Lahore. The Golden Mosque.
This is an intriguing postcard because the mosque's domes are actually golden, from which it derives its name. Here they are rendered as blue.
Postcard
Raja Sandow
P.K. Raja Sandow (1894/5-1943) was one of the most famous silent film actors of India, and later a producer and director as well. Born in Tamil Nadu, he was given the name "Sandow" after a well-known German body-builder of the time.
Madras, Temple at Tirvalur
[Original caption] Madras, Temple at Trivalur.
Chetty Rice Merchant and Money Lender. Ceylon
[Original caption] The Chettya are one of the trading castes of India whose mercantile activities take them far afield.
Types of Men (I)
This is actually a real photograph postcard of a water colour on paper by M.V. Dhurandhar, part of a series by the artist on the people of Bombay. The recent and first major book on him, M.V. Dhurandhar The Romantic Realist (DAG, 2018) has three of
Bombay Police
A rare lithograph from 1907 or beyond. Note the British policeman in side profile, the local constable saluting him. They are nearly the same height. The background reveals itself to be a cutout of the city, the policeman's terrain.
Sardar Bhagat Singh
Bhagat Singh, who was hung in a Lahore jail on March 23, 1931 is the subject of continuing dispute in Lahore. Motions have been filed to name what is now a traffic chowk after Bhagat Singh. From The Times of India story: "Bhagat Singh Memorial
A Mountebank
A curious case of an Italian word finding itself stamped upon a postcard of a characteristic type in India (the fakir, in this case a mendacious one). Mountebank is an old word for a charlatan, or salesman of quack medicines.
In the Mosque of Machii-Kaman
Possibly the earliest postcard of Hyderabad, by the Austrian artist Josef Hoffman who painted this scene during a visit to India in 1893-94 when he was in his sixties.
Watching the Pageant, Delhi
[Original caption, Verso] “Watching the Pageant, Delhi. The great Delhi Durbar is known by means of the vernacular press to the inhabitants of the remotest parts of India.
