Simon Cubelic · Axel Michaels · Astrid Zotter (Eds.) Studies in Historical Documents from Nepal and India HEIDELBERG UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING Studies in Historical Documents from Nepal and India DOCUMENTA NEPALICA Book Series; 1 Chief Editor: Axel Michaels Editorial Board Heidelberg Academy of Government of Nepal Sciences and Humanities Ministry of Culture, Tourism Research Unit “Documents and Civil Aviation on the History of Religion and Department of Archaeology Law of Premodern Nepal” National Archives Manik Bajracharya Bhesh Narayan Dahal Simon Cubelic Saubhagya Pradhananga Rajan Khatiwoda Niran Rajvamshi Astrid Zotter Raju Rimal Christof Zotter Kumar Shrestha Studies in Historical Documents from Nepal and India On behalf of Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities Edited by Simon Cubelic, Axel Michaels, Astrid Zotter HEIDELBERG UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING This volume has been promoted by the Joint Science Conference of the Federal Government and the governments of the states of the Federal Republic of Germany in the Academies’ Programme from the joint fundings of the Federal Government of Germany (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) and the state Baden-Wurttemberg (Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts). Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie. Detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. This book is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence (CC BY-SA 4.0). The electronic, open access version of this work is permanently available on Heidelberg University Publishing’s website: http://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de. urn: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heiup-book-331-7 doi: https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.331.454 Cover image: Document, kept at the National Archives, Nepal, issued in the name of King Surendra Vikrama Śāha bearing the royal seal (extract). © National Archives, Govt. of Nepal; photo: Manik Bajracharya Text © 2018, by the authors. ISSN 2568-7867 ISBN 978-3-946054-71-9 (Hardcover) ISBN 978-3-946054-70-2 (PDF) ISBN 978-3-946054-72-6 (ePUB) Contents Foreword by Saubhagya Pradhananga, Chief of the National vii Archives of Nepal Editors’ Preface ix Simon Cubelic, Axel Michaels and Astrid Zotter Studying Documents of South Asia: An Introduction 1 Diplomatics 35 Timothy Lubin Towards a South Asian Diplomatics: Cosmopolitan Norms 37 and Regional Idioms in the Use of Documents Georg Vogeler Digital Diplomatics: The Evolution of a European Tradition or 85 a Generic Concept? Charles Ramble Producing ‘South Asian’ Tibetan Documents in Highland 111 Nepal, 19th to 20th Centuries: The Emergence and Disappearance of a Local Diplomatic Tradition Documentary Practice 135 Yogesh Raj Waking History Up from the Chronological Nightmares: 137 A Perspective from the Mediaeval Newari Historiography Alexander von Rospatt The Collective Sponsorship of the Renovations of 163 the Svayambhūcaitya in the Later Malla Era, and Its Documentation in Historical Records Christiane Sibille Networking Digital Documents 193 Legal Practice 211 Diwakar Acharya Poet Vaṃśamaṇi Pays off His Share in the Father’s Debt: 213 A 17th-Century Debt-Clearance Certificate from Mithilā vi — Table of Contents Rosalind O’Hanlon Documents of Property Right in Early Modern Western India 225 Rajan Khatiwoda Documented Evidence Relating to the Implementation of 243 the Mulukī Ain in Mid-19th-Century Nepal Axel Michaels Are Hindu Women Allowed to Erect a Śivaliṅga? A Question 271 Asked in a Letter to Jaṅga Bahādura Rāṇā, Dated 1863 CE Simon Cubelic Governing Economic Life in Rāṇā Nepal: The Tender Process 293 for the Gambling License at the Market Square of Asan in 1902 Administration 329 Maheshwar P. Joshi and Madan Mohan Joshi Some Unpublished Gorkhali Documents and Early British Records: 331 The Example of the Seṇū Jośī Community Gisèle Krauskopff The Silent History of the Tharu Farmers: Peasant Mobility and 351 Jungle Frontiers in the Light of Written Archives Manik Bajracharya Munsīs in the Courts of Early Śāha and Rāṇā Rulers: 377 The Career of Lakṣmīdāsa Pradhāna State and Religion 399 Monika Horstmann The Mālik in Rāmānandī Documents of the 18th and 19th Centuries 401 Christof Zotter Ascetics in Administrative Affairs: Documents on the Central 445 Overseers of Jogīs and Saṃnyāsīs in Nepal Astrid Zotter Conquering Navarātra: Documents on the Reorganisation of 493 a State Festival Notes on Contributors 533 Foreword The National Archives of Nepal, established in 1967, is the govern- ment body authorized to manage and preserve the country’s archival documents. It operates according to the Archives Preservation Act of 1989, and its functions as a repository of government records are to collect and preserve manuscripts and other significant documents and to facilitate public access to them. It collaborates with both national and international organizations in pursuit of its goals, and has thereby created a network of partnerships. The National Archives of Nepal has enjoyed a number of long- term collaborations with Germany. It has successfully partnered with the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project founded in 1970 and its successor Nepalese-German Manuscript Cataloguing Project. Recently, in February 2016, we signed a Memorandum of Under- standing (MoU) with the research unit Documents on the History of Religion and Law of Premodern Nepal of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Germany. One of the articles of the MoU states that the research unit and the Archives will issue joint publica- tions. Consequently, we are glad to announce the beginning of a joint publication series titled Documenta Nepalica. The current volume, the first of the series, is the outcome of a conference held in Heidel- berg in October 2015. The present book consists of seventeen papers dealing mainly with South Asian documents from the premodern period. Those included in it cover topics such as the diplomatics of document writing, legal practices, administration, state-making, and religious life. Many of the articles in the present volume deal with specific source materials preserved in the National Archives of Nepal. This volume, then, will contribute to a greater understanding of the history of South Asia in general and of premodern Nepal in particular. We hope that our partnership with the research unit will help in meeting the Archives’ objectives. We hope in particular that further viii — Foreword cooperation between the two parties will contribute much to the pre- servation and scientific understanding of Nepalese documents. Saubhagya Pradhananga Chief National Archives of Nepal