Published by Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities: Documents on the History of Religion and Law of Pre-modern Nepal, Heidelberg, Germany, 2026. 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.
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Commentary

This brief, undated epistolary document marks a striking departure from the other letters in this trans-Himalayan trade archive operated by the daśanāmī ascetics of the Kathmandu Valley. While the correspondence from Lhasa, Shigatse, and Sakya deals with bulk commodity consignments (musk, corals, brocades, gold), accounting disputes, and transit blockades, this note functions essentially as an informal letter of credit (huṇḍī) or traveler’s guarantee.2 Dhanañjaya acts as a financial guarantor for Candavāna Thāpā, authorizing Rāya Bhāratī to advance travel funds against Dhanañjaya’s promise of local reimbursement (“whatever money you advance to him, I shall reimburse here”). Candavāna Thāpā likely carried this letter directly from Tibet to hand it over in person to Rāya Bhāratī in Patan. The document demonstrates that the daśanāmī network did not merely mobilize mercantile capital across the Himalayas, but also functioned as an inter-regional banking and remittance web capable of honoring personal credit for long-distance mobility.

Furthermore, while every other dispatch in this collection is oriented northward across the passes into Tibet (Tingri, Lhatse, Shigatse, Sakya, Lhasa), this letter redirects attention southward toward the sacred and commercial hub of Kashi (Varanasi). Kashi served as the ultimate epicenter of monastic governance, pilgrimage, and mercantile credit networks for the daśanāmīsaṃnyāsīs.3 The mention of a Thāpā—who, from the context, appears to have served as an employee or agent attached to the trading house in Tibet—embarking on this journey illustrates how lay travelers and local functionaries utilized monastic banking channels to secure safe travel finance along bandit-prone southern routes. The opening formula, “Dhanaṃjayayā bhākhāna” (“in the words of Dhanañjaya”), indicates that the letter served as an open credential carried by Candavāna Thāpā himself, functioning as an authenticating token to be presented at Rāya Bhāratī’s maṭha in Patan. As neither Dhanañjaya nor Candavāna appear in any other document, it is difficult to estimate the year this note was written. Since the note is addressed to Rāya Bhāratī, it is likely that it was written around the same time (NS 852/1732 CE – NS 879/1759 CE) the other documents were written.

Linguistically, the document is composed in the Bhaktapur dialect of Classical Nepālabhāṣā, characterized by the preservation of long ā where the standard dialects of Patan and Kathmandu employ short a. Diagnostic examples include:

• vāne (to go; cf. standard/Patan vane, Bhaktapur vāne)

• rā (road/path; cf. standard lã, Bhaktapur lā̃)

• thanā (here; cf. standard thana, Bhaktapur thanā)

These phonological markers suggest that the scribe or author, Dhanañjaya, hailed from Bhaktapur. Candavāna Thāpā, on the other hand, was likely a Thāpā Śreṣṭha from Thimi in Bhaktapur. Within the Newar Śreṣṭha hierarchy, the Thāpās represent a distinct sub-caste traditionally understood as palace elders (thāypā). Originally settled in the precinct immediately behind the royal palace (lāykū) of Thimi, their descendants predominantly reside today in Bāhākhā Bajāra (Capalichẽ Śreṣṭha NS 1144: 36).

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Notes