Kishangarh’s Darbar Post and Postmarks

The State post beside the British offices, the 1902 report of absorption that did not come true, the State’s own office counts from 1906 to 1943, money orders, lorries, officials, presses and how to read a RAJ. P.O. mark.

Two separate networks

Kishangarh’s stamps belonged to the Darbar’s own post, not to the British Indian post offices inside the state. The Imperial Gazetteer describes four British post offices, three of them with telegraphs, beside thirteen State offices, ten runners and a local network of 65 miles. These are separate counts, not one list of seventeen offices, and the Gazetteer gives no date for its postal paragraph: it is a picture of the early twentieth century, not a census for its year of publication.^[5]

Spelling needs care. Kishengarh, with an e, is a familiar spelling of the time on stamps and in catalogues and should be kept when reading a cancellation. Evans warned that directories listed both Kishangarh and another Kishengarh farther north, while the State’s stamps used the second spelling; identify an office from the whole cancellation and its setting, not from one vowel.^[1]

The 1902 report of absorption

In September 1902 The Philatelic Record reported that Alwur, Bundi and Kishengarh would issue no more stamps, their posts having been absorbed into the Imperial Post of India. It named its informant as Mr Stewart-Wilson. The Stanley Gibbons Monthly Journal repeated the news, crediting the Record, so the two notices are not independent.^[25][1]

The report shows what collectors were being told in 1902. It gives no date or terms for a postal agreement, and its prediction failed: Evans pointed out in 1904 that new stamps had appeared, and the State’s own later reports go on recording its post offices. It stays a reported development, not a closing date.^[25][1]

What collectors saw in 1899 and 1900

Evans separated what collectors had seen from what the State had established. He recalled a report of December 1899 naming only Arain and Kishengarh, then a list in The Philatelic Journal of India of March 1900 adding five offices whose postmarks had been seen: Arkeri, Bandersindri, Didwara, Kuchil and Salemabad (Arkeri is his spelling). These show what marks were known, not when each office opened, and the first two-office report was never a full census.^[1]

The State’s own counts

The State’s administration reports give firmer dated counts. The report for Sambat 1963, covering 19 September 1906 to 7 October 1907, records eighteen post offices, one of them opened during the year. There were still eighteen in the report for 26 September 1908 to 14 October 1909, which proposed new offices at Fatehgarh and Gothiana. The report for 4 October 1910 to 23 September 1911 records twenty-one, without naming the three new ones or saying when the two proposals were carried out. The reporting periods differ from the years the reports were printed, 1908, 1910 and 1912.^[13][14][15]

Reporting period	State offices	What the count shows
19 September 1906 – 7 October 1907	18	One office opened during the period; its name is not given
26 September 1908 – 14 October 1909	18	Fatehgarh and Gothiana proposed, not proved opened
4 October 1910 – 23 September 1911	21	A total, not a list of openings
1 November 1938 – 31 October 1939	29	Against 23 the year before
1 November 1940 – 31 October 1941	34	Unchanged from the year before; postal arrangements in every tehsil except Satolao
Samvat 1998, in the report for 1941–43	34, reduced to 30	Both figures printed against Samvat 1998; the cut followed fewer tehsils, with no office names or closing dates

State post offices in the administration reports, by reporting period.^{[13][14][15][16][17][18]}

State money orders and local currency

The report for the year ending July 1904 refers to State postal money orders. Its Mint section says that Imperial rupees were now allowed in remittances paid to the public through them, as part of an effort to encourage Imperial rather than local currency. So the State had a money-order service by then, though its start and any exchange agreement with the Imperial Post Office are unknown.^[12]

The difference of currency was real. The report for 1908–09 values the commonly used Choisania rupee at eleven British annas; that for 1910–11 gives nine and a half British annas for the Choisaniya rupee. These are exchange rates, not postage, and they do not allow stamp values to be converted or the currency of every charge to be guessed.^[14][15]

Lorries and runners

In 1938–39 the State reported twenty-nine post offices, against twenty-three the year before, and fourteen runners. The interior Raj post offices worked through the tehsildars. Mail went by lorry to Sarwar, Rupnagar and Arain, and by runner elsewhere.^[16]

The report for 1940–41 records thirty-four Raj post offices, unchanged from the year before, with postal arrangements in every tehsil except Satolao, thirteen runners, and Karkeri added to the places served by lorry. The report for Samvat 1998–1999 records the cut from thirty-four offices to thirty after tehsils were reduced, and again describes motor carriage to Sarwar, Rupnagar, Karkeri and Arain, with runners elsewhere. These describe transport at their dates; they are not a timetable, nor proof of the route of a particular cover.^[17][18]

The people who ran the post

The report for 1938–39 places the State Post Offices under Mr. Nathoo Lal, Sarishtedar of the Revenue Department. The report for 1940–41 names Mr. Nathulal Mattar as in charge throughout the year; it gives him no title such as Postmaster-General. The names are printed differently and, without more evidence, should be kept as separate entries rather than one man’s continuous service. Neither is credited with designing or printing stamps.^[16][17]

Local presses and State printing

The reports name printers working for the State, but never as postage-stamp printers. In 1906–07 the private Sardul Gyan Sagar Press did job work and vernacular printing for the State. The report for 1908–09 says that an unnamed press “did not do much work”, without saying why or which press. The report for 1910–11 describes a new press opened the year before by N. Parasar, which had done the State’s work satisfactorily. The Ajmer printers named on the reports’ title pages printed the reports, not stamps.^[13][14][15]

Reading a State datestamp

Evans describes circular State datestamps, usually with the office name above and RAJ. P.O. below. Early strikes have dates written by hand; movable type followed. His earliest legible movable-type date read KISHENGARH 7 JU 00, on a one-anna stamp on an entire envelope with an Arain backstamp written by hand. He said he had too few examples to date the change. Keep the reading JU as it is, and do not treat a handwritten date as non-postal.^[1]

Transcribe both halves of the circle: RAJ. P. O., the office name and occasional different lower inscriptions can separate similar marks. Describe a faint red strike as partly illegible when it is; filling the gaps from a catalogue gives false precision.^[1]

Half anna slate-blue on a native cover catalogued as Arain to Kishangarh City, February 1900, the office circles dated by hand. Christoph Gärtner, 17th auction, 7 March 2011, lot 1314.^[8]

One anna pink imperforate on piece, catalogued with the 1899–1901 family, with a Kishangarh Raj P.O. mark of 1 May 1900. Christoph Gärtner, 17th auction, lot 1316.^[8]

Four annas chestnut on a folded native letter with a Kishangarh Raj P.O. strike catalogued as 1 September 1911: the date of use of an older design, not its date of issue. Christoph Gärtner, 17th auction, lot 1318.^[8]

Four annas brown portrait on a folded notice with a Kishangarh strike of 27 January 1938; a notice form, not evidence of a four-anna letter rate. Christoph Gärtner, 17th auction, lot 1342.^[8]

A dated cancellation can still be forged

Evert Klaseboer’s catalogue identifies a KISHENGARH / 23 AP 04 / RAJPO cancellation as a Fournier forgery and illustrates suspect stamps with a strike of that date. That is a specific warning, not a reason to doubt every Kishangarh cancellation. A readable date alone does not prove postal use: compare the whole strike, the stamp and, where possible, the cover.^[3]

Kishangarh’s Darbar Post: Offices, Runners, Lorries, Money Orders and Postmarks