A Nair Lady, Malabar
Early postcards from the Malabar Coast are uncommon.
Women
The Ayah
This postcard shows a nanny with a pram on the “Queen’s necklace” of Malabar beach in Bombay. The artist Dhurandhar and other fellow J.J.
Dancing Girls. Jaipur.
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.
A Trysting Place
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.
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.
A Rodiya Woman Carrying Water, Ceylon
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.
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.
A Cashmere Lady
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.
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.
Miss Gohur, Prima Donna of India
The famous Indian singer Gohar Jan, queen of early LP recordings and the first Indian artist to be recorded on gramophone on November 2, 1902. Born in Azamgarh, north India as Angelina Yeoward in 1873 she became the most famous nautch girl and singer
