Ellerman's City Line to India
An advertising card for one of the big London-based steam-ship travel firms who served the travel-between-India and Europe market.
India
King Emperor`s Message to the British Troops from India.
Over a million Indian troops served as part of the British forces in World War I; postcards were used to help recruit them, often in languages like Gujarati, though this card seems to have been intended more for British troops already serving in
Hindustan Nawab and his family (17th Century)
Many of the earliest postcards were actually advertising cards, given the expense of producing lithographic cards like this French view of a 17th century Nawab and son. The woman in the back holds a nautch girl's pose.
Gangavataran
[Original caption] Shankar receives the river Ganga on his head in compliance with the prayers of Bhageeratha. [end]
This image is from a famous painting by Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906), one of India's most important painters.
How We Make Love in the East
There are few intimations of relations between Europeans and Indians on postcards – or other media for that matter – making this postcard a startling exception. “Stay quiet about it,” says the sweeper in Hindu-Urdu. “Sure,” replies the soldier.
The "Dhoby"
Hobson Jobson (1903) the great dictionary of Indian words in English, defines "Dhoby, Dobie s. A washerman; H. dhobi [from dhona, Skt. [Sanskrit] dhav, 'to wash.'] In colloquial Anglo-Indian use all over India. A common H. [Hindustani] proverb runs:
The "Gharry" Our Local Chariot in Which We Often Tour the Town
A 1945 calendar postcard by the Anglo-Indian animator and cartoonist Merton Lacey featuring Allied troops in India fighting the Japanese in Indo-China during World War II.
Too hot to write this week, the sun has dried up all the ink.
Moorli Dhur & Sons, at Ambala, a railway junction 130 miles away from Lahore, dominated the Punjab postcard market by 1910. Perhaps because of its distribution clout, it published a humorous series on different aspects of life for colonial foot
The Bowachi
One of Moorli Dhur's series on Indian domestic staff shows a cook cutting a bird with a knife between his toes while smoking a hookah. Many publishers – Johnston & Hoffman in Kolkata, Higginbothams in Chennai, Thacker, Spink & Co.
Gajagauri
[Verso] Gaja-Gauri :- Goddess Parwati. [end]
From a painting by Raja Ravi Varma, Parvati is the Hindu goddess of fertility, love, beauty, marriage, children, devotion, divine strength and power.
