Indian Dancing Girl
One of the more elaborately framed and coloured portraits of a nautch girl.
Nautch Girls
Miss Chabukswari of Delhi
Usually, dancing women were unnamed, even when they become famous (for example, Gohar Jan became a "Bombay beauty"). In this case however perhaps her name or fame justified a different approach, and it was better marketing by the unknown publisher to
Zuhoorun (Nautch-Girl).
Dancing girl of India on a popular Tuck's painted postcard, probably signed by G.E. McCulloch. Nautch or nach, a word used in several languages of North India, is an Indian term for "dance", and indicates several forms of popular dancing styles.
Calcutta
Nautch dancers inspired stories like Hassan Shah’s The Nautch Girl, “the first known modern Indian novel” in the 1790s, as well as the first Urdu novel, the story of the Lucknow courtesan Umrao Jaan Ada in 1899.
A version of this card was sent by
Kashmir Nautch Girl
A postcard that shows off the great detail achievable in the collotype printing process.
Phatani [Pathan] Dancing Girls
![Phatani [Pathan] Dancing Girls](https://www.paperjewels.org/sites/default/files/styles/square_thumbnail/public/slides/pathan-dancers_0.jpg?itok=brZPDF7- "Phatani [Pathan] Dancing Girls")
An annual tradition in Peshawar in the early part of the 20th century and probably well beforehand, Peshwar's nautch women would dance through the streets watched and cheered by thousands of onlookers.
Dancing Girls of Peshawar Ready For The Dance
Every city had its female dancers, or "nautch women" and they were often showed with the musicians who played, assisted and sometimes protected and managed them as well.
Miss Buchwa Jan of Karachi
Buchwa Jan must have been one of the leading singers or dancers in Karachi to have warranted a named postcard.
Maina Dancing Girls. Jaipur.
This was one of Gobindram Oodeyram's most popular postcards (also called Mohamedan Dancing Girl in other versions). The hand-applied coloring is exceptional – not only the pink, the signature color of Jaipur and the firm's postcards, but also the use
Jaipur Woman
Sometimes also called "Sleeping Hindoo Woman" this postcard was about as risque as they got and was labelled "India circulation" in an album of Gobindram Oodeyram postcards put together by one S.
