MSS EUR HODGSON/88 Limbu alphabet book by Sirijanga Early 18th century
		Old and brittle Limbu alphabet book by Sirijanga? described by Hodgson's team in another alphabet book as "sukhimko kuhiko pustak" (in proper Nepali, "Sikkimko kuhieko or thotro bhayeko pustak") [vol 84/03 fol.23-99] . The Limbu pronunciation and writing of the Nepali term "kuhieko" would usually be "kuhiko".
		1[vol.88 fol(s)1-10] Sirijanga's old alphabet book of the Limbu language with an introductory description (folio 1a-b and folio 8b) Early 18th century (?), from the time of Liṃbu King Rupi-Hāṅ Rāya Hand-made paper but very brittle and degraded, pages not in original order, good writing of Limbu scripts but very poor Nepali; special care and treatment needed particularly to folio 6 because it contains the real name (Rupihang Raya) of Limbu spiritual leader or sage Sirijanga and the name of the last Malla ruler of Kantipur, (Kathmandu) Jayaprakash Malla; no folio marked but contains a total 10 leaves and 20 pages, with a few lines of very old Nepali and three types of Limbu script.
				Limbu Nepali
				Limbu alphabet practice book; the two lines in Nepali include the name of the Limbu ruler (or of someone claiming royal descent) known by the name Shree Rupihang Raya (in original-śrī rupihāṅ rāyo); the very old two-lined Nepali text also helps date this Limbu manuscript to c.1730 or earlier. The Nepali text is very difficult to read but the following can just be deciphered: line 1. "svasti sṛ saravamaṅga[la? ma] hārājā jhāvrarākāsa mala jaya", line 2. "sṛ rūpihāṅ ra(ā)yoko seva(ā) seva(ā) siddhaṃ sṛ"[Dhungel_2006b:4][Dhungel_2006c:54]. This is presumably the 'old rotten book' (sukhimko kuhiko pustak) described in Volume 84 of Hodgson manuscripts in the BL [vol 84/03 fol.23-99] . Sirijanga Singthebe (c.1704-1741) is known as 'the second Sirijanga' because he was supposedly the incarnation of a legendary 9th century Limbu ruler (Dhungel ibid.) The second Sirijanga (Rupihang), who was from the family of Sing-Thebe of the Thebe Limbu clan, had travelled to Sikkim from his native place known as Tellok in Taplejung around 1730 to popularise Limbu literature and writing. Another Hodgson manuscript in the British Library collection confirms the widely-held belief that Sirijanga was assassinated in 1741 by the conspiracy of the Tasong Lamas of Pemiyongche Gonpa in, Sikkim[vol 73/19 fol.155-56] . However, the introductory text of this alphabet book shows a clear influence of Tibetan Buddhism on Sirijanga because there is mention in the text of of special veneration offered by him to Buddha, Urgenpema (Padmasambhava) and to Lamas [vol 73/19 fol.155-56] ; cross reference [vol 86/2 fol.19-23] , the name Sri Rupihang (śṛ rupihāṅ) might perhaps be linked to the 'Sriphung' referred in another Limbu manuscript (Volume 87), and one or both might have been Srijanga's original name.