज्मगरिवस्‌नुहमिलाईवस्‌वस्‌षा
6र्न्यासमेत्‌तय़रगरअ[?]माकोडकरेकोनुं
7कस्‌कस्‌[?][?]रिदगरिलीय़ेहिसप्‌गरिभंसर
8वुझौउनुपरेसोवुझिमनीस्‌ज्मगरा५१साल
9ज्य्ठेवदि११रोज४सुभ्म्¯¯¯ ¯¯¯ ¯¯¯ ¯¯¯ ¯¯¯ ¯¯¯ ¯¯¯ ¯¯¯

Translation

[1r]

Hail! A purjī by Jimmāvāla Ḍaḍu Lāmā to the jimmāvāla of Chokaṃ.

Uprānta: I, [along with] the customs officer Bhansārī 1 and Ḍiṭṭhā Palṭen of Sirtubas 2 , are coming for settling the accounts of the [customs] charges of salt [transactions]. All of you, [including] the mukhiyā[s], the gepus3 , and the villagers be assembled [there]. Also arrange for our accommodation and food. Whoever has purchased the salt of ḍakare4 …5 will have to make the calculation [of the transaction] and pay the customs tax. Be informed of this and assemble the men [accordingly].

Wednesday, the 11th of the dark fortnight of the [Vikrama era] year [19]51 (1894 CE). Auspiciousness.

Commentary

This document is issued by Ḍaḍu Lāmā to the jimmāvāla of Chokaṃ village in Upper Tsum. The language in which the document is written is consists of a very colloquial Nepali. This probably comes from the usage of Nepali words by ethnic Tibetans. The document also reveals the fact that taxes on salt transactions were not collected at the time of the transaction itself. Rather, the traders were gathered at a certain place, where they had to pay the taxes in the presence of the jimmāvāla.

Notes

1. Bhansārīs were in charge of the minting of coins. Among them were Bhoṭa-bhansārī, who also exercised judicial authority over Nepali merchants in Tibet (Regmi 1970: 100), and the nūna-bhansārī, who were appointed to collect taxes on salt imported from Tibet (Regmi 1970: 223). The officer mentioned here was probably a nūna-bhansārī. [⇑]

2. This place is currently known as Sirdibas. It was a village development committee (VDC) in Gorkha district, but became part of the Chum Nubri Rural Municipality in 2017. [⇑]

3. Meaning is unclear. [⇑]

4. Meaning is unclear. [⇑]

5. Unreadable text in the original. [⇑]

Glossary

Word	Notes
bhansārī	n. costums officer appointed to the bhansāra.
ḍiṭṭhā	var. ḍīṭṭhā, ḍiṭhā; a civil servant ranking above a mukhiyā and lower than a subbā (cf. Stiller 1981: 379). According to Edwards 1975: 107, ḍiṭṭhās originally had been the judges who presided over the courts in Kathmandu but later could serve in a number of other offices (such as the kausī, the hāttīsāra or the sadara daphtarakhānā; see also Kumar 1967: 165; M.C. Regmi 1978: 226). The Mulukī Ain distinguishes three categories of the ḍiṭṭhās; the jaṅgī kote ḍiṭṭhā (probably, combatant personnel), the lājimā ḍiṭṭhā and the ḍiṭṭhā in charge of Elephant or horse stable or cowshed (MA-54.31.11).
jimmāvāla	var. jimavāla, jimmavāla, jimvāla; n. a chief contractor (ṭhekedāra) who, before the introduction of the land administration, collected revenues from the lands in the hill region and submitted them to the government (Parājulī et al. 1995: s.v. jimmāvāla).
mukhiyā	var. mukhīyā, muṣiyā, muṣīyā; n. a designation for an administrative post used at the local, district and central level. At the local level mukhiyās functioned as village headmen and revenue functionaries (Pant and Pierce 1989: 93; M.R. Pant 2002: 134; cf. M.C. Regmi 1988: 269). District headmen were also called mukhiyās. In the central administration, mukhiyās were writers who kept accounts or supervised officials of lower ranks (Edwards 1975: 107 ; cf. M.C. Regmi 1978: 228 ; M.C. Regmi 1978: 862 ; Kumar 1967: 16).
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.
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

Regmi, Mahesh C. 1970. "A Glossary of Revenue, Administrative and Other Terms Occuring in Nepali Historical Documents." Regmi Research Series 2 (4-9, 11-12): 100, 124-125, 148-150, 173-175, 198-200.