Bundi: the Dagger, the Sacred Cows and the State Post, 1894–1950

The state behind the stamp

Bundi was a principality of the Hada Chauhan Rajputs in the Hadoti region of Rajputana, now south-eastern Rajasthan. Its capital, also called Bundi, lies in a narrow valley about 36 kilometres from Kota, with the palace and fort rising above the town, and its history is shared with neighbouring Kota. On the 1909 map Bundi lies south-east of Ajmer, just north-west of Kotah.

Its stamps show the state’s authority in different forms: the dagger, the sacred cows, the state arms and finally the portraits of Bahadur Singh and views of the town. Rajasthan overprints carried the last Bundi designs into a new administration. Bundi was incorporated into the United States of Rajasthan in March 1948, but its separate post ended only on 1 April 1950.

The rulers

A ruler’s reign and the dates a stamp was issued or valid are different kinds of evidence.

Reign	Ruler	Note
1821–1889	Ram Singh	His long reign is the background to the later post; it ended before the first stamps
1889–1927	Raghubir Singh	Ruler when the first stamps appeared in 1894 and during the early Sacred Cow issues
1927–1945	Ishwari Singh	The later Sacred Cows and the 1941 arms set fall in his reign
from 1945	Bahadur Singh	His portrait is on the 1947 set; the state joined Rajasthan in 1948

A state made visible in its post

Adhesive stamps were introduced on 1 May 1894 in a State post that already existed. The first half annas were lithographed, every stamp drawn on the stone, so paper, drawing and sheet arrangement are what identify them.^[1]

The Sacred Cow design brought another method: four typographic clichés with replaceable inscription tablets, used for decades in many values, papers and settings. The 1947 set put Bahadur Singh on the lower values and Bundi town on the two highest, and these stamps were overprinted for Rajasthan before the service passed to the Indian Postal Department.

In December 1903 the authorities told The Philatelic Journal of India, through Mr. Lovell Pigott, that the half anna was the only stamp then used for postage, and reported that the Bundi rupee was worth about 20% less than the British Indian rupee, an approximate comparison of that date.^[B42][B31]

The chapters that follow take the dagger stamps of 1894–1899, the Sacred Cows, the arms and portrait sets with the Rajasthan overprints, the Service stamps, how the post worked (tariffs, currency and formula postcards), covers and postmarks, and forgeries and collecting.

Chronology

Date	Event
1 May 1894	Adhesive stamps introduced in the existing State post; first half-anna printing reported as 3,000
7 December 1894	Second half-anna printing, reported as 10,000, in an unequal sheet of 294
1 November 1896	Third half-anna printing, 12,800, on laid commercial paper
Autumn 1897	Stewart-Wilson’s enquiry; assurance that no more eight annas and one rupee would be printed
1 July 1897	Higher values introduced on papers with commercial watermarks
14 January – 5 February 1898	Four, two, one and half anna printings (Evans’s dates of manufacture)
3 and 7 July 1898	Eight annas (6,000) and one rupee (5,640) printed again
9 November 1898	Four annas with the dagger facing left, 2,000
About mid-1899	A fresh drawing of the one anna
28 February 1901	Evans publishes the complete sheet of 294
31 October 1902	Stanley Gibbons Monthly Journal relays news of an Imperial takeover; not an abolition order
December 1903	The half anna reported as the only stamp then used for postage
1908	The Imperial Gazetteer describes Bundi’s local post and its stamps
October 1914	Half-anna Sacred Cow issued
February 1915	Two and four annas Sacred Cows
12 December 1917	Our Day Red Cross label (Benns); postal use unproved
25 March, 12 May and 25 August 1924	Tariff and postcard instructions; formula cards sent for sale; earliest recorded use 5 September
9 February 1929	Shree Rangnath Press registration form, 800 printed
1 and 11 October 1938	Hali currency abolished; postal instructions to Nainwa in Kaldar
1941–1944	State arms set, in sheets of twelve
1941/42	Payment and Service stamps for official mail introduced (administration report)
1947	Portrait and town set, printed by the Times of India Press, Bombay
25 March 1948	Union of Rajasthan inaugurated, including Bundi
1948–1949	Rajasthan handstamps and machine-printed overprints on the 1947 stamps
1 April 1950	Bundi’s separate post ends; Indian stamps replace the State’s

The stamps

The issues and their values, from the research checklist. Service stamps, the shades, papers, settings and inscription types are not listed; one anna was twelve pies.

Period	Issue	Values
1894; 1896	Early katar dagger	½ anna — May 1894, ½ anna — December 1894, ½ anna — November 1896
1897–1900	Dagger; narrow and wider blades, including left-pointing variety	½ anna, 1 anna, 2 annas, 4 annas, 8 annas, 1 rupee
1914–41	Maharao and sacred cows	¼ anna, ½ anna, 1 anna, 2 annas, 2½ annas, 3 annas, 4 annas, 6 annas, 8 annas, 10 annas, 12 annas, 1 rupee, 2 rupees, 3 rupees, 4 rupees, 5 rupees
Catalogued 1941	Redrawn cow design	¼ anna, ½ anna, 1 anna, 2 annas
1941–45	State arms	3 pies, 6 pies, 1 anna, 2 annas, 4 annas, 8 annas, 1 rupee
1947	Bahadur Singh portraits; Bundi town	¼ anna, ½ anna, 1 anna, 2 annas, 4 annas, 8 annas, 1 rupee
1948–49	1947 Bundi stamps handstamped RAJASTHAN (rajasthan overprint)	¼ anna, ½ anna, 1 anna, 2 annas, 4 annas, 8 annas, 1 rupee
1949	1947 Bundi stamps, machine overprint in black (rajasthan overprint)	2 annas, 4 annas, 8 annas, 1 rupee

Sources

• [1] “The Stamps of Bundi”, reprinted from The Philatelic Journal of India, The Philatelic Record, vol. 20, 1898, pp. 36–37.
• [B31] Stanley Gibbons Monthly Journal, vol. 14, 30 January 1904, p. 136.
• [B42] The Philatelic Journal of India, vol. VII, no. 12, December 1903, p. 344.
• Census of India 2011, District Census Handbook, Bundi, Part B, Brief history of the district, p. 10.
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art, object M.75.19: Ram Singh of Bundi, reigned 1821–1889.
• Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art Archives, FSA.A1999.01_ref30: Raghubir, Ishwari and Bahadur Singh of Bundi.