About Indian Post Ticket
Postage stamps and postal history of India
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the states with their own stamps, see Stamps and postal history of Indian states. For India Post, see Indian Postal Service.
The first stamp of independent India shows the new Indian Flag. It was meant for foreign correspondence.[1][2]
The second stamp depicts the Aśokan lions capital, the National Emblem of India, and was for domestic use.[1][2]
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of India.
Indian postal systems for efficient military and governmental
communications had developed long before the arrival of Europeans. When
the Portuguese, Dutch, French, Danish and British displaced The Marathas who had already defeated the Mughals, their postal systems existed alongside those of many somewhat independent states. The British East India Company
gradually displaced other powers and brought into existence a British
administrative system over most of India, with a need to establish and
maintain both official and commercial mail systems.
Although the Indian Post Office was established in 1837, Asia's first adhesive stamp, the Scinde Dawk, was introduced in 1852 by Sir Bartle Frere, the British East India Company's administrator of the province of Sind.
The Indian postal system developed into an extensive, dependable and
robust network providing connectivity to almost all parts of India, Burma, the Straits Settlements
and other areas controlled by the British East India Company (EIC).
Based on the model postal system introduced in England by the reformer, Rowland Hill,
efficient postal services were provided at a low cost and enabled the
smooth commercial, military and administrative functioning of the EIC
and its successor, the British Raj. The Imperial Posts co-existed with the several postal systems maintained by various Indian states,
some of which produced stamps for use within their respective
dominions, while British Indian postage stamps were required for sending
mail beyond the boundaries of these states. Telegraphy and telephony
made their appearance as part of the Posts before becoming separate
departments. After the Independence of India in 1947, the Indian postal
service continues to function on a countrywide basis and provides many
valuable, low cost services to the public of India.
Contents
Postal history of India
The Post in ancient and medieval India
The history of India's postal system begins long before the
introduction of postage stamps. The antecedents have been traced to the
systems of the Persian Empire instituted by Cyrus the Great and Darius I for communicating important military and political information. The Atharvaveda records a messenger service. Systems for collecting information and revenue data from the provinces are mentioned in Chanakya's Arthashastra (c. 3rd century BC).
In ancient times the kings, emperors, rulers, zamindars or the feudal lords protected their land through the intelligence services of specially trained police or military agencies and courier services to convey and obtain information through runners, messengers and even through pigeons. The chief of the secret service, known as the postmaster, maintained the lines of communication ... The people used to send letters to [their] distant relatives through their friends or neighbors.[3]
For centuries it was rare for messages to be carried by any means
other than a relay of runners on foot. A runner ran from one village or
relay post to the next, carrying the letters on a pole with a sharp
point. His was a dangerous occupation: the relay of postal runners
worked throughout the day and night, vulnerable to attacks by bandits
and wild animals. These mail runners were used chiefly by the rulers,
for purposes of gathering information and wartime news. They were
subsequently used by merchants for trade purpose. It was much later that mail runners came to be in use for the carriage of private mail.
The postal history of India primarily began with the overland routes, stretching from Persia
to India. What began as mere foot-tracks that more than often included
fords across the mountainous streams, gradually evolved over the
centuries as highways, used by traders and military envoys on foot and
horses, for carriage of missives.
The Arab influence of the Caliphate came about with the conquest of Sind by Muhammad bin Qasim
in 712 A.D. Thereupon, the Diwan-i-Barid or Department of Posts
established official communication across the far-flung empire. The
swiftness of the horse messengers finds mention in many of the
chronicles of that period.
The first Sultan of Delhi, Qutb-ud-din Aybak (Persian: قطب الدین ایبک) was Sultan for only four years, 1206–1210, but he founded the Mamluk Dynasty and created a messenger post system. This was expanded into the dak chowkis, a horse and foot runner service, by Alauddin Khilji in 1296. Sher Shah Suri (1541–1545) replaced runners with horses for conveyance of messages along the northern high road, today known as the Grand Trunk Road, which he constructed between Bengal and Sindh over an ancient trade route at the base of the Himalayas, the Uttarapatha. He also built 1700 'serais' where two horses were always kept for the despatch of the Royal Mail[4] Akbar introduced camels in addition to the horses and runners.[4]
In the South of India, in 1672 Raja Chuk Deo of Mysore began an efficient postal service which was further improved upon by Haider Ali.[4]
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