NEPALESE news & rituals

[Guest guest]

Fellow Indologists,

 

Over the past few days we could listen to the sad and shocking news from Nepal,

as broadcast (relay of Radio Nepal) by

 

http://www.hbc.com.np/

 

who normally broadcast Nepali music. The official program is now relayed

continously from start to finish : 6:15 pm. EST to next day 2:15 EST.

 

As the period of mourning will continue for some more days, the following

program will ensue:

 

 

* Mostly religious music. Starting in the early morning (6:15 pm. EST) with

religious music & texts (mostly, beginnning of the Gita, etc.,) in Sanskrit

and Nepali.

 

* Intermittent news in Nepali (9:15 pm. etc.), English, Newari, Hindi,

Tamang and Sherpa.

 

There is one 5 min. Sanskrit news bulletin at 8:15 pm. EST.

 

* Various announcements: rebroadcast of the addresses by HM King Gyanendra

& prime minister Koirala, suucana against some baseless rumours (such as

poisoned drinking water yesterday...), curfew news, etc.

 

----------

 

Radio Nepal is also available via:

 

http://www.catmando.com/radionepal/indexnew.html

 

Only certain news broadcasts, and some prerecorded addresses (see above)

 

 

-----------

 

 

For those interested in the (samkSipta) rAjyAbhiSeka ("coronation") :

 

listen to 2 prerecorded accounts in Nepali at:

 

http://www.catmando.com/radionepal/spnews5.ram and /spnews6.ram

 

(It may come as a shock to some that the official language --especially

regarding royalty-- of this only remaining Hindu Kingdom abounds in Urdu

words, including even the ceremonial verbs used for/by the King)

 

Photo of the coronation ceremony of HM King Gyanendra at the old palace,

Nasal Chok, Hanuman Dhoka, Kathmandu:

 

http://dailynews./h/p/ap/20010604/wl/nepal_royal_family_shooting_kat102

..html

 

The Raj Guru or Raj Purohit is visible on the right (with golden hat). Cf.

more photos of the ceremony:

 

http://dailynews./h/p/nm/20010604/wl/imdf04062001064601a.html etc.

 

For a detailed description of the *long* rAjyAbhiSeka ceremony (due next

year or so) see:

 

The coronation rituals of Nepal, with special reference to the coronation

of King Birendra in 1975.

Heritage of the Kathmandu Valley. Proceedings of an International

Conference in Lubeck, June 1985. Niels Gutschow, Axel Michaels (eds.).

(Nepalica 4, hg. von B. Kolver u. S. Lienhard). St. Augustin (VGH

Wissenschaftsverlag) St. Augustin : VGH Wissenschaftsverlag 1987, pp.

417-467

 

------------

 

 

You can always check all internet Radio and TV stations via:

 

http://www.comfm.com/live/tv//

 

or

 

http://www.live-radio.net/worldwide.shtml

 

 

 

========================================================

Michael Witzel

Department of Sanskrit & Indian Studies, Harvard University

2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge MA 02138, USA

 

ph. 1- 617-496 2990 (also messages)

home page: http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm

 

Elect. Journ. of Vedic Studies: http://nautilus.shore.net/~india/ejvs/

[Guest guest]

INDOLOGY, Michael Witzel <witzel@f...> wrote:

> Fellow Indologists,

.....

>

> For those interested in the (samkSipta) rAjyAbhiSeka ("coronation") :

>

> listen to 2 prerecorded accounts in Nepali at:

>

> http://www.catmando.com/radionepal/spnews5.ram and /spnews6.ram

>

> (It may come as a shock to some that the official language

> especially regarding royalty-- of this only remaining Hindu

> Kingdom abounds in Urdu words, including even the ceremonial

> verbs used for/by the King)

 

Why should it come as a shock ? It is common knowledge that the

royal classes of India, with few exceptions, were a support of the

Islamicate, and later, the British rule.

 

You are free to interpret the abolition of royalty and their privy

purses by PM Indira Gandhi as yet another Hindutva scheme.

 

-Arun Gupta

[Guest guest]

M. Witzel is so right. A few more words on the issues raised by him

below:

 

*After the Nepal-British war of 1814-1816 the boundaries of Nepal were

reduced to those, which exist today. An important clause of the 1816

treaty established a British Resident in Kathmandu only. The British

Resident could not go to the court or to the government without an

explicit invitation, and on official occasions he was invited *after*

the other members of the family of the king and the Ranas family, and

long after the Royal Preceptor and most probably the purohita (see e.g.

the Nepali diary by the Royal Preceptor on the occasion of the birth of

King Tribhuvan on July 17, 1907, when a baggi was sent to pick up the

Resident -- et passim)

The British government would have controlled all Nepal if the Hindu

"super orthodox" Ranas would have not taken over the administration at

the moment when the country was governed through six parties, in 1847.

Despite the despotic Ranas' Regime, as many historians later underlined

(the fierce Ranas' opponent Dilli R. Regmi, the well known American

historian Leo Rose, just to give 2 examples), the Ranas maintained the

unity and the political independence of the country from British. This

is a well known fact and something for which all Nepali people are proud

of, nowadays.

 

*The Muluk-i ain introduced by Jang Bahadur was so strongly Hindu that

it was explicitly stated that punishment should be determined both on

the basis of the nature of the offense, and of the caste of the

offender. This was observed in the Praja Parisad affair of 1940 when

only the non-Brahmins among the leaders were condemned to death penalty.

 

*The influence of Persians and Urdu words in the court/ administrative

language comes far back. Local chronicles underline the figure of Dravya

Shah, son of the Lamjung king, who is said to have conquered Gorkha in

1559. He is said to have been a descendant of the Rajput princes of

Chittorgarh when the town was attacked and destroyed by Ala-ud-din.

Prithvi Narayan Shah (who reigned in 1747-1774(5?)) started the eastward

expansion of the small Gorkha kingdom, and initiated the process of

unification of the whole Nepal. He was a descendant of Dravya Shah.

Dravya is the first of the Shah dinasty (from which late King Birendra

belongs to). Jang Bahadur -- the PM who took over the power in 1856/7

and started the despotic power of the Rana family -- adopted the name

Rana to demonstrate his (untrue) claim to descent from the famous Rana

rulers of Udaipur. The family therefore assumed the princely status

necessary for intermarriage with Shah family and lately adpoted also the

Persian surname Shamsher. So, again, as M. Witzel wrote, "Perso-Arabic

(Urdu)" influence *not by conquest but by choice*.

 

*As for the English language: Chandra Shamsher Rana, the powerful PM who

(despotically) governed Nepal in 1863-1929 finished the "Entrance"

English examination from Calcutta University and when in 1908 he visited

England did not need an interpreter. Only the Director of the Sanskrit

Education in Nepal was formally forbidden to study English, which was

considered important as a language useful to read books (by Chandra)

and, of course, to talk with the British Resident. But people did not

know it, being the country totally close to foreigners and people

illiterate (out of Ranas' choise), and the Royal Preceptor and personal

adviser of Chandra did not know English at all (scholars used to write

to him in Sanskrit). The common idea on English language was:

civilizations can be expressed by/in any language.

Chandra maintained so strongly the independence from British (and

English) though that when was in England, he was asked about the status

of communications in Nepal, he replied: "In Nepal we are not building

roads since this would allowed foreigners to come and invade us."

Point is that most of the intelligentsia started studying outside of

South Asia after the revolution, first in England and nowadays in the

USA. This is due to trade and to cultural reification (to use Marx's

concept) that need a common language. What is the most common language

nowadays in commerce, computer, films, TV and so on? English. No tribute

to the British Empire here.

 

*As for the Christian/Catholic situation in Nepal, the country, though

Hindu, guarantees a *real* freedom of religion and several Class B and C

Ranas even before the revolution went to Catholic schools.

Capuchins are present in Nepal since Father Francesco Orazio della Penna

(1680-1745), a Capuchin missionary and Prefect of the Tibetan Mission,

who died in Patan. (see P. M. D'Elia, S.I., Fonti Ricciane, 3 vols, Roma

1942-1949). After the Revolution, a Jesuit school was set up in

Kathmandu (on condition that no conversions to Christianity would be

made). The Royal Preceptor, a strictly orthodox and Sanskrit speaking

Hindu, wanted to send his eldest grand-son to that school (!) at the

condition that the child could still remain a Brahmin, and the master of

the school (Father Moran) said that inside the school everybody had to

be initiated to Christianity: This is not the place for moral judgments

(there are so many already in Indology!) but it looks fair to me as a

person since the Jesuit school is a private one and all over the world,

if you want to send your children to a private school, is understood

that you choose and accept the rules of that school.

It's a choice, not an imposition. Jesuits in Nepal are respected and can

teach their religion *inside* their schools *only*, people are free to

send their children there or to the many other (public and private)

schools present in Kathmandu!

Is it so scandalous to admit that Jesuit schools usually give an

excellent (Western) education and many members of the royal family chose

to be educated there (in several cases, remaining Hindu)? Westerner

education is the standard education nowadays (Der Untergang des

Abenlandes by O.S. in 1918 docet!) Nepali people in Kathmandu don't feel

invaded by missionaries by accepting those schools, on the contrary,

they think they are excellent and if you go there you don't necessarily

need to convert to Christianity.

 

Best -- enrica

 

--

Dr. Enrica Garzilli

University of Macerata, Italy

Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Tantric Studies

Journ. of South Asia Women Studies http://www.asiatica.org

**********************************************************

 

Michael Witzel wrote:

> * Nepal was and continues to be a fiercely independent Hindu kingdom. It

> never was under the British, nor under the Moghuls. Nor anybody else (if we

> forget a 3-week(!) invasion by the Sultan's forces in c. 1347 and a

> largely unclear situation with regard to the Tibetan empire for some time

> in the 8th c.).

 

> * The laws ("muluk-i ain" !!), first codified in Nepali after 1850 by the

> Rana regime, were fiercely Hindu. (Even now you are "awarded" 12 years in

> jail for killing a cow)....

 

>* In spite of all of this, the court / administrative language is highly

>influenced by Perso-Arabic (Urdu) words: mausuf sarkaar ko hukum

>bamojim... ityaadi

>Not by conquest but by choice. Certainly not as "support of the Islamicate,

>and later, the British rule"; on the contrary, they were a thorn in the

>side of both empires.

 

>...has no official status in Nepal at all.) Its increase now is a sign of

>globalization. And, incidentally, not due to British/Indian influence. No

>Indian English in Nepal. Most of the intellgentsia have studied outside of

>South Asia after the first democratization in 1950.

 

.........

>(1) about the study of some Royals in some Christian-run schools:

 

>Perhaps people do not know that even in the new democratic constitution

>(1990) freedom of religion is guaranteed but that trying to convert someone

>is forbidden. (The Christian wife of a former prime minister was not

>allowed then to appear in public functions!)

 

>But again, differently from the present cultural wars in India, note that

>Nepal was & is confident enough with its Hinduism (and Buddhism, local

>tribal religions, Islam!) to tolerate Christian schools and sending their

>best people there -- no fear of "loosing out" to Christianity. I myself

[Guest guest]

On Fri 8 Jun 2001, Michael Witzel <witzel quoth:

 

>I am afraid, a too simple view of medieval / recent history:

>

Indeed.

>

>

>Well before the Moghuls we have a strong, (archaic) Nepali-speaking

>(inscriptions, copper plates!) Malla kingdom in W. Nepal and in the adjoing

>areas of  W. Tibet (12-13th century, see already G. Tucci). This was

>followed by the small 22/24 "kingdoms". Gorkha is just one of them. Its

>history can be read in English in Father Miller's (SJ!) book. (These

>Jesuits do research after their term of teaching is over).

 

Hrm. True, and yet not true.

(from a previous posting:)

>* Nepal was and continues to be a fiercely independent Hindu kingdom.

 

If you mean after 1768/9, then yes; but otherwise, no.

 

The Western Mallas were, up to the time of the Dullu inscription or

thereabouts, Vajrayana Buddhists with Hevajra as their kuladevata. They

produce inscriptions in Sanskrit, early Nepali and Tibetan. Sometime

thereafter they become Saiva. Claiming them as a source of unbroken

Hinduism would be a mistake, at least before the end of the 14th century,

although they are certainly among the forerunners of the modern Gorkha

monarchy.

 

As to Nepal, that is, the Newar region centred around the cluster of

city-states in the Kathmandu Valley, it was not much of a unified or

Hindu kingdom until the advent of the Gorkhas. Even in Jayayaksamalla's

reign (described by Petech, among others, as the zenith of the 'unified'

Malla kingdom, centred in Bhaktapur) that king was indeed powerful, but

he apparently did not control Lalitpur, where the local oligarchy (which

incidentally appears to preserve Himalayan, rather than Indian, political

structures) still controlled the land, patronage and resources.

Jayayaksamalla, not unusually for a Newar king, kept a Vajrayana court

priest (who was from Bengal and preferred to live and teach in a

monastery granted him by the Lalitpur oligarchs) and performed Vaisnava

vratas as well as maintaining his allegiance to the family Saiva/Sakta

kuladevata.

 

Lalitpur became for a time (in c17) the last example of an Indic

Vajrayana kingdom, comparable to the earlier Western Mallas, the Palas or

some of the Southeast Asia states. The ritual framework appears to have

been very similar to that for Brahminical Indic states, such as Bhaktapur

just across the valley or the modern Gorkha state as M. Witzel has

carefully documented it; but the royal kuladevata and ideology were Vajrayana.

 

And as to 'Sanskritization':

 

Sanskritization, as the term is applied to Nepal, seems to me a very

blunt instrument. The Maithili Brahmins who came in with Jayasthiti's

court seem to have carried a drastically simplified view on what was

'Sanskritic'. 200 years before, the king in Mithila sought someone to

fill the job of Buddhist royal priest, and this sort of religious

eclecticism seems to have been common practice after the Palas - the

Western Mallas did a fine job of supporting Saiva cult sites. But perhaps

because their understanding of what was properly Indian or Sanskritic had

narrowed, understandably, in response to their political situation, the

14th century Maithili Brahmins who came into the Kathmandu Valley no

longer saw Vajrayana as a legitimately Indian religion and consequently

imposed a rather foreign division of religions on the court. Is this

'Sanskritization'? We would have to use the same term to describe the

process, complete before 1000, whereby local monsoon rituals were

absorbed into the Vajrayana cult of Amoghapasa; but these Maithili

Brahmins would have excluded those same rituals as part of their defense

of 'orthodox' Sanskritic culture.

 

Of course, until the late 18th century the majority of the population in

the valley were Buddhist, and their scholars produced significant

original Sanskrit texts well into the 18th century...

 

-W.

 

 

 

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Will Douglas Oriental Institute, Oxford University.

<will