Documents on Legal Practices

Documenta Nepalica

Religions- und rechtsgeschichtliche Quellen des vormodernen Nepal

 

 

Documents on legal practices

Main Editor: Rajan Khatiwoda

Drei Statuen von Menschen, die an der Wand eines Tempels abgebildet sind.

The legal practices in Nepal before the mid-19th century are not clearly traceable, even though there were some efforts to set down legal practices in written form starting from the 14th century onward. Before the promulgation of the Mulukī Ain in 1854 the legal system of Nepal was largely based on Hindu normative legal texts as well as other documents issued, time to time, by the contemporaneous kings and other high administrative authorities. It has, however, always posed a riddle whether the Mulukī Ain was really made the basis of legal practice or whether it, too, remained a kind of Hindu normative legal text such as Dharmanibandha composed in the vernacular. Scholars who have dealt with different aspects of the MA have not focused enough on the issue of its actual implementation. The large corpus of administrative and legal documents is a basis for the still largely unexplored history of the practice of the Mulukī Ain in mid- and late 19th-century Nepal’s jurisprudence. Even a few documents so far studied within the frame of this project already demonstrated that the extant of the implementation of the Mulikī Ain is much wider than it was thought. Therefore, such further documents will be worked within this research area.

 

DNA_0010_0117: A lālamohara from King Gīrvāṇayuddha containing administrative directives to 14 named officials (VS 1863)

K_0175_0032: An unverified copy of a phāraka for an expiation fee paid by Rājakumārī Pãḍenī Kṣatryānī (VS 1918)

K_0175_0033: A verified copy of a phāraka for an expiation fee paid by Rājakumārī Pãḍenī Kṣatryānī (VS 1918)

K_0175_0034: A copy of patiyā-pūrjī issued to Rājakumārī Pãḍenī Kṣatryānī (VS 1918)

DNA_0012_0001: A lālamohara from King Surendra acknowledging Rūpalāl Das as mahanta of Basahiyā Maṭh (VS 1927)

K_0172_0063: A letter granting water-expiation to nine members of Pṛthī Bahādura Pā̃ḍe's family (VS 1928)

K_0175_0002: A jabānabandī submitted to the Adālata Bandobasta Aḍḍā by Śamaśera Bahādura Pā̃ḍe (VS 1934)

K_0175_0018: A complaint made by Śamśera Bahādura Pā̃ḍe re the Rājakumārī Pãḍenī case (VS 1934)

DNA_0014_0004: A rukkā from King Surendra ordering the execution of Hari Goḍiyā for an act of homicide (VS 1937)

K_0172_0057: A deposition submitted by Śamśera Bahādura Pā̃ḍe to the Koṭiliṅga court (VS 1942)

K_0175_0059: A written power of attorney granted by Ratnakumārī Pãḍenī Kṣetryānī (VS 1943)

K_0175_0060: A written power of attorney granted by Ratnakumārī Pãḍenī Kṣetryānī (VS 1943)