(Kashmir Rechords Archival Exclusive)
Most of us know that the erstwhile State of Jammu & Kashmir had its own currency. But how many know that it also had its own postage stamps and postal system?
The Dogra state began issuing its own postal stamps in 1866, during the reign of Maharaja Ranbir Singh — part of a wider tradition among several princely states of maintaining their own postal arrangements.
The story, however, is much bigger than the stamps themselves.
Its postal history encompasses different issues, cancellations and markings associated with Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, revealing a communications network that stretched across an extraordinarily difficult geographical landscape.
They were evidence of a functioning state.
These were not merely pieces of paper.
Stamps that carried the imprint of a State
The old Dogra postal stamps, cancellation seals, dies and printing plates provide glimpses into how the administration communicated across its territory.
A cancellation could identify a particular post office. A seal could establish the existence of a postal centre. A stamp could reveal the administrative system under which a letter travelled.
And the geographical spread of these markings — from Jammu and Kashmir to places such as Gilgit, Skardu and Leh — offers a fascinating picture of the reach of the Dogra postal network.
But much of this history might have remained scattered and forgotten had one remarkable Jammu & Kashmir scholar not gone looking for it.
B. P. Sharma: The Man Who Went Looking
In August 1981, a newspaper report carried the headline:“Rare Postal Seals, Stamps Recovered”
At the centre of the story was B. P. Sharma, then President of the Dogri Research Institute and already known for his extraordinary knowledge of Jammu & Kashmir.
Sharma had undertaken extensive research into the old postal system and had studied 136 postal cancellation and special seals used by different post offices.
More remarkably, he preserved impressions of the seals he examined.
The newspaper reproduced examples of some of the earliest cancellation stamps of the J&K State Post Offices, including markings associated with: Gilgit • Skardu • Sialkot • Kashmir
Sharma did not stop with cancellation marks.He also examined postage-stamp dies, printing plates, revenue stamps and telegraph stamps.
He recorded the use of Dogri and Persian in postal markings and examined material preserved in the Pratap Museum, Srinagar. This was no ordinary philatelic exercise. Sharma was attempting to reconstruct the physical evidence of a postal administration that had disappeared decades earlier.
Foreign Scholar who came looking for Dogra Post
And then came another extraordinary chapter.
In September 1981, a newspaper reported on Frits Staal, a professor from the University of California, Berkeley, who had come to Jammu & Kashmir to research the postal system of the Dogras.
Staal had already visited Jammu the previous year to collect material for his research.
But he wanted more than documents and stamps. He wanted to understand how the postal system actually worked.
So he travelled into the mountains. He went to Ladakh and Zanskar, travelling on foot through the terrain over which Dogra postal runners had once carried mail.
He studied the mountain passes and routes because the story of the Dogra post could not be fully understood without understanding the extraordinary landscape through which the mail travelled.
He was also learning Dogri, in part to understand the old postal markings and inscriptions.
Two Researchers, One Forgotten History
There is something remarkable about the coincidence.
In the same period that B. P. Sharma was recovering old seals, stamps, dies and printing material, Frits Staal was travelling through Jammu & Kashmir to reconstruct the operation of the Dogra postal system.
One was recovering the physical evidence. The other was tracing the routes and working of the system.
One possessed decades of local knowledge. The other brought an international scholarly interest to a little-known subject.
And their paths crossed. B. P. Sharma contributed to Staal’s important work, The Stamps of Jammu & Kashmir, published in 1983.
Thus, a foreign scholar’s study of Dogra philately also carried the contribution of a remarkable Jammu & Kashmir researcher whose knowledge of the region had earned him the description “Walking Encyclopaedia of Jammu and Kashmir.”
When a Stamp Becomes History
The Dogra postal system eventually passed into the Imperial Indian postal administration in 1894. The state’s own postal stamps disappeared from regular use. But the evidence survived.
In stamps.In cancellations.In seals.In dies and plates.In old documents.And, importantly, in the memory and research of people like B. P. Sharma.
Look at an old Dogra stamp today and it may appear to be little more than a collector’s item.But behind that tiny piece of paper lies a much larger story:
A state with its own postal administration; a network extending across Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh; postal runners crossing formidable mountain passes; and scholars decades later trying to reconstruct how the entire system worked.
A Question for Our Readers
We often discover history in monuments, books and official records. But sometimes history survives in something as small as a postage stamp. So here is a question for our readers:
Did you know that Jammu & Kashmir had its own postal stamps and postal system more than 150 years ago?
Did you know that B. P. Sharma studied 136 of its old postal cancellation and special seals?
And did you know that a foreign scholar travelled on foot through Ladakh and Zanskar to understand how the Dogra postal system actually functioned?
What is your reaction to this little-known chapter of Jammu & Kashmir’s history?
Did you, or someone in your family, ever come across old Dogra stamps, postal covers or seals?
Tell us in the comments. Your recollection may itself be a piece of history.
KASHMIR RECHORDS
Bringing forgotten pages of Jammu & Kashmir’s history back into the public record.