This collection is the family papers of Mr R D Prabhas Chataut (b 1936), an ethnographer and historian. His family served as priests for Nagi Malla, Khas king of western Nepal. The collection has materials comprising of the late 19th and 20th century of land documents, contracts, revenues and expenditures registers of the household, loans and mortgage deeds, government and court documents, private correspondence, astrological compendia, almanacs, ritual texts (Sanskrit and Nepali), and ephemera from Dadeldhura, Doti and adjoining regions of western Nepal and Uttrakhand, India. The documents are mostly handwritten, distinctly pre-modern and pre-industrial, scarcely represented in Nepal collections anywhere in the world.
Extent: 13 Pokas (Bundles of cloth wraps), majority are handmade Lokta papers.
Custodial history: Collection is Mr RD Prabhas Chataut’s family papers including his own collection built throughout his lifetime of work.
Arrangement: Documents were kept in cotton cloth-wraps called Pokas; each Poka contains an assortment of documents not restricted to any particular subject. The Pokas have been numbered from 1 to 13.
Original institution reference: EAP1485.
