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 Rājendra appointing Nityānanda Josī Arjyāla as priest at Gorkhā's Upallokoṭa (VS 1878)

ID: K_0013_0033E

Edited and translated by Astrid Zotter
Created: 2018-07-26; Last modified: 2023-02-20
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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 Rājendra, appoints Nityānaṃda Josī Arjyāla to the office of priest (purohityāī̃) at Gorkhā's Upallokoṭa, replacing Vaijanātha Josī Arjyāla.

Diplomatic edition

[1r]

1पो१४पा१४३सी८०६
2भंनौहर्ष
5हे[?]

1१२५

[unknown seal]

1आगेनीत्यानंदजोसीअर्ज्यालकेगोर्षाउपल्लाकोट्‌प्रोहीताञी•वै
2जनाथ•जोसीअर्ज्यालकोषाये़लतस्कोषांगी•षेतमुरी•⟪असी⟫८०|मोहरगरी
3वक्स्यौंहाम्रोजयेमनाईआफ्नाषातीरजामासीतलाग्‍याकाटहल्मारुजुर
4हीभोग्‍यगरईतीसंवत१८७८सालमाघवदी१४रोज२शु¯¯

Translation

[1r]

Bundle (po[kā]) 14, pā 143, sī 8061

1252

The one who said [was] the nau[sindā]Harṣa

The one who watched [was] ... 3

Āge: To Nītyānaṃda Josī Arjyāla

We [herewith] issue a mohara [conferring upon you] the office of priest (prohītāñī for purohityāī̃) at Gorkhā's Upallokoṭa (text: Upallākoṭ) [including] Vaijanātha Josī Arjyāla's holdings [connected with it]: an emolument (khānagī) [of] eighty, [in numbers] 80 muris of irrigated land (kheta). Celebrate our triumphs, stay present for the service entrusted [to you] being mindful of your duties [and] enjoy it.

Monday, the 14th of the dark fortnight of the month of Māgha, in the [Vikrama] era year 1878 (1822 CE).4 Auspiciousness.5

Commentary

This document formally fills the vacant office of the priest at Gorkhā's Upallokoṭa. The priest officiating at the "upper fort" on a hilltop above the royal palace was responsible for performing rituals on both Dasaĩs. The post seems to have been one reassigned fairly regularly to new persons, or else rotated among a fixed group; for more commentary, see the editions of the earlier documents of appointment documents from VS 1862 (1805 CE; K_0029_0044A and K_0029_0044B), VS 1864 (1807 CE; K_0029_0025A) and VS 1873 (1816 CE; K_0013_0020E and 1817 CE; K_0013_0022B).

While the first two documents of the series from VS 1862 detail the different rituals to be performed and the later ones from VS 1864 and VS 1873 still say that the Dasaĩ [rituals] should be performed, the present document only contains the general order that the appointee be present for the services assigned to him (lāgyākā ṭahalmā ruju rahi).

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 by the NGMPP 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 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. One or two groups of letters are illegible here. These lines in the left margin state the names of the clerks involved in copying the documents or in checking whether copies were true to originals (see note 3 in K_0015_0022B). [⇑]

4. The date corresponds to 21 January 1822. Thus the reigning king in whose name the original lālamohara must have been issued was King Rājendra. [⇑]

5. 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).
khānagī / khānkī / khāngī	n. 1) salary, wages, or an annual emolument. 2) emoluments of government employees and functionaries, generally in the form of land assignments (M.C. Regmi 1978: 227; cf. M.C. Regmi 1978: 860; Adhikari 1984: 351). 3) rents accruing from the lands assigned to jāgiradāras (cf. M.C. Regmi 1965: 18-19).
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 ).
lālamohara	var. lālmohara, lālamohar, lālmohora; abbreviated mohara; n. royal document bearing the red seal.
mohara	[P.] n. 1) a seal. 2) a document bearing royal seal; often an abbreviated reference to a lālamohara. 3) a coin having the value of eight ānās or half a mohararupaiyā̃.
muri / murī	n. 1) also khetamuri; unit of land measurement in the hill region, comprising 1/4 ropanī with 100 muris 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. 2) volumetric unit comprising 20 pāthis (with 8 mānas to a pāthi), equivalent to 90.919 (M.R. Pant 2002: 134 ) or 87.23 (Pant and Pierce 1989: 93) liters. (M.C. Regmi 1978: 163; M.C. Regmi 1999: 235 ; M.C. Regmi 1978a: 228 ; M.C. Regmi 1978b: 862 ; Adhikari 1984: 354; M.C. Regmi 1988: 269).
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 )
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.