MSS EUR HODGSON/14 Agriculture and economy 1820s-1840s
Agriculture: including comparisons with the system in Britain, correspondence related to agriculture, agro-products, market prices, land system including land measurement, land administration, land revenue; Nepali administration, information on the Nepal Tarai, revenue and expenditure, export-import trade, trade routes to Gorakhpur, list of Nepali merchants from Kathmandu Valley known as Koṭhi-mahājana, notes on mines and mineral products, translation of government documents mostly related to land tenure, salaries and privileges of government officials, wages, manufacture of paper in Nepal, some social regulations and customs of western Nepal, a few personal letters.
1[vol.14 fol(s)1] Hodgson's rough notes on land measurement and land categorisation Machine-made paper, unshaped scrap of paper, rough hands, use of pencil and pen.
English
Units of land measurement (ropanī, hāt) and categories of land (ghaiyā, dihī, pākhā, pānīkhet). Ghaiyā is a kind of paddy that can be grown on non-irrigated dry land known as bārī, ṭār or sometimes pākho or khoriyā, and ghaiyā land means the land where basically only ghaiyā paddy can be grown.
2[vol.14 fol(s)2-67] Correspondence and notes to and from Hodgson's relatives and friends in Europe regarding European agriculture 1824-1829 Machine-made paper of different types and qualities, fine condition, different hands mostly fair, some letters are written in two different directions on the same paper (ff. 2-3, 5 and 7).
English French
Questions and answers and some personal letters and notes related to agriculture in Europe, questions sent from Nepal by Hodgson to Europe and answers thereto. Some of the letters are from Hodgson's father Bryant Hodgson (who seems to have used both `Bryant' and `Brian' as personal names!) and uncle J. Houghton Hodgson. Other sets of answers are from different people including Jos Territt; English and Nepali title description "khetiko savāl" on the verso of folio 67. The letter from the uncle in ff.2-8 is dated 2 February 1826, and the set of answers to queries in ff. 9-23 27 April 1826.
3[vol.14 fol(s)68] Agricultural calendar of the Valley Machine-made paper, poor quality, becoming brittle, rough notes with lots of corrections and addenda.
English
Notes on agriculture and agricultural calendar of Kathmandu Valley, seasons related to budding, planting and harvesting of different kinds of paddy.
4[vol.14 fol(s)68A-68B] Exotic fruits naturalised in Indian subcontinent 1825 Machine-made paper, poor quality, brittling, rough note copied by Hodgson, few extra notes by pencil.
English
Fruits and vegetables brought from outside and grown in northern India, Kumaun and Nepal, names of fruits and vegetables with their source, China, America, West Indies, East Indies, Western Africa, Barbados. The note confirms that no European vegetables and fruits can be grown through the medium of gradual acclimatisation in Nepal and India (in original, best part of Hindustan) including Kumaun. Fruits and vegetables: celliguton pear, star apple, memmee, cherrimolia, pafion flowers, pineapple, leechee, wampee, loquat, flat peach, China chestnut. The potato had long been common in Patna and Fattegadh but it had only begun to flourish in Bengal and other areas in the early 19th century.
5[vol.14 fol(s)69-75] A letter from Hodgson to Ram Tanu (Ram Tunnoo in original) regarding labour and market prices Machine-made paper, very poor quality, becoming brittle and falling apart, Hodgson's own hand, fairly written with a few corrections.
English
Wage rates for labour, market (bazaar) prices. Hodgson's instructions to Ramtanu (Ram Tanoo in original), his assistant, to collect information on agricultural labourers, ordinary farmers (ryots), household servants, common village trades. This is a good example of Hodgson's method of field study [vol 07/11 fol.81-90] .
6[vol.14 fol(s)76-78] Copy of contracts for government levies to be collected from different Tarai districts for the year VE 1897 (1840-1841 AD) 05-1841 Machine-made paper, fine condition, fair hands.
English
Revenue from Tarai: record of the contracts for government levies to be collected from different districts of the Nepal Tarai: Sarlahi, Mahottari, Saptari, Rautahat and Parsa, revenue administration of the Nepal Tarai, the record collected by Jatanlal, an assistant to Hodgson; these were the disputed areas at the time of Anglo-Nepal War. For original manuscript in Nepali, see [vol 53/01 fol.1-19] .
7[vol.14 fol(s)79-81] Letter from A. Campbell to Hodgson relating to the Nepal Tarai 08-23-1841 Machine-made paper, fine condition, fair hands.
English
Dealing mainly with the value of Morang of Nepal, Tarai revenue, this also refers to the publication of certain anatomical notes of Hodgson by Campbell and Macdonald of Dinajpur.
8[vol.14 fol(s)82-90 (f. 90 blank)] Nepal Tarai and Sikkim Raja's revenue from his lowlands 1838-1843 Mostly different types and sizes of machine-made paper, one sheet of Nepali hand-made paper, mostly fair condition, rough writing different hands.
English Nepali
Various notes on Tarai revenue and administrative offices and revenue administration of Nepal, list of some custom centres in northern Nepal, yearly revenue of Sikkim King from his lowlands.
9[vol.14 fol(s)91] Questions to Eugenius regarding administration and government functionaries in large towns 06-1843 Machine-made paper, fine condition, rough hand, written with lots of corrections and addenda, Hodgson's own hand.
English
Official divisions of Nepal, list of different functionaries of major towns of the Valley, their responsibilities such as justice, revenue and their salaries. There are 23 questions in total.
10[vol.14 fol(s)92] A note from Ramtanu (Ram Tunnu in original) to Hodgson regarding goods from highlands and lower hills exported to the Tarai and India 1830s Machine-made paper, fine condition, fair hand, Ram Tunnu's own writing.
English
About import and export of goods: imported from highlands and lower hills (in original 'hills and south') and exported to the Tarai and India (in original 'lowlands') with the latter including musk-pads, `cow-tails'' (presumably in fact yak-tails), raw wax (moum), lumboo, woollen blankets, cloth, cinnamon and tajepats (tejpāt) spice, three lines of Nepali on the verso of this folio about Nepalese Buddhist texts sent to Calcutta "nepāl buddhamārgakā kitāp kalakattā ravānā bhayāko ādi".
11[vol.14 fol(s)93] Summary of state revenue of Nepal 1893 Machine-made paper, excellent condition, fair hand, some pencil notes.
English
Summary of state revenue with a list of custom offices, customs collectors and officers-in-charge of revenue collection.
12[vol.14 fol(s)94-124 (ff. 115-120 blank)] Net revenue of Nepal 1830s Machine-made paper, fine condition, rough notes by Hodgson with corrections and addenda.
English
ff. 94-121: Land revenue or potā, customs or bhansār, courts, punishments, mines and mints, levy known as sāunyā-phāgu (homestead tax), levies known as kāṭhmahal and hātisār (connected with timber and with elephant stables), thamauti and darsanī (fees from the reappointment of officers), levies known as sermā (tax on unirrigated land) and gharkhānī (household tax? tax payable on royal marriage?), cumāvana (payable when King or Crown Prince assumed the sacred thread), gordhuvā (tax at marriage of a princess);
ff. 122a-b: Administrative divisions and districts of Nepal;
f. 123: Assignment or distribution of land as khuvā and khāngī;
f. 124: Details of assessment of land tax of Bhaktapur.
13[vol.14 fol(s)125-132] Village system 1831 Machine-made paper, fine condition, Hodgson's rough notes with lots of correction and addenda, use of both pen and pencil.
English
Questionnaires with some answers focusing on village size, village administration, agricultural traditions, labourers and contractors, rich and poor.
14[vol.14 fol(s)133-171] Revenue and finances of Nepal 1836-1841 Machine-made paper of different sizes and qualities, fine condition, different hands, some very rough and some fair, use of both pen and pencil, lots of corrections and addenda in several notes.
English
f. 133: Receipts and expenditure of several districts of the Tarai (for more detail see ff. 148-151 below);
f. 138: Revenue from mines and customs of central Nepal;
f. 139: dharmādhikārī's (Royal Guru) income from the fees for purification (prāyaścitta) after religious offences or after contamination by untouchables. The prāyaścitta fee was 5 paisā per contaminated house. The total income from this source in the year 1840 was mohar Rupees 10,700 (on the basis of this account the total number of houses paying the prāyaścitta in the year 1840 would be around 70,000 because the exchange rate of a mohar at that time was around 32-34 paisā); the dharmādhikārī, normally a member of a family who provided the royal gurus, acted as chief judge in cases concerning religion and caste.
ff. 140-141: Administrative divisions of Nepal in the year 1841;
ff. 142-144: Income and expenditure of the Kingdom for VE 1894 (1837-1838 AD);
f. 145: Iron production and use in Nepal;
ff. 146-147: Account of receipts of the copper, lead and iron mines according to the arrangement made in the year VE 1893 (1836-1837 AD);
ff. 148-151: Particulars of receipts and disbursements of districts situated in the Tarai (cross reference folio 133 above);
ff. 152-159: Abstract statement of the annual khāngī or salaries and allowances to the functionaries of Nepal (bhārādāras) based on the salaries of the year VE 1893 (1836-1837 AD); for Nepali original, see [vol 53/16 fol.91-96] ;
ff. 160-170: Rough notes on revenue, measurements, based on information supplied by Ramtanu (Ram Tunnoo, one of Hodgson's research aides), including several original letters sent from the field by Ram Tunnoo to Hodgson (f. 167, 169);
f. 171: Translation of a government ryot's lease (a lālmohar) related to the land assigned to the Army's Srinath company of the Kathmandu garrison
15[vol.14 fol(s)172-177] Letter from A. Campbell dispatched from Darjeeling to J. R. Colvin 07-04-1841 Machine-made paper, excellent condition and writing.
English
Nepali paper making, duplicate of the letter [vol 6/9 fol.181] .
16[vol.14 fol(s)177a-207] Copy of Hodgson's report on the Commerce of Nepal presented to the Governor-General 10-25-1831 Machine-made paper, excellent condition, fair hand.
English
ff. 177-187: Report on the commerce of Nepal submitted to the Governor-General of India through the Secretary to the Governor-General H. T. Prinsep. Subjects include: an account of commercial routes, catalogues showing the numbers of native and Indian merchants in major towns of Nepal with details of their trading capital. For cross references, see also ff. 219-318 of this volume and [vol 06/05 fol.74-76][vol 60/14 fol.157-58] ;
ff. 188-199: Goods imported from the plains (India) for local consumption and for export to Tibet in tabular form and summary of general observations [Hodgson_1874:103-113];
ff. 200-207: Nepali and Tibetan goods exported to the plains (India) in tabular form and a summary of general observations [Hodgson_1874:114-121];
f. 177a: Nepali and English title description.
A draft copy (ff. 219-318 of this volume) and another almost identical copy [vol 06/05 fol.42-76] of this report are also preserved in this collection. The Report on the Commerce of Nepal was submitted to the Governor-General on 31 December 1831 and was first published in 1857 in a volume entitled "Selections from the Records of the Government of Bengal, No. XXVII"[Hodgson_1857:]and later in 1874 in Hodgson's own book of his collected papers [Hodgson_1874:91-121].
17[vol.14 fol(s)208-218] Translations of royal orders (lālmohar) and palm-leaf documents (tāḍpatra) related to land tenure and mining, including contracts, leases 1830s date of translation Machine-made paper, fine condition, excellent hands, some corrections and addenda with pencil.
Urdu
Translations of 8 royal orders (lālmohar) of the Shah rulers and 19 palm-leaf documents from the Malla period dealing with government leases and deeds concerning land and mines, land tax and levies. Nepali title description. For originals of most of these documents, see [vol 29/14 fol.131-154][vol 53/29 fol.204] and for translations of four other government documents, see [vol 07/07 fol.60-62] .
18[vol.14 fol(s)219-318] Draft copy of Hodgson's Report on the Commerce of Nepal and related letters 1831-1833 Machine-made paper of various types, mostly fair condition and a few becoming brittle, different hands, some fair, some rough, first 25 folios and corrections and addenda by Hodgson himself, use of pencil for correction and addenda.
English
Most of the content in this item is similar to that of Item 17, ff. 177a-207, and Volume 6, Item 5, ff. 42-76, but there are a few other additional manuscripts including several original letters to Hodgson from his research aide Ramtanu (in original Ram Tunnoo), (ff. 269) and Surgeon J. Colvin (ff. 314-316). For a printed paper on a related subject, see [Hodgson_1874:90-121].