Patan sangha

Who he is

Name

Not known by name

Title

The sangha of the bahals: Vajracharya (priest) and Shakya (monk) householders, with the guthi of each courtyard

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Family

Householder monks who inherit membership of their courtyard monastery (bahal, vihara) and marry and keep their families there; the line of these communities runs from the Licchavi period.

Confidence

low

From the campaign board's note (patan-lalitpur: 'a dense grid of Buddhist courtyard monasteries, the bahals, each with its own endowment and lineage of householder monks') and Wikipedia's Patan page ('a council of nobles called the Six Pradhans governed the city' in a later period of instability); no document of the 1190s was read.

What it holds

• the bahals and their courtyards in Patan
• guthi lands in the Patan plain and at Bungamati
• the shrines, festivals and loans of the town

Allies and rivals

The king at Bhaktapur; the thakkura houses; the Tibetan monks who study and trade here.

How things stand that morning

Intact and prosperous; no quarrel dated for the winter.

Wealth

Endowed lands, loans, the casting trade and the pilgrim and Tibetan trade.

Military

No army is recorded and no number is known.

Threats

• the king's confirming hand turning heavy
• Karnata raiders on the Chandragiri road

Places of note

• Hiranyavarna Mahavihara (Kwa Bahal): Golden courtyard monastery.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board's 'Patan ... oldest and richest of the three towns': Wikipedia's Patan page says Patan was founded by King Varadeva in 290 CE on local legend; we treat the campaign board's order of wealth as a lead.

Evidence: The institution is certain and ancient; its 1200 members and quarrels are not recorded in sources read.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: No ground; the town's near land is on the Patan town record.

Primary sources for Nepal valley

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Gopala Raja Chronicle, and the Nepalese colophons, Anonymous (chronicle); various scribes (colophons) (the chronicle about 1389; the colophons are contemporary notes of the 11th to 14th centuries). The Nepal valley in 1200 is known chiefly from dated manuscript colophons and short inscriptions, which name the reigning king with the Nepal era year, and from the Gopalarajavamsavali, a chronicle written about 1389 that lists the kings with regnal years.
• History of Buddhism in India and Tibet, Buton Rinchen Drub (Bu ston Rin chen grub) (1322). Optional background. Read online
• The Blue Annals, Go Lotsawa Zhonnu Pal ('Gos lo tsa ba gZhon nu dpal) (1476 to 1478). The fullest Tibetan account of who mattered around 1200, written three centuries later from earlier biographies and lineage records, many now lost. Read online
• The Sakya genealogy, and the works of the Sakya hierarch of 1200, Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen (Grags pa rgyal mtshan) and Sakya Pandita; the genealogy by Ngawang Kunga Sonam (the hierarchs' writings about 1170 to 1250; the genealogy 1629). Sakya in 1200 was ruled by Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen, the third of the five founders, with his nephew Kunga Gyaltsen (later Sakya Pandita, born 1182) under his teaching. Read online