An inscription engraved by King Bhūpatīndra Malla on a water spout recording its replacement of a previous spout (NS 811)
ID: NHDP_0002_0001
Edited and
translated by Shyam Sundar Rajbanshi and Rajendra Shakya
in collaboration with
Subhekchhya Maharjan
Created: 2025-07-25;
Last modified: 2026-10-29
For the metadata of the document, click here
The accompanying edition, translation/synopsis and/or commentary are available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
.
Abstract
This inscription from NS 811 (1690 CE) on the spout of Lāykū Hiti at Bhaktapur's Durbar Square records the replacement of an earlier one during the reign of Bhūpatīndra Malla.Diplomatic edition
[1]
1सम्वत्1 ८११वैशाषकृष्णद्वादशीरेवतीनक्षत्रेसौभाग्ययोगवृहस्पतिवारथ्वकुन्हुश्रीश्री[2]
1भूपतीन्द्रमल्लदेवसन,थ्वइतिमङ्गलन्हपायासेनकावकोत्खालोहोयातयादिनजुरो।।Translation
On Thursday, the 12th of the dark fortnight of Vaiśākha in [Nepāla] era 811 (1690 CE), under the lunar mansion Revatī during the Saubhāgya [Nitya] Yoga, this day the twice venerated lord Bhūpatīndra Malla Deva dismantled the previous[ly installed] spout (text: itimaṅgala)2 and installed [a new one made] of kotkhālvahaṃ (text: kotkhāloho).
Commentary
When Bhūpatīndra Malla (r. 1696-1722 CE) carried out the replacement of the previously installed water spout with a new one made from a superior quality stone called kotkhālvahaṃ, he was still only a prince, as the lack of the honorific, jaya before his name in the inscription implies. Inscriptions installed during his reign bears that honorific.
Interestingly, Bhūpatīndra Malla memorializes a new rest house and water spout in Thimi on the same day, as recorded in an inscription installed in the rest house, there referred to as Dathuphale.3 The inscription is in Sanskrit, and states that Bhūpatīndra Malla built both the rest house and water spout in accordance with his father King Jitāmitra Malla’s instructions (Pauḍela 2065: 82).
Kotkhā, the stone used for making the new spout, was considered excellent for crafting stone statues. Such stone, obtainable in the southern region of the valley, was probably used in the Licchavi period as well, as the stone used for crafting the Buḍhānīlakaṇṭha Nārāyaṇa statue bears similarities to that of objects described as made of kotkhā (D. Vajrācārya VS 2030: 446). Jitāmitra Malla, Bhūpatīndra’s father, is also known to have used such stone, made available by Patan’s King Śrīnivāsa Malla, to renovate the Bhaktapur palace’s Kumārī Coka in NS 797 (1677 CE) (Tevārī et al. VS 2019, pp. 24-25).
The year NS 811, according to the widely accepted method of conversion by adding 879/880 to the Nepāla era, corresponds to the period from Kārttika 1690 CE to Āśvina 1691 CE. Since the month is Vaiśākha, the CE year is 1691. Another, less widely accepted method of calculation is as follows: adding 801/802 to NS 811 gives 1612/1613 Sāke Samvat, the era that was in use during the Licchavi period. This corresponds to the Śaka Samvat period from Kārttika 1611 to Āśvina 1612. Again, since the month is Vaiśākha, the Śaka year would be 1612, and adding 78 (for the same month, rather than 79) to Śaka era 1612 results in 1690 CE.
For details on the monument where the inscription is located, see DANAM database entry BKT0092.
