Documenta Nepalica

Documents on the History of Religion and Law of Pre-modern Nepal
Version with DOI and citation guidelines Editorial Principles

A copy of a lālamohara from King Rājendra appointing Rāmacandra Arjyāla as priest at Gorkhā's Upallokoṭa (VS 1873)

ID: K_0013_0022B


Edited and translated by Astrid Zotter
Created: 2018-07-30; Last modified: 2023-02-20
For the metadata of the document, click here

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 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 CCby-SA.

Abstract

This copy of a lālamohara from the king, who according to the date must have been Rājendra, appoints Rāmacandra Arjyāla to the office of priest (purohityāī̃) for the Dasaĩ rituals at Gorkhā's Upallokoṭa, replacing Vaijanātha Arjyāla.



Diplomatic edition

[1r]

1७०­नं­
2पो­१३­पा­५७­सी­७६४­
3प्रोहीताई­
4भं­नौ­हर्ष­
5हे­नौ­राम­

1आगे­रामचन्द्र­अर्ज्यालके­वैजनाथ­अर्ज्यालको­षाएल­गो
2र्षा­ऊपल्लाकोट्‌को­प्रोहीताई­•तस्को­जागीर­•षेत­मुरी­७०­लगापा
3तसमेत­वक्स्यौं­परापुर्वका­रीतसंग­दसै­चलाई­गुठ­जानी­भोग्‍य­
4गर­ईती­सम्वत­१८७३­साल­माघ­सुदी­१३­रोज­६­शु­¯¯¯¯

Translation

[1r]

Number 701

Bundle (po[kā]) 13, pā 57, sī 7642

[Concerning a] purohityāī̃3

The one who said [was] the nau[sindā]Harṣa

The one who watched [was] the nau[sindā]Rāma4

Āge: To Rāmacandra Arjyāla

We [herewith] confer [upon you] Vaijanātha Arjyāla's holdings: the office of priest (prohītāī) at Gorkhā's Upallokoṭa (text: Ūpallākoṭ) [and] an emolument (jāgira) [of] 70 muris of irrigated land (kheta) together with the surrounding land (lagāpāta). Perform the Dasaĩ [rituals] according to what has been traditionally established and, considering the guṭha [as yours] enjoy it.

Friday, the 13th of the bright fortnight of the month of Māgha, in the [Vikrama] era year 1873 (1817 CE).5 Auspiciousness.6


Commentary

This document formally fills the vacant office of the priest responsible for conducting the Dasaĩ rituals at Gorkhā's Upallokoṭa. This post at the "upper fort" on a hilltop above the royal palace seems to have been one reassigned fairly regularly to new persons, or else rotated among a fixed group. Thus one Vaijanātha Josī, probably the same person who is called Vaijanātha Arjyāla in the present document, had been appointed in VS 1862 (1805 CE) (see K_0029_0044A for the appointment document issued to him, and K_0029_0044B for one issued to officials ordered to provide him with necessary materials). In VS 1864 (1807 CE) Narmaḍeśvara Jaisī Arjyāla was appointed to take over Vaijanātha Arjyāla's duties (K_0029_0025A), in the month of Bhādra of VS 1873 (August 1816), roughly half a year before the present document, duties were shifted from Rāmacandra Arjyāla to Vaijanātha Arjyāla and Vetu Arjyāla (K_0013_0020E) and in the present document back to Rāmacandra. This very short tenure of under half a year may have been due to the passing away of King Gīrvāṇayuddha in November 1816, but maybe biannual rotation was normal for the post in question.

Notes

1. This number refers to the place of the document in the government ledger, whose entries were microfilmed sequentially by the NGMPP from K_0013_0001 (front cover and note) up to K_0014_0018 (index and back cover). According to a note on the first page of the bound material archived as BK 8 the "Hill Administration Department" sent these copies of lālamoharas to the "Guṭhī" in VS 2001 (CE 1944). Due to the low quality of the photographic reproduction of this note, this information, gleaned from the NGMPP catalogue card, cannot be verified on the basis of the original material. The assemblage covers the main body (i.e. excluding the initial and final formalities) of 230 royal documents from the period VS 1868–1895 that pertain to guṭhī affairs. [⇑]

2. While the first abbreviation, po, probably stands for pokā ("bundle") it remains unclear what words the following pā and sī are abbreviations of. That these indeed are abbreviations is clear from preceding entries, where the same syllables are followed by a dot. [⇑]

3. The documents seem to have been given a variety of keywords for identification purposes during the copying and archiving process. Preceding documents bear, for example, the word pūjārī in the corresponding place (see K_0013_0020B and K_0013_0020C). [⇑]

4. These two lines in the left margin state the names of the clerks involved in copying the documents or in checking whether copies were true to originals (see note 3 in K_0015_0022B). [⇑]

5. The date corresponds to 31 January 1817. Thus the reigning king in whose name the original lālamohara must have been issued was King Rājendra. [⇑]

6. The syllable śu abbreviating the standard śubham is hardly legible in this place and seamlessly blends into the horizontal stroke used to fill the rest of the line. [⇑]