Documenta Nepalica

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

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A copy of a lālamohara from King Gīrvāṇayuddha appointing Vaijanātha Arjyāla and Vetu Arjyāla as priests at Gorkhā's Upallokoṭ (VS 1873)

ID: K_0013_0020E

Edited and translated by Astrid Zotter
Created: 2018-06-07; Last modified: 2023-02-17
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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, 2018. 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

This copy of a lālamohara from the king, who according to the date must have been Gīrvāṇayuddha, appoints Vaijanātha Aryāla and Vetu Arjyāla to the office of priest for the Dasaĩ rituals at Gorkhā's Upallokoṭ, replacing Rāmacandra Arjyāla.

Diplomatic edition

[1r]

1पो१३पा५३सी३२३
2६२नं
3गुठ
4भंनौहर्ष
5हेनौराम

1आगेवैजनाथअर्ज्यालवेतुअर्ज्यालकेरामचन्द्रअर्ज्यालको
2षाय़लगोर्षाऊपल्लाकोट्‌कोपुरोहीटाईतस्कोजागीरषेतमु
3री•७०लगापात•समेतवक्स्यौंपरापुर्वकारीतसंगदसैंचला
4ईगुठीजानीभोग्‍यगरईतीसम्वत्१८७३सालभाद्रवदी५रोज
5३शु¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

[Unknown seal]

Translation

[1r]

[In the left margin:]

Bundle (po[kā]) 13, pā 53, sī 3231

Number 622

[Concerning a] guṭha3

The one who said: Nau[sindā]Harṣa 4

The one who watched: Nau[sindā] Rāma

[Main text:]

Āge: To Vaijanātha Arjyāla [and] Vetu Arjyāla 5

We [hereby] confer [upon you] Rāmacandra Arjyāla's holdings (khāyala): the office of priest (purohiṭāī for purohityāī̃) at Gorkhā's Upallokoṭ (text: Ūpallākoṭ) [and] an emolument (jāgira) [of] 70 muris of irrigated land (kheta) together with the surrounding land (lagāpāta). Perform the Dasaĩ [rituals] according to what has been traditionally established and, considering the guṭhī [as yours] enjoy it.

Tuesday, the 5th of the dark fortnight of the month of Bhādra, in the [Vikrama] era year 1873 (1816 CE).6 Auspiciousness.7

[Unknown seal]

Commentary

This document formally fills the vacant office of the priest responsible for conducting the Dasaĩ rituals at Gorkhā's Upallokoṭ. This post at the "upper fort" on a hilltop above the royal palace seems to have been one reassigned fairly regularly to new persons, or else rotated among a fixed group. Thus one Vaijanātha Josī, probably the same person who is called Vaijanātha Arjyāla in the present document, had been appointed in VS 1862 (1805 CE); see K_0029_0044A for the appointment document issued to him, and K_0029_0044B for one issued to officials ordered to provide him with necessary materials. For an enumeration of the different post-holders mentioned in other follow-up documents, see the edition of K_0029_0044A.

Notes

1. While the first abbreviation, po, probably stands for pokā ("bundle") it remains unclear what words the following pā and sī are abbreviations of. That these indeed are abbreviations is clear from preceding entries, where the same syllables are followed by a dot. [⇑]

2. This number refers to the place of the document in the government ledger, whose entries were microfilmed sequentially from K_0013_0001 (front cover and note) up to K_0014_0018 (index and back cover). According to a note on the first page of the bound material archived as BK 8 (see K_0013_0001) the "Hill Administration Department" sent these copies of lālamoharas to the "Guṭhī" in VS 2001 (CE 1944). Due to the low quality of the photographic reproduction of this note, this information, gleaned from the NGMPP catalogue card, cannot be verified on the basis of the original material. The assemblage covers the main body (i.e. excluding the initial and final formalities) of 230 royal documents from the period VS 1868–1895 that pertain to guṭhī affairs. [⇑]

3. The documents seem to have been given a variety of keywords for identification purposes during the copying and archiving process. Preceding documents bear, for example, the word pujārī in the corresponding place (see K_0013_0020B and K_0013_0020C). [⇑]

4. This and the following marginal note identify the scribes who were involved in copying or checking the correctness of the copies. Similar ones are present in other documents copied in the same batch (see e.g. the editions K_0013_0020B, K_0013_0022B, K_0013_0024E, K_0013_0033E or K_0015_0022B). [⇑]

5. The name could also be Cetu, the form that appears on the catalogue card. Graphically, however, the initial consonant is more likely a v- than a c-. I have found no parallels for either Vetu (or Betu) or Cetu as personal names. [⇑]

6. The date corresponds to 13 August 1816. Thus the reigning king in whose name the original lālamohara must have been issued was still King Gīrvāṇayuddha, who passed away on 20 November of that same year. [⇑]

7. The syllable śu abbreviating the standard śubham is hardly legible in this place and seamlessly blends into the horizontal stroke used to fill the rest of the line. [⇑]

Glossary

Word	Notes
āge	[fr. S. agre] adv. lit. "henceforeward" (Riccardi 1976: 150 n. 6), especially used in administrative and legal documents to mark the beginning of a text or paragraph. In its function it is similar to uprānta.
dasaĩ / daśaĩ	[fr. S. daśāha] var. dasai; n. festival to worship the goddess Durgā as slayer of the buffalo demon, held over the bright half of the autumn month of Āśvina (baḍā dasaĩ) and, on a smaller scale, over the bright half of the spring month of Caitra (caite dasaĩ).
guṭha / guṭhi / guṭhī	[fr. S. goṣṭhī] var. guṭh, guthi; n. 1) a socio-religious organization that manages and finances religious and charitable functions, a trust. 2) “endowed lands or other sources of revenue for financing religious and charitable functions“ (M.R. Pant 2002: 132; cf. M.C. Regmi 1988: 267).
jāgira	var. jāgīra; n. "lands, homesteads, villages and other sources of revenue assigned to government employees as remuneration for their services" (M.C. Regmi 1999: 136).
kheta	[fr. S. kṣetra] var. khet, kheṭ; n. 1) irrigated land in the hill region suitable for the cultivation of rice and wheat. 2) a measure of land in the hill region equal to 25 ropanīs or 100 murīs (ca. 1.25 hectares) (M.C. Regmi 1999: 136-137 ; cf. M.C. Regmi 1999: 234 ; M.C. Regmi 1978: 162 ; M.C. Regmi 1978: 227 ; M.C. Regmi 1978: 860 ; M.C. Regmi 1995: 77; Adhikari 1984: 351; M.R. Pant 2002: 133; Whelpton 1991: 284 ).
khetamuri	var. ṣetamuri, ṣetamurī; n. unit of land measurement in the hill region, comprising 1/4 ropanī with 100 khetamuris in 1 kheta. The area varied according to the grade: 1190 sq. ft. for lands of the best grade, and 1339 sq. ft., 1487 sq. ft., and 1785 sq. ft. for lands of inferior grades. see muri / murī 1).
lālamohara	var. lālmohara, lālamohar, lālmohora; abbreviated mohara; n. royal document bearing the red seal.
nausindā	n. a scribe or a clerk of lower rank responsible of translating, registry and accounts; “They were the lowest rank of scribes. There were more personnel in this rank than in any other within the "civilian" hierarchy (and excluding the sipahis). A considerable number of them worked in the offices of registry and accounts. Nausindas registered the papers which came in and left the offices and copied letters and documents.“ (Edwards 1975: 109 ; cf. M.C. Regmi 1978: 228 ; Adhikari 1984: 354 ; Kumar 1967: 167 )
pūjārī / pūjāhārī	var. pujārī, pujāhārī; n. person formally appointed to conduct the worship (pūjā) of a deity and therewith earning one's livelyhood, temple priest.
purohityāī̃	var. purohiṭāī, purohītyāñī, prohityāī, prohītāī; n. the office of priest.
śubham	[S.] var. śubhaṃ, śubhm, śu; n./adj. lit."auspiciousness" / "[let it be] auspicious"; apprecatio, usually the concluding word in the eschatocol of documents, follows the specification of the date.