Benares. Ganga Mehal Ghat.
Ganga Mahal Ghat is one of the holiest ghats at Varanasi and was built in the 1830s. Note how the hand-tinting has highlighted, not too carefully, the sun umbrellas in the foreground.
Postcard
Calcutta. Dalhousie Barrack Fort William.
Fort William in Calcutta, completed in 1781, is a remnant British colonial rule.
Dalhousie Barrack, a four-storey building, is a captivating component of Fort William. Today it is the Military Head quarters of the Eastern Command of Indian Army.
Lucknow. The Kaiser Pasund.
Lucknow, the capital of the state of Uttar Pradesh, is often called the "city of the Nawabs."
The pillars, domes and minarets of Kaiser Pasand drew on Mughal architecture and European styles popular among Lucknow's ruling class in the 1820s when the
A Jain Priest
Another Dhurandhar postcard masterpiece, with the pale green background and statue of Lord Mahavir, the last Tirthankara of the Jain religion setting off the living priest in the foreground.
Nautch Party
An apparently hand-stenciled color card likely made from a photograph at the Ravi Varma Press facilities in Karla, outside Mumbai. Note how carefully everyone, especially the two dancers, are holding their pose in this vibrant frozen moment.
A Street Scene, Delhi
A postcard sent from Bareilly in UP to a woman in France in 1905 shows how the placement of stamps was on the front of a postcard was once itself a performative art.
Chitpore Road, Calcutta
One of Tuck's very first Kolkata postcards, before they put explanatory captions on the back.
Chitpur (Chitpore) owes its name to goddess Chiteswari whose temple was destroyed during the earthquake of 1737. Chitpur road, one of Kolkata's oldest roads
Bruce Road, Quetta. Summer
One of the nice things about early postcards like this one of the main street (now known as Jinnah Road) in Quetta, Balochistan are the businesses and names that they reveal. In this case, two stores down from U.N.
Bombay. The Museum
[Original caption] The Museum. As befitting an important town like Bombay, the Museum is indeed a very fine one and contains many valuable collections. [end]
