"Hindustani girls" was used to refer to women from "Hindustan," or the broad belt across northern India east of Punjab known as U.P., then "United Provinces" and now "Uttar Pradesh." It would have been a term appropriate to a Peshawar based
An unusual portrait of a dancing girl, simply dressed, with her hands above her head, against a flattened studio backdrop, probably in Mumbai.
The role of nautch or "dancing" girl was changing at the time of this postcard. S.S.
A slightly unusual portrait of two nautch girls in what seems like a room but is likely a studio given the painted column on the left. The bed is a prop, and the woman seated on the floor is apparently holding a mirror to the woman seated on the bed.
An apparently hand-stenciled color card likely made from a photograph at the Ravi Varma Press facilities in Karla, outside Mumbai. Note how carefully everyone, especially the two dancers, are holding their pose in this vibrant frozen moment.
The claim that this is a much extolled Kashmiri beauty is probably true, as this particular woman seems to appear on other postcards from the period. She is wearing the traditional Kashmiri dress, the pheran, and could be wearing a watch on her left
Among the earliest known postcards of Kolkata, by a local and likely Austrian,photographer. Note the four tiny titles below each vignette for those eager to know.
Professional dancing girls were among the most popular early postcard subjects. These two dancing girls are probably from Lucknow as the painting in the studio background on the left recalls the Chutter Manzil in Lucknow.
A skirt or longyis is topped by a loosely fitted long sleeve shirt and the lady wears two necklaces, one a choker and another a longer one.
The former Angelina Yeoward (1873-1930) became one of the most famous singers in India, and one of its first gramophone-recorded artists.
