Regmi Research (Priv ate) Ltd; Kathmandu: N ovember l, 1971. Regmi Resear.-h Series Y0ar·.3, No. 11, Edited By, Jl..ahesb c. Regmi. Contents l. Aniko: His Family And P lace of Birth - ... ... 241 2. King Prithvi Narayan Shah's Letters To Shriharsha J� charya . • . And Nilakantha Joshi ••• 244 J. Notes On 'I'he History Of Morang District-II ••• 21,8 4. The Malla Kings Of Kathmandu... ••• 2,1 5. On Wages And Forced Labor ••• 261 6. Royal Ord�r To Fakirs In Morang, 1797 ••• 262 ll 101 M I( 11100( Regmi Research (Priva,te) Ltd,, 'Lazimpe·c., Kathm�u, Nepal. Compiled by Regmi Researeh (Private) Ltd tor private study and research. Not meant tor public sale or displar•' 241� l 1 .Aniko�.H is Fami.Y An<:tPlace or B1rth ' .-. .. ' � Baburam .Acharya Sy).wiri Levi's Le Nepal published a little over $0 years t;3go, cont:-11 r,r, a very brief introduction to Aniko, the gifted Nepali artist who had demonstrated his artistic skifl at the· court of, Ghinese Emperor· Kublai Khan. It contains a French translation of• refe��nce;:1 to this· arti_st,, contained in a Yuan �ccount. The GorkhaE;tra-of:Magh 12(· 2013_n.(Jinwt:ey \2f ,. 1957) had published an article entit1ed�Balbau"(ArnikoJ •Which to<.?'wa� ' , \\ based on the Yuan account. However, if con�ained, t.he trans�tions o:f.a' , greater port-ion of the Chinese accowt than was given by Sylvain Le•i• But an even more detailed and �learer account about this ertist is giver, in L. Petech 1 s Medieval History of Nepal. 1 Sylvain Levi• s translation mentions 1.Arniko", who belonged to the royal family of Pale-Pao, the Chinese equivalent of ''Balbou, the 'N,.bet�n name ·for Nepal. I had wrongly thought 11Pale-Paon11 was Anik:o's personal 11 name. I therefore confused ihis term.with the Sanskrit word· Balabahu" out of ignornnce. A similar error has been committed in the artic� · published in tha _Gorkhapatra. It is also n mistake to nama the artist as Arniko. This mistake is being committed since the 18th. century. A scholar named Ishida tound out ,. the error. Moreover, the old edition of. the Yuan account;, as well a�• th3 ston,, inscription installed at the tomb of' tt:iis artist, gives his· n&ff!e as fniko not Arniko. That is why Dr Petech· has used t� term �Anfko" in , 1 . his book. The tf.:rms 11.A.rn1J.(o 1 , and 11Araniko", are no longer used now. ThE-J bioe;rophy or this famous artist inscribed on the tomb at Shang-sun v1ll.nge in Yu-An-Ping district situated to the west of Peking sheds greater ligqt on him than ths Yuan aocount. Since the, works· of this artist are already fan:ous, nn attl,mpt is made in this art�le to .discuss only the probable' placu of his birth and his family. l."Aniko, Unkri Pnr:i.var_ Ra Jarimasthal11 ._HimavatS8111Slcr1t1,. Yea�I,-No. J, . Falgun 2016 (February 1960), pp. 3r;_ ., ., eoritd ••• In their interpretation of the Yuan account, both Sylva in Levi and Dr . Petech have referred to the artist as belonging to a roya l family. But Dr . Petech ha s doubted whether the Chinese word 11 Chou11 ; used in intro­ ducing the artist actually means a roya l family. _The roya l family of NcpGl nt that time be longed to the Ksha triya ca ste, not to any Buddhist se: c.;t. Ksha triya s did not do any work in the fields of fine arts or sculpture'. Only Buddhist Vihara s uood to function as centers of fine arts and sculp ­ ture, in addition to making me dicines and imparting oducation . I am ther,; :�-,r of :the opinfon that this f'c1mous artist wa s a Buddhist who had taken to :"wrdly . life (Upa sc k) • He, Jl1Ust have ·re c.ei ved l'li s education and tra ining ir. fine arts in a Buddbist Vihara during his childhood and been married probably before he attaine d the Eige of 17 yea rs. The practice of chi ld · marriage wa s i'n vogu,:: among Buddhist Upasaka s until about 10 years a.go . Aniko thus probnbly came of a scu lptor ts famil)r which worked for' 1 thE: roya : family of that time . He might ba vc been shown as being conne cted with a . ·royal. family of Nepa 1 for this reason. •· } r Lniko appt:ars to have been the Chinese pronunciation of t'oo· artist· .• name . It is hard to write t,he Nepc:i pronunciat,.on in Chinase \chara cte:,' .�s . Dr. Pete ch hn s surmis ed t,hat /m iko wa s the Chinese pronunciation of 11.f.ni10"', which wa s ·a distort�d form of .Anang, th-a name· of one of the84' . Siddhas · belonging to tha Va jraynna sc;ct. Howevar, i:t seems difficult to believe t I :. l 11f, nigo 11 is a distorted fonn of u1-1nang11 • J, ccording to the Gopa la vamshava li : the name of the grand-father of King Jn�nta Malla of Nupal, a contempor,:•;· of the artist , wa s Ja gad�neka' . The a ctua 1 nama of this pe roon wa s l!neka , however . The word 11Ja gad 11 wa s adde:d to his name simp ly Ds a r.,ark of resp, . ..:t. since he belonged to the I'.Oyal fa1dly. He is also ca'lled J\nekha Nalla cl s_ - where in the same Vamshavali . There is no doubt that 11.ft.nekhc1'� wa s just 1 :mother form of 11:n.skn". I believe tha t 11.r:noka " ·,.a s Also the' nan::,:1 of .our a.rti�t. The Chinese must have pronounced 111\ neka" as 111�niko 11· ·in the same way as they used to ca ll Nepal' ns 11Nipolo". If thls vi.ew i:sco rrect,'. thi2t': it' would ba appropriate to refer to the artist as Anokri' . \,:\ � The tomb inscription referred to above mentions the n8.me s o't inemJxrc of j,h€: artist'1 s family. It givc D the nama of the Hep13 li w1.fe of tha artj n as 11Chai-yal-ta-talani 11 (Chinese pr,?nunciation of Jay�talaxmi)'. 'rho artist had le ft this wife in NepA l and gone· to Tibet, where he bec:.:i me e monk . From Tibet, he went to China , where severa l years later'. -he :revt�rted to worldly life and married a Mongo l girl . Hu hc1 d married seven· other 'womE:n, from whom he had a tota l of 6 sons and 8 daughte rs'. Ji.ltbou.g h he had beC·l"' 'e.st�nged from hi s Ne�li wife ., his children could not forge t their Nc;x l. step-motb�r. Hence they hnd her name to9 inscribed on the 'tomb , and so immortalized he r. The tomb eivc s the n�mes of t-he fathar ·a nd gra nd-ft'.l tL' . 11 of the arti st as La--k-on and 11I1i-'I'i-Rha re spective ly., Chinese pronuncirr't of the Sanskrit tenne La:xrnan and Mitra re sp ective ly. The thousands of r·i. .-.;· cripts written on birch bark duri.ug tMt period in Nepal ar:: still founr: here and tre re'. Since the autt-.ors of these works have all'. .S�nskrit mimt.!. , is ir.conce;i-..,ablG that Aniko and ,:>ther members of his family posse�s,. <l non--Sanskri t names. i ·' Contd ••• 24.3 . f:ccording to the tomb inscription, Aniko d_ie(l on March 11, 1)06 a·t the age of 62 years • This indica tes thatJ1 e wa e ·born· in·1245 ft.Di Nepal was ruled at that time by King Abhaya Malla (1216 ..,5 P. .n.) �· Aniko was in Nepal during tho reign of Jayadeva Malla ( 1255-58 f..• D� ), /l.bhaya Malla'e successor'. Aniko had migrated to Tibet in the beginning ot.t� rule of King Bhimadeva (1258-62 l .D.), who succeeded Jayadeva M&l.le·• .in Tibet, he built a golcl en pillar (Subarna-Stupa)" s.r.ound 1261-62 ..�. -D/ He probab ly ·, left Tibet for China after compkting this ior�. During the reigns of Sirnha4. ·. m...-, lla (1271-?L) and Anantalll<1lla . (1274-1310),' J. nilco ·:wa .3 gaining fame in . · .. _: Chin:.i .- _He died 12 years after the death 0f Kubla i Khan. : ' .'{ Now lE:t. us discuss the probable birth-place of .Aniko . During his tiroo• ·. L:-. litpur and_ Ka thmandu were the only leading centers of fine arts in Nep,iI.· However, Lalitpur was and remains more renowned· thari Kat hmandu in this fiJV 100 Nepa li artists had been invited from Tibet -to visit that country. But lfopal wa s able to send a team of 80 artists only under too leader�hi\t of . · . .h.niko . La litpur 'had a larger number of artists t;han Kathmandu at' that ,timi- . It is therefore very pr obable that the mejori ty of the· members of the tG."1 f': sent to Tibe t belonged to Lalitpur'. As · such, it is more than likely th':'t Aniko WR S born in Patan. : · · · , 1, : . 244. \ King Pr�thvi NafDlan Shah�s Letters To Shriharsha Achary · · J, nd Nilakantha Jo shix · . · · . · · �· l . Froin King · Prithvi Naranyan Sha h, To Shriharsha A charya•. Greeting s. All is ·well here and we want the ,same there .