Documenta Nepalica

Documents on the History of Religion and Law of Pre-modern Nepal
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A rukkā from King Rājendra re the provision of a sacrificial buffalo (VS 1870)

ID: PN_0016_0004


Edited and translated by Astrid Zotter
Created: 2020-07-13; Last modified: 2020-09-27
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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, 2020. 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 document orders the amālidāra of Kuṭūvāla village to buy a buffalo needed for the Dasaĩ festival and to have it brought to Kathmandu.



Diplomatic edition

[1r]

1श्री­दुर्गा\­

1⟪4.­⟫

[Royal seal]

1स्वस्ति­श्रीमन्महाराजाधिराजकस्य­रुक्का­¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯
2आगे­कुटूव़ाल­गाऊका­अमालिदारप्रती­मामुलि­दसैका­रांगा­षरिद­गर्नाला
3ई­रुपैया­२­पठायाको­छ­वाढेय़ा­चोषो­ठूलो­षुन­केहि­नभय़ाको­रागा­१­स
4प्तमीका­दिन­काठमाडौ­ईट्टाचपली­पुर्‍याई­दे­•जो­पुर्‍यावैन­सो­अपस
5रिय़ा­हौला­ईती­सम्वत­१८७०­साल­मीती­भादौ­वदि­८­•रोज­६­शुभम्­

Translation

[1r]

Śrī Durgā

41

[Royal seal]

Hail! [This is] an executive order (rukkā) of the supreme king of great kings.

Āge: to the amālidāra of Kuṭūvāla village

Rupees 2 have been sent [herewith] in order to buy the usual buffaloes2 [needed as sacrificial animals] for the Dasaĩ festival. Bring 1 good, pure, big buffalo without any deficiencies on the saptamī day (i.e. the seventh of the bright half of Āśvina) to Kathmandu, [to] the Iṭṭācapalī3 . He who does not bring [it] will be [considered as] a rebel (apsariyā).

Saturday, the 8th of the dark fortnight of Bhādra of the [Vikrama] era year 1870 (1813 CE). Auspiciousness.


Commentary

This royal order concerns the procurement of buffaloes needed as sacrificial animals during the Dasaĩ festival. Similar documents are extant for other years in the early Śāha period. In all of them the amālidāras (or amālīs) of certain places were ordered to buy and bring buffaloes, invariably characterized as "pure" (cokho), "big" (ṭhūlo) and "without deficiencies" (khuna kehi na bhayāko or nikhuna), often also as "good" (baḍhiyā):

In VS 1853 (1796 CE) such orders went out to the amālidāras of 136 villages to send altogether 193 buffaloes (Regmi 1985: 150; Regmi Research Collection 23, pp. 53–56). Among these, a village named Kaṭuvāla village required to supply one buffalo is perhaps the Kuṭūvāla village of the present document. According to the RRC copy of that earlier text, the buffaloes were to be delivered on the 16th day4 of Āśvina to the "palace, the Iṭācapalī" (aghikā rīta lina niṣuna coṣā ṭhulā rāgo goṭā 1 kharida garī asaujakā dina 16 jā̃dā darvāra īṭācapalī lyāī puryāva sarvathā; E_2430_0002). In VS 1859 (1802 CE) a rukkā— now part of the "Hodgson Papers" (Vol. 55, item 20, fol. 116; http://catalogue2.socanth.cam.ac.uk:8080/exist/servlet/db/Hodgson/hodgson.xq)—ordered the amālidāra of Kabilāsapura, in words almost identical with the present document, to buy and bring a buffalo to Nuvakoṭa on saptamī and deliver it to the dvāre there, adding that it should be brought in accordance with the same order annually (prativarṣa yesai bamojima lyāūnu). In VS 1887 (1830 CE) the āmāli of Simras was ordered to deliver a buffalo"to the Itachapli (office) on Aswin Sudi 2" (Regmi 1975: 51; RRC 44, pp. 67–685 )

Notes

1. This Arabic numeral by a second hand was probably added when documents were either sorted or, more likely, when they were microfilmed. The count starts with 1 in the document microfilmed as NGMPP PN 16/1 and continues up to 9 in PN 16/9. The documents in this series come from the same holder, Madana Bhaṭṭa. [⇑]

2. The use of the plural (dasaikā rāgā) may be due to the fact that this sentence was a kind of standard expression in documents pertaining to the acquisition of sacrificial buffaloes, regardless of their real number, which in each case would only be stipulated in the next sentence. It is found in parallel documents (dasaikā rāgākā mola rupaiyā 2 paṭhāī diyāko cha; E_2430_0002). [⇑]

3. The Iṭācapalī was one of the four central courts (cāra adālata). At least in the early Śāha period it seems to not only have had a judicial function, namely deciding questions of commensal relations and other caste-related issues (see Regmi 1971: 219–220 for a document issued in VS 1844), but also to have been an office responsible for collecting resources delivered to Kathmandu and organizing forced labour. For example, apart from being the regular hub for buffaloes procured for Dasaĩ, it was where people were ordered to be sent with their tools for jhārā labour when a temple for Jagannātha was being constructed in VS 1853 (1796 CE) when a temple for Jagannātha was constructed in VS 1853 (1796 CE) (Regmi 1988: 106–108). The court must have been located at or near the Hanumandhokā palace, at least in the early period. G. Vajrācārya lists it as one of the names used to refer to particular wings of the palace and has published a document dated VS 1887 (1830 CE) where "Iṭācapāli" seemingly refers to a place within or in the immediate vicinity of the palace (Vajrācārya VS 2033: 129, 272). The order to deliver a buffalo to the darbāra iṭācapalī given in one of the parallel documents (see Commentary) further supports this. The Iṭācapalī at Hanumāndhokā either must have disappeared at some point in history due to building alterations or—if the wing still exists—at least its name disappeared following the demise of the institution. [⇑]

4. Here, "the 16th day" was probably an informal way to denote the first of the bright half of Āśvina. [⇑]

5. As the 44th volume of the Regmi Research Collection was unavailable, in this case the original text could not be inspected. [⇑]