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Kandy

Kandy

Elephants Bathing. Queen's Hotel. Temple of the Sacred Tooth.

A multi-image card popular around the turn of the century, where one type of postcard sought to compress as many views of a place into a small space. Murray's Handbook for India, Burma and

Gangavataran

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.

Watson's Hotel, Bombay.

Watson's Hotel, Bombay.

Lynne Withey writes in Grand Tours and Cooks Tours (London, 1998), about the growth of the Western tourist trade in the 1890s, that "apart from a few first-class establishments in major cities, most hotels were barely acceptable by Western standards.

Dhobi (Washerman)

Dhobi (Washerman)

Another evocative card by M.V. Dhurandhar injects personality into the roving washerman. In the background is an edifice of the "new" Bombay while in the foreground we see the age-old profession of washermen cleaning the resident's laundry.

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