Documenta Nepalica

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

Version with DOI and citation guidelines

Copy of a purjī from the Thāpāthalī Guṭhī Bandobasta Aḍḍā to Biseṭa Diṭṭhā Jotīrāja ordering the termination of haṇḍīs for two Udāsī ascetics at Kālamocanaghāṭa (VS 1943)

ID: K_0583_0050

Edited and translated by Christof Zotter
Created: 2024-10-15; Last modified: 2024-12-05
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, 2024. 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

Abstract

In the purjī of which the present document is a copy, the Thāpāthalī Guṭhī Bandobasta Aḍḍā instructs Biseṭa Diṭṭhā Jotīrāja to terminate the daily food supplies (sīdhā haṇḍā) of two named ascetics who formerly stayed in the Udāsī akhāḍā of Mahanta Mādhaudāsa at Kālamocanaghāṭa.

Diplomatic edition

[1r]

1श्री\

1⟪3⟫

1ह्स्तेविसेट्‌दिठाजोतिराज

1स्वस्तिश्रीथापाथलीगुठीवन्दोवस्तअडाकस्यविसेट्‌डिट्ठाजोतीराजकेपुर्जिउप्रान्तथापाथली
2कालमोचनघाट्‌उदासिअषडाकामहन्तमाधौदासकाअषडामारहेका•तपसिलका
3साधुजना२ले४३सालचैत्रसुदी१३रोज४देषिअषडाछोडीजादा•निजहरूलाईठे
4कीयाकोसीधाहंडा२सोगयाकामितिदेषिवंदभयाकोछ•वंदगर्न्याकामगर¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
5तपसिल

[table]

	मस्तराम१कोसीधाहंडा¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯	१
	कृपाराम१कोसीधाहंडा•¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯	१
		२

6इतिसम्वत्‌१९४३सालमितिचैत्रसुदी१३रोज४शुभ्म्‌¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

Translation

[Invocatio:]

Śrī

[In the left margin:]

Through (haste) Biseṭa Diṭṭhā Jotirāja

[Main text:]

Hail! [This is] a purjī from the Thāpāthalī (text: Thāpāthali) Guṭhī Bandobasta Aḍḍā to Biseṭa Diṭṭhā Jotīrāja.

Uprānta: Since the 2 sādhus in the details [below], who had been living in the akhāḍā of Mahanta Mādhaudāsa of the Udāsīakhāḍā at Kālamocanaghāṭa, Thāpāthalī, left the akhāḍā Wednesday, the 13th of the bright half of Caitra in the [Vikrama] era year [19]432 , the 2 daily food supplies (sīdhā haṇḍā 3 ) alloted for the said persons have stopped as of that date they left. Perform the task of terminating [these food supplies].

Details (tapasila):

[table1]

	daily food supply (sīdhā haṃḍā) of Mastarāma 1	1
	daily food supply (sīdhā haṃḍā) of Kṛpārāma 1	1
		2

Wednesday, the 13th of the bright half of Caitra in the [Vikrama] era year 1943 (1886 CE). 4 Auspiciousness.

Notes

1. For this running number, see K_0583_0048 note 1. [⇑]

2. For this date, see note 3. [⇑]

3. It seems that the scribe first wrote haṃḍī (for haṇḍī, the more common term for "alms") but changed it to haṃḍā, the form used in the following tapasila. [⇑]

4. According to Michio Yano's online pañcāṅga (https://www.cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp/~yanom/pancanga/) the date corresponds to 17 April 1886, which was a Saturday. However, other documents filmed by the NGMPP confirm that the said date (VS 1943 Caitra sudī 13) was indeed a Wednesday in Nepal (see e.g. K_0175_0043 to K_0175_0047). Similar differences between Yano's pañcāṅga and the Nepalese calendar system are also found for other dates of this fortnight, e.g. Caitra sudī 1 (K_0080_0028A: Friday, Yano: Monday) or Caitra sudī 11 (K_0583_0049: Monday, Yano: Thursday) etc. [⇑]

Glossary

Word	Notes
akhāḍā	[fr. S. akṣavāṭa-] var. akhaḍā. n. lit. "wrestling ground", military station of ascetics; organised group of fighting ascetics. akhāḍās are found e.g. in the traditions of the Śaiva Daśanāmī, the Vaiṣṇava Vairāgī and the Sikh affiliated Udāsī (Clark 2012).
biseṭa diṭṭhā	[biseṭa + diṭṭhā] var. viseṭ diṭhā; a post related to management and accountancy of temples and akhāḍās in the Thāpāthalī area.
Guṭhī Bandobasta Aḍḍā	var. Guṭhī Bandobasta Aḍā, Guṭhi Bandobasta Aḍā; n. "Guthi Administration Office", office responsible for the management of guṭhīs; established under Jaṅga Bahādura Rāṇā in 1852-1853 as replacement of the former Guṭhī Kacaharī. Its foundation marks the change from the guṭhīyāri system of the guṭhī management to the contractor based system; remained the central office to coordinate all offices subsequently established for handling different aspects of guṭhī management, including the Guṭhī Kharca Aḍḍā and others. Separate Guṭhī Bandobasta Aḍḍās managed the śrī 5 sarkāra guṭhīs and the śrī 3 sarkāra guṭhīs (cf. M.C. Regmi 1978: 713-715).
haṇḍā	var. haṃḍā; n. a large pot made of metal or clay; cauldron. Used in some documents instead of haṇḍī (alms).
haṇḍī	[H.] var. haṇḍi; 1) n. an earthen pot. 2) an earthen pot to give alms mainly regularly by the government or other institution to ascetics, students, poor people etc. 3) alms regularly given by the government or another institution to ascetics, student etc., consisting of a “quantity of rice, lentils, vegetables, spices, salt, etc., given as a dole for a full meal.“ (M.C. Regmi 1978: 859)
haste	[fr. S. hasta] adv. care of; through;
mahanta	[S.] var. mahaṃta; n. the temporal and spiritual head of a centre (āśrama, maṭha, sthāna, akhāḍā) or wandering group (khālsā) of an ascetic order (cf. Burghart 1976: 100); an abbot.
pañcāṅga	[S.] n. lit. "having five limbs"; almanach, calender listing for each solar day the five calendric parameters of lunar day (tithi), weekday (vāra), lunar mansion (nakṣatra), yoga and karaṇa.
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.
sādhu	[S.] n. lit. "the good one", a holy man, an ascetic; a righteous person. See also sādhu santa
sidhā	n. 1) uncooked food. 2) a plate of uncooked rice, lentils, vegetables, salt, turmeric powder and ghee, etc. given to a Brahmin priest by his patron during a ritual or sacrifice. 3) food provision regularly given by the government or another institution to servants, poor people, ascetics, students, prisoners etc., consisting mainly of a “quantity of rice, lentils, vegetables, spices, salt, etc., given as a dole for a full meal.“ (M.C. Regmi 1978: 859)
śrī	[S.] n. word of blessing, can be used as apprecatio, in which case it means 'good fortune' (Pant and Pierce 1989: 12), can be used as a prefix to names of persons and gods, in which case it means 'venerable' or 'glorious' respectively. The number of śrīs used varies, depending on context.
tapasila	[fr. A.] var. tapasīl, tapasīlā, tapsīl; n. particulars, details; can be a self-sustained document, but is more often appended as a list after the narratio of documents.
udāsī	[S. udāsin-, lit. "one who is detached, indifferent"] var. udāsi; n. 1) ascetic affiliated to the Sikh tradition.
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.