While we now believe that the temples date to the Pallava King Narasimharavan around 630 CE, much about their origins remains obscure. This is an embossed postcard, with the relief lines meant to simulate an old oil painting.
[Original caption] Seven
Another exuberant, deftly rendered very early postcard by Paul Gerhardt, chief lithographer at the Ravi Varma Press in Bombay. Note the simply drawn mosque minarets, the colors that pull you in while the cart pushes out into the foreground space.
Compare this hand-colored view to the identical more detailed black-and-white postcard of the old fort and mausoleum of Shah Rukn-e-Alam.
This 16th century temple to Nandi, the sacred bull, was built by Kempe Gowda who also founded the city of Bangalore.
Vishvamitra was a revered sage in ancient India; this postcard from one of Ravi Varma's most famous paintings shows how he rejects knowledge of his child by turning away and hiding his gaze with a dramatic gesture.
[Original caption] Menaka sent by
An unusual postcard in the use of so much black, which beautifully brings out the portrait of this man, his beard and clothing (black was expensive for printers due to the amount of ink consumed). Due to better economic prospects in Sri Lanka, during
Burial monument of the 17th century Rajput rule, Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh (1688-1743) who built the state of Rajputana into a formidable independent kingdom, founded the planned city of Jaipur and founded major astronomical observatories both there
The Sacred Relic of the tooth of Buddha is venerated in Sri Lanka [Ceylon] as relic of Gautama Buddha, and is kept in a Temple of the Holy Tooth in Kandy.
[Original caption] Shalimar Garden, Lahore. These gardens were laid out in 1637 by order of Shah Jehan. They are divided into three parts on different levels. The whole extent is about three parts on different levels.
Burmese women were a common postcard subject for firms like Tucks and D.A. Ahuja, the caption dripping stereotype and prejudice.
[Original caption] Ma-Hla-Byn (Miss Pretty and Fair). Although the Burmese women may not coincide with the Western idea
