About Me

My photo
I am collecting Indian Heritage and culture related vintage postcards, paintings, prints etc. and exhibited them at several locations across India in various events and also sharing them with school and college children by giving presentations to them on Indian Heritage and Culture with my collections and also documenting puppetry etc. intangible performances.

Sunday 30 December 2012

Indian Woman in 19th Century Vintage Post Cards

These are several vintage post cards of Indian Woman in the 19th Century.

I do not own any one of these vintage post cards. One ebay seller from United Kingdom allowing his vintage post cards scans in my Heritage of India blog. Thank you my friend for allowing your post card scans for sharing them in my blog.

Please look into the photographs of these vintage post cards. The sari wearing style etc. many traditional things we obversed in these vintage post cards.

In those golden days of  19th Century to early 20th Century there will be a great respect to Indian Woman. 

From the puranic period onwards people give great respect to Indian woman. There will be many respected Indian Woman in Indian history from many generations like Sita, Savitri, Sati Anasuya Maa, Draupadi, Sarada Maatha, Jhansi Lakshmibhai, Smt.M.S.Subbulakshmi and many others. These are only few names. But in the history there will be several Indian Woman who have played significant role in many generations from the Puranic period onwards.

But unfortunately in the present day Indian woman faced many troubles and some of them were faced very awkward, disastrous, fearful and shameful things. Particularly it is a very sad thing happened to the 23 year old young braveheart Indian woman who fought nearly 2 weeks for survival but finally she died.It is a great thing that entire Indian nation will mourn for her and light the candles for her.Even though she is not physically with us but she always lived in our hearts.

Here i am sharing these Indian Woman in the 19th Century vintage post cards.

I hope after seeing these post cards atleast some people trying to change their mindset and give dignity and respect to woman.

From my side it is my humble and noble tribute(homage) to the 23 year old Young Indian Braveheart sister.




























Friday 28 December 2012

Fairs of India

This is Fairs of India Miniature Sheet issued by postal department in my collection.

In this miniature sheet there will be 4 different stamps depicting pictorial information about 4 different important Fairs of India. 

The 4 Fairs are

1. Sonerpur Fair

2. Pushkar Fair

3. Goa Carnival 

4. Baul Mela which mentioned in this miniature sheet with relevant stamp.


Buddhasree Archaeological Museum Guntur Brochure

This is Buddhasree Archaeological Museum Guntur Brochure in my collection. This brochure gives information about several artifacts preserved in the museum.






Heritage of India vintage books and magazines

This is a vintage book named "The Handbook of India" published by Publication Division of Ministry of Tourism in the year 1958. The back cover of this book is missing. Inside the book there will be many black and white pictures alongwith brief information on several tourist places of India. It is my pleasure as i am having a copy of this vintage book.


Also i have a vintage copy of Discover India magazine which published monthly covered wide range of topics relating to Heritage of India.


Tlusi Manas Mandir Varanasi vintage post card

This is Tlusi Manas Mandir Varanasi vintage post card in my collection.



The Asiatic Society Calcutta



WHEN THE ASIATIC SOCIETY was established on 15 January 1784, its founder Sir William Jones (1746-1794) began his work with a dream, that visualised a centre for Asian studies including almost everything concerning man and nature within the geographical limits of the continent. Most of the mysteries of this vast land, like its old inscriptions in Brahmi, were still undeciphered, and Comparative Philology as a discipline or science was not yet born.

In the early days of the Asiatic Society, William Jones for all his efforts could not procure even a slice of land wherein to house his dream. The Society which in no time was to be regarded as the first and best of its kind in the whole world had no permanent address, no fixed place for holding its meetings and, which was most disconcerting, no funds.

Sir William Jones, an outstanding scholar from Oxford, arrived in Calcutta on 25 September 1783 as a Puisne Judge of the Old Supreme Court. While still on board of the frigate Crococlile carrying him from England to India, he prepared a memorandum detailing his plan of study. This included “the laws of the Hindus and Mahomedans; the history of the ancient world; proofs and illustrations of scripture; traditions concerning the deluge; modern politics and geography of Hindusthan; Arithmatic and Geometry and mixed sciences of Asiaticks; Medicine, Chemistry, Surgery and Anatomy of the Indians; natural products of India; poetry, rhetoric and morality of Asia; music of the Eastern nations; the best accounts of Tibet and Kashmir; trade, manufactures, agriculture and commerce of India: Mughal constitution, Marhatta constitution etc." This memorandum could easily be regarded as an early draft of the memorandum of the Asiatic Society itself. The Society which was still in the imagination of Jones was actually founded within four months of his arrival in India.

William Jones was, however, not the earliest among the Orientalists of the East India Company to arrive in India. About a decade earlier came Charles Wilkins (1770), Nathaniel Brassey Halhed (1772) and Jonathan Duncan (1772):Warren Hastings's "bright young men",who had paved the way for the two future institutions- The Asiatic Society and the College at Fort William. All the Orientalists who became famous in history clustered around either the Society or the College or both. The Society, of course, was the pioneer and first in the field.

While others were thinking in terms of individual study and research, Sir William Jones was the first man to think in terms of a permanent organisation for Oriental studies and researches on a grand scale in this country. He took the initiative and in January 1784 sent out a circular letter to selected persons of the elite with a view to establishing a Society for this purpose. In response to his letter, thirty European gentlemen of Calcutta including Mr. Justice John Hyde, John Carnac, Henry Vansittart, John Shore, Charles Wilkins, Francis Gladwin, Jonathan Duncan and others gathered on 15 January 1784 in the Grand Jury Room of the old Supreme Court of Calcutta. The Chief Justice Sir Robert Chambers presided at the first meeting and Jones delivered his first discourse in which he put forward his plans for the Society.

Asia, he said, was the "nurse of sciences" and the "inventress of delightful and useful arts." He proposed to found a Society under the name of The Asiatic Society. All the thirty European gentlemen who had assembled accepted the membership of this Society. The name went through a number of changes like The Asiatic Society (1784-1825), The Asiatic Society (1825-1832), The Asiatic Society of Bengal (1832-1935), The Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal (1936-1951) and The Asiatic Society again since July 1951. 

The above text courtesy from the website of Asiatic Society, Calcutta.


In my collection i have Bi-Centenary of the Asiatic Society first day cover issued by Indian Postal Department on 15th January, 1984.

This first day cover issued with the stamp of Asiatic society building along with the portrait of Sir William Jones inside the stamp.




In the year 1997 i received a letter from The Asiatic Society, Calcutta. This is the Asiatic Society, Calcutta letter to me.





Somanathapura Temple Mysore

Somanathapura ಸೋಮನಾಥಪುರ (also known as Somnathpur) is a town located 35 Kilometers from Mysore City in Mysore District of Karnataka State.  Somanathapura is famous for Chennakesava Temple  (also called Kesava or Keshava temple) built by Soma, a dandanayaka (commander) in 1268 CE under Hoyasala King Narasimha III, when the Hoyasalas were the Major power in South India. The Keshava temple is one of the finest example of Hoyasala Architecture and is in a very well preserved condition.  This temple is in the card of Archaeological Survey of India as a Protected Heritage Site and visitors are allowed only from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM.

The above text courtesy from the Wikipedia.org website.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somanathapura


In my collection i have a special cover on Somanathapura Temple,Mysore issued by Mysore Philatelics on the ocassion of NUPHIL'08 (Numismatic and Philatelic Exhibition) held at Mysore between 31st October to 2nd November 2008.

This is my special cover on Somanathapura Temple,Mysore.




Taj Mahal Agra vintage post cards

This is Taj Mahal Agra vintage post card in my collection.
















This is Taj Mahal miniature sheet issued by postal department in my collection. This miniature sheet is cancelled with Taj Mahal stamp and pictorial cancellation.


This is Taj Mahal Agra post card in my collection.

This is 4 Rupees Air Mail post card issued  by Indian Postal Department in the year 1989 on the ocassion of INDIA-89 World Philatelic Exhibition held at New Delhi.


This is Taj Mahal Agra vintage Russian Painting Post Card in my collection.


This is Taj Mahal Agra vintage greeting card in my collection.



Rath Yatra Puri


Ratha Yatra (Oriya: ରଥଯାତ୍ରା) or the Car Festival is a huge Hindu Festival associated with Lord Jagannath held at  Puri in the State of Orissa, India.

This annual festival is celebrated on Ashad Shukla Dwitiya (second day in bright fortnight of Ashad month). In 2012 it falls on the 28th of June.

The festival commemorates Lord Jagannath's  annual visit to Gundicha mata's temple via aunt's home (Mausi Maa Temple which is near Balagandi Chaka in Puri).

As part of Rath Yatra, the idols of Lord Puri Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Subhadra are taken out in a procession to Gundicha Temple and remain there for nine days. Then the idols or Rath Yatra returns to Puri Jagannath temple. The return journey of Puri Jagannath Rath Yatra is known as Bahuda Yatra.

The Festival

Three richly decorated chariots resembling temple structures, are pulled through the streets of Puri called Badadanda. This commemorates the annual journey of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra, and their sister Subhadra to their aunt's temple, the Gundicha Temple which is situated at a distance of 2 km from their temple. This is the only day when devotees who are not allowed in the temple premises such as non-Hindus and foreigners can get their glimpse of the deities. During the festival, devotees from all over the World go to Puri with an earnest desire to help pull Lords' chariot with the help of other priests pulling the chariots with ropes. They consider this a pious deed and risk their lives in the huge crowd. The huge processions accompanying the chariots play devotional songs with drums, tambourines, trumpets etc. Children line the streets through which the chariot will pass and add to the mass chorus. The Rath carts themselves are some approximately 45 feet (14 m) high and are pulled by the thousands of pilgrims who turn up for the event; the chariots are built anew each year only from a particular type of tree. Millions of devotees congregate at Puri for this annual event from all over the country and abroad. It is also broadcast live on many Indian, foreign television channels as well as many of the websites telecast jagannath ratha yatra live.
The above text courtesy from the website of wikipedia.org


Ratha Jatra, the Festival of Chariots of Lord Jagannatha is celebrated every year at Puri, the temple town in Orissa, on the east coast of India. The presiding deities of the main temple, Sri Mandira, Lord Jagannatha, Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra, with the celestial wheel Sudarshana are taken out from the temple precincts in an elaborate ritual procession to their respective chariots. The huge, colourfully decorated chariots, are drawn by hundreds and thousands of devotees on the bada danda, the grand avenue to the Gundicha temple, some two miles away to the North. After a stay for seven days, the deities return to their abode in Srimandira.

Ratha Jatra is perhaps the grandest festival on earth. Everything is on a scale befitting the great Lord. Full of spectacle, drama and colour, the festival is a typical Indian fair of huge proportions. It is also the living embodiment of the synthesis of the tribal, the folk, and the autochthonous with the classical, the elaborately formal and the sophisticated elements of the socio-cultural-religious ethos of the Indian civilization.


the above text courtesy from the website of rathjatra.nic.in website.

In my collection i have a miniature sheet of Rath Yatra puri issued by Postal Department along with a Rath Yatra Puri maxim card.



Thursday 27 December 2012

Madurai Meenakshi Temple Vintage Telugu Pictorial Book (ఇది మదురై మీనాక్షి దేవాలయము గురించి వివరించే చిత్రములతో ఉన్న పాత తెలుగు పుస్తకము)

This is a small vintage period pictorial book on Madurai Meenakshi Temple in Telugu language in my collection. This book has valuable information about the Temple alongwith many pictures.

ఇది మదురై మీనాక్షి దేవాలయము గురించి వివరించే చిత్రములతో ఉన్న పాత తెలుగు పుస్తకము.ఈ పుస్తకములో మదురై మీనాక్షి దేవాలయము యొక్క వివరములు అనేక చిత్రములతో వివిరించబడినవి. ఈ పుస్తములో దేవాలయ ప్రాంగణములో ఉన్న అనేక శిల్పముల యొక్క ఫోటోలు చూడవచ్చును.