Check the image paths!
NHDP_0001_0147
Version with DOI and citation guidelines Editorial Principles

An inscription recording the manufacture of a silver pot for the bathing ceremony of Buṅgadyaḥ (NS 971)

ID: NHDP_0001_0147


Edited and translated by Simon Cubelic in collaboration with Rabi Acharya and Pabitra Bajracharya
Created: 2023-02-16; Last modified: 2023-08-29
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, 2023. The image(s) on which this edition is based on is/are published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY-SA 4.0) and the copyright lies with NHDP. 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 inscription, engraved on the lip of a silver vessel for the bathing ceremony of Buṅgadyaḥ records the vessel's date of manufacture, the officials who authorized it, the source of its funding and the amount of silver required for its production.


Diplomatic edition

[1r]

1⟅शुभ­॥सम्वत­९७१­म्ति­चैत्र­शुदि­१५­रोज­थ्वकुन्हु­श्री­३­करूनामयया­
2न्हओन­स्नानयात­दिट्ठा­धिज­नालां­ङाषाचु­इषालुषु­विस्यत­मार्फत्­॥वालि­
3विक्रिया­ दामन­थ्व­ओहया­द्वावल­दयका­जुरो­॥तुक­ओह­तोला­३­जर्ति­समे
4त­ओह­तोला­२३६­शुभ­॥

Translation

[1r]

Auspiciousness. On the 15th of the bright fortnight of Caitra in the [Nepāla era] year 971—on that day—this silver wash pot (text: dvāvala)1 for the bath of the thrice glorious Karuṇāmaya was made with the approval (mārphat) of DiṭṭhāDhija Nālāṃ and the biseṭs of Ṅākhācu and Ikhālukhu with money from the sale of the harvest. Including a loss of 3 tolās of silver [during the production process], [a total of] 236 tolās of silver [were] required. Auspiciousness.


Commentary

This object is one of several silver vessels used in the context of the bathing ceremony (New. naḥvaṃ, Skt. mahāsnāna) of Buṅgadyaḥ which takes place on the first day of the dark fortnight of Vaiśākha (Locke 1980, 262–65; Owens 1989, 201–04). One is the so-called brahmakõ (Skt. jīvaghaṭa), a jar into which, during the kalaśapūjā at Taḥ Bāhāḥ, the spirit of the deity is transferred while the image is being brought to Lagankhel for bathing (see NHDP_0001_0139). Others are four small silver pots into which nāgas are invoked during the same pūjā (Owens 1989, 201). They are brought to the bathing platform at Lagankhel by Nyekhus. From these silver pots water to which pañcāmṛta is added is poured on the image. The pot on which this inscription is engraved is placed at the bottom of the image as a receptacle for some of the bath water. The Pānjus and Nyekhus on the platform use this water to sprinkle on spectators of the ritual as a form of blessing (Owens 1989, 202). An edition of this inscription is published in Koirālā VS 2052, 64.


Notes

1. See Mālī NS 1130 s. v. dvābātā. []