A postcard like this was the result of a careful and perhaps exhausting pose by the dancers. Note the man holding up the backdrop, which probably covered a studio wall or other scene.
An extremely rare early postcard by an little-known lithographer, W. Cooper, in Bombay. It looks to crude to have been made at The Ravi Varma Press. Cooper seemed to prefer risque images.
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.
Plate & Co., like many Ceylon-based firms, published semi-nude postcards of women, more common here than even in South India, including this card with a nicely placed purple stamp.
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.
An unusual, moody image of a Kashmiri woman from a Times of India series of people across the subcontinent that was often artist-signed, although the artist behind this one remains anonymous.
Marwaris are from the Marwar region of Rajasthan in India. They speak Marwari. The word Marwar is said to be derived from the Sanskrit word Maruwat, or 'desert'. This striking image was a popular postcard.
