Ancient Buddhist Temple Gwalior
Buddhism had largely departed India by this time, having flourished between the 3rd century BCE and 13th century CE, but its temples still stood and were frequently subjects of postcards.
Religion
The Great Burning Ghat in Benares
[Original German] Der Grosse Verbrennungs Platz in Benares [end]
One of the earliest artist-signed postcards of India.
Greetings from Bombay
From an early "Greetings from" series by D.M. Macropolo & Co., a renowned Raj tobacconist with retail stores in Kolkata and Mumbai.
Calcutta
One of the earliest postcards of India, Calcutta, published by W. Rossler, a German or Austrian photographer in the city in 1897. Lithograph, Court sized, Printed in Austria. Undivided back.
Maliakali or Devi
[Original title] Maliakali or Devi as Durga the destroyer of the demons of all devouring thing. [end]
Kali and Durga are closely related manifestations of the divine feminine energy in Hinduism.
The Massacre Ghat
In one of the earliest series of postcards of India by Tuck, four of the six Kanpur postcards recalled events a half-century earlier; the "Mutiny," as the British called this major uprising against their rule remained very much part of colonial
Mohammedan Boy from East India
One of the few Dutch postcards of Indians, though these portraits often were striking, like this postcard of a Hindu.
Eid Card Train
A rather subtle Eid Mubarak ["Blessed or Happy Eid"] blends into the colorful sky as a train plows through the landscape. Bombay and Lahore were the centers of Eid card production before and in the decades after Partition.
Missionary Catechists of Mary Immaculate Mymensingh Hindustan On Tour at the Home of the Garros
Many of the very few postcards of Bangladesh from pre-Partition times are by Catholic missionaries in Mymensingh in particular, here shown incongruously on a bullock cart.
[Original French title] Catechistes Missionnaires de Marie Immaculee -
Hindu Religious Beggar
A striking studio portrait in which the viewer's eyes are drawn by to subject's wide-open gaze. Was he asked not to blink? Or did the photographer amend the negative?
