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The article offers a comprehensive study of Nepal’s “Supreme Royal Decrees” (SRDs) as a pivotal source for the history of Buddhist institutions. Spanning from Emperor Aśoka’s stone edicts to the paper lāl mohar (“red seal”) of the Śāha and Rāṇā period, the corpus is examined through five interrelated objectives: genre typology, formulary evolution, documentation of doctrinal and economic features, source reliability assessment, and reconstruction of state religious policy. The methodology integrates diplomatic and palaeographic scrutiny, historical-legal comparison, socio-cultural interpretation, and critical discourse analysis. Findings demonstrate that SRDs served as a dynamic conduit transforming sacral legitimation into codified royal law (rajdanda), regulating land trusts known as guthī, the internal hierarchy of the saṅgha, and royal resource allocation. Functional continuity across changes in language, script, and material medium is established, together with the genre’s capacity to adjust to the secular reforms of the late monarchy. The proposed classification and refined transliterations provide a solid platform for future research on Buddhist legal culture and the management of Himalayan cultural heritage.
Keywords:The article offers a comprehensive study of Nepal’s “Supreme Royal Decrees” (SRDs) as a pivotal source for the history of Buddhist institutions. Spanning from Emperor Aśoka’s stone edicts to the paper lāl mohar (“red seal”) of the Śāha and Rāṇā period, the corpus is examined through five interrelated objectives: genre typology, formulary evolution, documentation of doctrinal and economic features, source reliability assessment, and reconstruction of state religious policy. The methodology integrates diplomatic and palaeographic scrutiny, historical-legal comparison, socio-cultural interpretation, and critical discourse analysis. Findings demonstrate that SRDs served as a dynamic conduit transforming sacral legitimation into codified royal law (rajdanda), regulating land trusts known as guthī, the internal hierarchy of the saṅgha, and royal resource allocation. Functional continuity across changes in language, script, and material medium is established, together with the genre’s capacity to adjust to the secular reforms of the late monarchy. The proposed classification and refined transliterations provide a solid platform for future research on Buddhist legal culture and the management of Himalayan cultural heritage.
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