Documents on Legal Practices
Legal practices in Nepal prior to 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 onwards. Before the promulgation of the Mulukī Ain in 1854, Nepal's legal system was largely based on Hindu normative legal texts as well as other documents issued from time to time by contemporary 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 studied so far within the framework of this project have already demonstrated that the extent of the implementation of the Mulikī Ain is much wider than was thought. Therefore, such further documents will be worked on within this research area.
K_0175_0034: A copy of patiyā-pūrjī issued to Rājakumārī Pãḍenī Kṣatryānī (VS 1918)
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)
