Postage stamps and postal history of the Indian states
Encyclopedia
Postage stamps and postal history of India
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of India.Indian postal systems for efficient military and governmental communications had developed long before the arrival of Europeans. When the Portuguese, Dutch, French, Danish and British displaced the Mughals, their postal systems...
The postage stamp
Postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
s and postal history
Postal history
Postal history is the study of postal systems and how they operate and, or, the study of postage stamps and covers and associated material illustrating historical episodes of postal systems...
of the Indian Princely States is a complicated subject; British rule was not a uniform exercise of authority, and many states ran their own postal services. These Indian States were independent countries/kingdoms with defined boundaries and political systems. However all the princely states, referred to within this article, were subjugated by war or diplomacy by British India and as such not to be confused with truly independent states in the Indian sub-continent such as Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
.
Categorisation for postal purposes
The two main categories were the convention states who had agreements with British India regarding mail, and the feudatory states who ran their own posts, and whose stamps were only valid within their borders. The words 'Convention' and 'Feudatory' in this case solely refer to postal arrangements with/in relation to British India.The convention states
The convention states all used contemporaneous stamps of British India, overprintOverprint
An overprint is an additional layer of text or graphics added to the face of a postage stamp or banknote after it has been printed. Post offices most often use overprints for internal administrative purposes such as accounting but they are also employed in public mail...
ed with the name of the state, in Latin letters or Hindi/Urdu letters or both, depending on state and period. The convention states were:
- ChambaChamba StateChamba State was one of the oldest princely states in present-day Republic of India, having been founded during the late 6th century. It is situated in the bosom of the Himalaya Mountains, and the boundaries are as follows: On the northwest, west, and northeast is Kashmir; on the east, Lahaul and...
- FaridkotFaridkot StateFaridkot State, with its capital at Faridkot, was a Princely state of Punjab. The state was established in 1763, ruled by a Jatt Sikh Brar dynasty and was an offspring of Kotkapura. Faridkot was occupied by Ranjit Singh of Sikh Empire in 1803 but had to be returned to the former rulers in 1807 on...
(a convention state from 1887) - GwaliorGwalior stateGwalior State was an Indian kingdom and princely state ruled by the Maratha dynasty. The state took its name from the old town of Gwalior, which, although never the actual capital, was an important place because of its strategic location and the strength of its fort. The state was founded in the...
- JindJind StateJind State was a princely state of India before 1947.Founded by descendants of Phul Haryana, under the patronage and protection of the Sikh gurus Guru Hargobind and Guru Har Rai, Jind was a Sikh state of Siddhu Jat origin...
(a convention state from 1885) - NabhaNabha StateNabha State, with its capital at Nabha, was one of the Phulkian princely states of the Punjab. The state was established in 1763 after the capture of Sirhind by the Sikh Confederacy. With the capture of Sirhind, most of the old imperial province was divided amongst the Phulkian chiefs...
- PatialaPatiala StatePatiala State was a princely state in India.The history of Patiala state starts off with the ancestor of the Sikh Patiala Royal House, Mohan Singh being harassed by neighbouring Bhullars and Dhaliwals . They would not allow Mohan to settle there. He was a follower of Guru Hargobind and the Guru...
Postal union by a state was considered as a sign of greater fealty to the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
. Both Faridkot and Jind, as feudatory states, issued their own stamps before they joined the Postal Convention. Faridkot joined on 1 January 1887. Jind joined in July 1885; its stamps from the feudatory period became invalid for postage, but they continued to be used for revenue purposes. The stamps of the convention states all became invalid on 1 January 1951 when they were replaced by the stamps of the Republic of India, valid from 1 January 1950.
The stamps of convention states are rich in varieties and errors. Typical errors include inverted overprinting, spelling mistakes in English or Devanagri, errors of omission and smaller capital letters.
The practice of overprinting was referred to as "surcharging" though in most cases the monetary value of the postage stamp was never altered.
The feudatory states
- AlwarAlwar State-History:Alwar has been a part of Matsya region of olden times whose capital was Virat Nagar."Alwar" was formerly known as "Ulwar". This placed it in last position in alphabetically ordered lists, so a king renamed it to "Alwar" to bring it to the top. Till the 11 A.D. this area was ruled by a...
(1877-1899) - BamraBamraBamra, covering an area of 5149 km², was one of the Princely states of India during the period of the British Raj, and was acceded to India on 1 January 1948....
(1888-1893) - BarwaniBarwaniBarwani , also known as Badwani, is a city and a municipality in Barwani District in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. The city is situated near the left bank of the Narmada River, and is the administrative headquarter of Barwani District. It has served as the capital of the former princely state...
(1921-1938) - Bhopal (1876-1932)
- BhorBhorBhor is a city and a municipal council in Pune district in the state of Maharashtra, India.- Geography :Bhor is located at . It has an average elevation of 588 metres .- Demographics :...
(1879-1901) - BijawarBijawarBijawar is a town and a nagar panchayat in Chhatarpur district in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Bijawar Taluk, and was formerly the capital of a princely state of British India of the same name.-History:...
(1935-1937) - BundiBundiBundi is a city and a municipality of approximately 88,000 inhabitants in the Hadoti region of Rajasthan state in northwest India. It is of particular architectural note for its ornate forts, palaces, and stepwell reservoirs known as baoris...
(1894-1941) - BashahrBashahrBashahr was a princely state in pre-independence India, located in the hilly western Himalaya promontory in the northern part of colonial Punjab that is now the Indian republic's state of Himachal Pradesh and traversed by the Sutlej river...
(1895-1900) - CharkhariCharkhariCharkhari, currently a part of Uttar Pradesh state, was one of the Princely states of India during the period of the British Raj. The state was founded by saurabh singh bundela, a Rajput of Bundela clan. On India’s independence, this Princely state was acceded to India.-Geography:Charkhari is...
(1894-1943) - Cochin (1892-1933)
- DharDharDhār is located in the Malwa region of western Madhya Pradesh state in central India. It is the administrative headquarters of Dhar District. The town is located west of Mhow, above sea level...
(1897-1898) - DuttiaDatiaDatia is a small rural town and a municipality in Datia district in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is the administrative center of Datia District. It was formerly the seat of the eponymous princely state in the British Raj. Datia is situated near Gwalior and on the border with Uttar...
(1893-1916) - FaridkotFaridkot StateFaridkot State, with its capital at Faridkot, was a Princely state of Punjab. The state was established in 1763, ruled by a Jatt Sikh Brar dynasty and was an offspring of Kotkapura. Faridkot was occupied by Ranjit Singh of Sikh Empire in 1803 but had to be returned to the former rulers in 1807 on...
(1879-1886) (a convention state from 1887) - HyderabadHyderabad State-After Indian independence :When India gained independence in 1947 and Pakistan came into existence in 1947, the British left the local rulers of the princely states the choice of whether to join one of the new dominions or to remain independent...
(1869-1949) - IdarIdarIdar is a city and a municipality in Sabarkantha district in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is located about 30 km north of Himatnagar and 25 km from Gujarat's border with Rajasthan...
(1939-1944) - IndoreIndoreIndore is one of the major city in India, the largest city and commercial center of the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India. Indore is located 190 km west of the state capital Bhopal. According to the 2011 Indian census, Indore city has a population of 1,960,631...
(1886-1941) - JaipurJaipur State-History:During the British Raj, Jaipur was the capital of a princely state of the same name. Jaipur state, which existed from the twelfth century until Indian Independence in 1947, took its name from the city. It had a total area of 15,579 square miles in 1900. The maharajas of Jaipur belonged to...
(1900-1947) - Jammu and KashmirJammu and KashmirJammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the...
(1878-1886) - JammuJammuJammu , also known as Duggar, is one of the three administrative divisions within Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state in India.Jammu city is the largest city in Jammu and the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir...
(1866-1877) - KashmirKashmirKashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
(1866-1867) - JasdanJasdanJasdan is a city and a municipality in Rajkot district in the Indian state of Gujarat.-Geography:Jasdan is located at . It has an average elevation of 193 metres . Ghela Somnath Temple is situated in Jasdan.Jasdan is the biggest Taluka in Rajkot district and has 102 villages.-Demographics:...
(1942-1942) - JhalawarJhalawarJhalawar is a city in southeastern Rajasthan. It was the capital of the former princely state of Jhalawar, and is the administrative headquarters of Jhalawar District. Jhalawar was once known as Brijnagar .-Jhalawar town:...
(1887-1887) - JindJind StateJind State was a princely state of India before 1947.Founded by descendants of Phul Haryana, under the patronage and protection of the Sikh gurus Guru Hargobind and Guru Har Rai, Jind was a Sikh state of Siddhu Jat origin...
(1874-1885) (a convention state from 1885) - KishangarhKishangarhKishangarh is a city and a municipality in Ajmer district in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It lies 18 miles north-west of Ajmer. It is well connected via Indian Railways and National Highway #8. It is the birth place of the Kishangarh style of painting, which is known for the beautiful depiction...
(1899-1928) - Las Bela (1897-1904)
- MorviMorviMorvi or Morbi is a city and a municipality in Rajkot district in the Indian state of Gujarat. It was a Princely State ruled by Jadeja clan of Rajputs until Indian independence in 1947. It is situated on the Kathiawar peninsula. , the city's population was determined to be 73,327. Its chief...
(1931-1935) - NandgaonNandgaonNandgaon may refer to:* Nandgaon Khandeshwar, town and a tehsil in Amravati subdivision, Maharashtra, India* Nandgaon, Maharashtra, a town in Nashik district of Maharashtra, India...
(1892-1893) - NowanuggurNawanagarNavanagar was an Indian princely state, in Kathiawar region, situated on the south of the Gulf of Kutch. It was ruled by the Jadeja dynasty from its formation in c 1540 until 1948 when it succeed to newly formed, India. The district is now known as Jamnagar. It had an area of and a population...
(1877-1893) - OrchhaOrchha StateOrchha State, a princely state of Bundelkhand region, in present Madhya Pradesh state, India, was founded in the 1501 AD, by the Bundela chief, Rudra Pratap Singh, who became the first King of Orchha, and also built the Fort of Orchha. He died in an attempt to save a cow from a lion...
(1913-1939) - PoonchPoonchPoonch is a town and a municipal committee in Poonch District in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Based on the Mahābhārata evidence, and the evidence from 7th Chinese traveler Xuanzang, the districts of Poonch along with Rajauri and Abhisara had been under the sway of the Republican Kambojas...
(1876-1884) - RajasthanRajasthanRājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
(1949-1949) - RajpiplaRajpiplaRajpipla is a city and a municipality in the Narmada district in the Indian state of Gujarat.It was the capital of the former Kingdom of Rajpipla.-Geography:Rajpipla is located at . It has an average elevation of 148 metres ....
(1880) - SirmurSirmurSirmur was an independent kingdom in India, founded in 1616. It became a part of Greater Nepal, before becoming a princely state in British India, located in the region that is now the Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh. The state was also known as Nahan, after its main city, Nahan...
(1879-1899) - Soruth (1864-1937)
- TravancoreTravancoreKingdom of Travancore was a former Hindu feudal kingdom and Indian Princely State with its capital at Padmanabhapuram or Trivandrum ruled by the Travancore Royal Family. The Kingdom of Travancore comprised most of modern day southern Kerala, Kanyakumari district, and the southernmost parts of...
(1888-1946) - Travancore-CochinTravancore-CochinTravancore-Cochin or Thiru-Kochi is a former state of India . It was created on 1 July 1949 by the merger of two former princely states, the kingdoms of Travancore and Cochin....
(1949-1950) - WadhwanWadhwanWadhwan is a city and a municipality in Surendranagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat.-Demographics: India census, Wadhwan had a population of 61,739. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Wadhwan has an average literacy rate of 71%, higher than the national average of...
(1888-1889)
Since many of the first issues of these stamp issuing states were printed locally using primitive
Primitives (stamps)
Primitives in philately, also called natives, refer to postage stamps that were crudely designed and printed as compared with the sophisticated productions of industrialized countries such as the United Kingdom or the United States. A number of such stamps were produced in the classic stamp period...
methods (generally typographed), they can be very rare. Due to this reason this is a challenging and an interesting area for stamp collecting
Stamp collecting
Stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects. It is one of the world's most popular hobbies, with the number of collectors in the United States alone estimated to be over 20 million.- Collecting :...
. Beginners need be aware of the existence of forgeries, though most forgeries are crude and can be easily identified. Postal history forgeries (i.e. stamps used on cover/piece) are at times harder to detect - though this problem is not limited to Indian States. It is generally recommended to request expertization certificates from the British Philatelic Association or the Royal Philatelic Society London.
The standard catalogue for postage stamps followed by many (and one that is considered most accurate for Indian States) is published by Stanley Gibbons. A wealth of information resides in articles that have been published in journals like the Philatelic Journal Of India, the India Post (published by the India Study Circle), the London Philatelist (published by the Royal Philatelic Society London), and others that are available at many of the philatelic libraries (List of philatelic libraries).
Due to the very basic nature of the printing and design, stamps of the feudatory states are often informally referred to as "Uglies".
See also
- Postage stamps and postal history of IndiaPostage stamps and postal history of IndiaThis is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of India.Indian postal systems for efficient military and governmental communications had developed long before the arrival of Europeans. When the Portuguese, Dutch, French, Danish and British displaced the Mughals, their postal systems...
. - Postal convention states of India.
Further reading
- Masson, David ParkesDavid Parkes MassonSir David Parkes Masson CIE VD was a British philatelist who was one of the "Fathers of Philately" entered on the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in 1921...
. Jammu and Kashmir. (Two parts bound together) Calcutta & Lahore: Philatelic Society of India, 1900 & 1901. - Masson, David Parkes. Sirmoor I. Calcutta: Supplement to the British Journal of India, Vol. 10, 1906.