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The world's first airmail service took off in Allahabad, India
Pigeons and post were never the same again after a fund-raising venture to build a hostel took off on February 18, 1911, from Allahabad. In just 13 minutes, as thousands gathered at the parade ground in Allahabad cheered, the world's first official airmail was delivered at Naini.
The flying machine was carrying a cargo of historic importance -- 6,500 letters. It was a demonstration flight for an exhibition in which French aviator Henri Piquet was participating. The exhibition was organised to ``advance'' the knowledge of Indians about the airplane and flying.
Piquet's Humber-Sommer biplane was one of the two machines being displayed by Englishman Walter Windham at the exhibition. It was Windham who conceived the idea of the first aerial post during his stay in Allahabad. He was invited by the United Provinces government to participate in the annual commercial and cultural exposition at Allahabad and bring planes and pilots for thedemonstration. A request from the chaplain of the Holy Trinity Church in Allahabad changed Piquet's afternoon test flight into a historic event. Windham reminisced later: ``The respected clergyman... asked me if I could help him to raise funds for his new hostel, and it occurred to me that this could be done by inaugurating an aerial post.''
Windham even designed the special postmark for the event showing the silhouette of a biplane flying over the mountains of Asia and cut at the insistence of the government in the Postal Works, Aligarh. No stamps were used.
For the event, the postmaster general of the United Province, Sir Geoffrey Clarke, and the director-general of the post office in India granted approval for mail to be officially received.
The public was invited to deliver stamped and addressed mail to the chaplain enclosing either six pence or six annas with each letter as a contribution to the hostel fund. For safety and convenience, the distance travelled by the plane was restricted to fivemiles. The biplane crossed over to the left bank of the Yamuna before landing near the jail in Naini town on the outskirts of Allahabad. The mail was turned over to the postal officials for surface transport to destinations all over the world. After this milestone, it was only in 1929 that the first regular airmail service between Karachi and Delhi began.
When Tata Sons Ltd established the first Indian airline in 1932, they also started a weekly airmail service. The service operated between Karachi and Madras via Ahmedabad, Bombay and Bellary.
Most of the events in India's aerial post history happened after Independence. In 1949, the Night Airmail Scheme was launched, revolutionising the mail delivery system.
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Asoka's Pillar, Monolith in Fort, Allahabad
Photograph of the Ashoka Pillar in Allahabad, from an Album of Miscellaneous views in India, taken by Thomas A.Rust in the 1870s. Ashoka (reigned ca. 272-231 BC) was the most illustrious king of the Maurya dynasty. After his conquest of Kalinga in Orissa, struck with remorse at the suffering he caused, he converted to Buddhism and spent the rest of his life propagating his dharma (law). In order to achieve this, he had numerous edicts inscribed on rocks, pillars and caves, throughout his vast empire. These are written in various vernaculars and represent the earliest written document from the Indic regions. From these edicts it appears that Ashoka was an extremely tolerant and benevolent monarch. This pillar was originally erected in the 3rd century BC by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka. The pillar was moved to Allahabad, in front of the gateway to the Allahabad Fort, in 1583 by Akbar. The pillar made of polished stone extends 10.7 m in height and is incised with an Ashokan edict.
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Allahabad - Naini flight 1911 forged post mark of world´s first official airmail
This is a dangerous forgery of the special cancellation used on the Allahabad to Naini Junction flight on the 18th February 1911. It is backstamped Allahabad 18 FE 11 and Bombay Fort 20 FE 11, both forgeries. The genuine Allahabad cancellation of this period has a series of breaks in the outer rings. This is a doctored half anna postal stationary envelope which never went through any post-flown or otherwise.
[Source: http://www.ffejournal.com]
Baniya's shop, Allahabad
Title: Baniya's shop, Allahabad
Type: Etching
Creator: Pedder, John
Year of Illustration: 1891
Location: India -- North-West provinces, Oudh -- Allhabad
Occupation: Baniyas
Ethnic Group: Indian
Other Keywords: Crafts
Title of Book: Picturesque India
Author: Caine, W. S. (William Sproston)
Publication Details: London: G. Routledge, 1891 (p.372)
[Source: http://libweb.hawaii.edu/libdept/asia/books/india/]
INDIGO-FACTORY NEAR ALLAHABAD.
But we had to leave it finally—it and Agra—and after a railway journey of some twelve hours, as we were nearing Allahabad my companion began, in accordance with his custom, to give me a little preliminary view of the peculiarities of the town.
"We are now approaching," he said, "a city which distinguishes itself from those which you have seen by the fact that besides a very rich past it has also a very bright future. It is situated at the southern point of the Lower Doab, whose fertile and richly-cultivated plains you have been looking at to-day. These plains, with their wealth, converge to a point at Allahabad, narrowing with the approach of the two rivers,—the Ganges and the Jumna—that enclose them. The Doab, in fact, derives its name from do, "two," and ab, "rivers." But Allahabad, besides being situated at the junction of the two great water-ways of India—for here the Jumna unites with the Ganges—is also equally distant from the great extremes of Bombay, Calcutta, and Lahore, and here centres the railway system which unites these widely-separated points. Add to this singular union of commercial advantages the circumstance—so important in an India controlled by Englishmen—that the climate, though warm, is perfectly wholesome, and you will see that Allahabad must soon be a great emporium of trade."
[Source: http://www.gutenberg.org]
Henri Péquet completes the first airmail flight on 18 February 1911 from Allahabad to Naini Junction.
[Source: http://www.historyofaircargo.com]
Monday, November 20, 2006
History of Prayag
Allahabad or Prayagraj is a historian's paradise. History lies embedded everywhere, in its fields, forests and settlements. Forty-eight kilometres, towards the southwest, on the placid banks of the Jamuna, the ruins of Kaushambi, capital of the Vatsa kingdom and a thriving center of Buddhism, bear silent testimony to a forgotten and bygone era. On the eastern side, across the river Ganga and connected to the city by the Shastri Bridge is Jhusi, identified with the ancient city of Pratisthanpur, capital of the Chandra dynasty. About 58 kilometres northwest is the medieval site of Kara with its impressive wreckage of Jayachand's fort. Sringverpur, another ancient site discovered relatively recently, has become a major attraction for tourists and antiquarians alike.
Prayag is an extremely important and integral part of the Ganga Yamuna Doab, and its history is inherently tied with that of the Doab region, right from the inception of the town.
The city was known earlier as Prayāga - a name that is still commonly used. That it is an ancient town, is illustrated by references in the Vedas (circa 1500 B.C.) to Prayag, where Brahma, the Hindu Creator of the Universe, is believed to have attended a sacrificial ritual. Excavations have revealed Northern Black Polished ware objects in Prayag, further corroborating the conjecture that Prayag existed as a town as early as 1100 B.C.
When the Aryans first settled in what they termed the Aryavarta, or Madhyadesha, Prayag or Kaushambi was an important part of their territory. The Vatsa (a branch of the early Indo-Aryans) were rulers of Hastinapur (near present day Delhi), and they established the town of Kaushambi near present day Prayag. They shifted their capital to Kaushambi when Hastinapur was destroyed by floods.
In the times of the Ramayana, Prayag was made up of a few rishis' huts at the confluence of the sacred rivers, and much of the vats country was continuous jungle. Lord Rama, the main protagonist in the Ramayana, spent some time here, at the Ashram of Sage Bharadwaj, before proceeding to nearby Chitrakoot.
The Doaba region, including Prayag was controlled by several empires and dynasties in the ages to come. It became a part of the Mauryan and Gupta empires of the east and the Kushan empire of the west before becoming part of the local Kannauj empire which became very powerful.
Objects unearthed in Prayag indicate that it was part of the Kushana empire in the 1st century AD. In his memoirs on India, Huien Tsang, the Chinese chronicler who travelled through India during Harshavardhana's reign (A.D. 607-647), writes that he visited Prayag in A.D. 643.
When the Muslim rule came, Prayag became a part of the Delhi Sultanate when the town was annexed by Mhd Ghori in A.D. 1193. Then the Mughals took over from the slave rulers of Delhi and under them Prayag rose to prominence once again.
Acknowledging the strategic position of Prayag in the Doaba or the "Hindostan" region, at the confluence of its defining rivers which had immense navigational potentials, Akbar built a magnificent fort – one of his largest – on the banks of the holy Sangam and re-christened the town as Illahabad in 1575. (The Akbar fort has an Ashokan pillar and some temples, and is largely a military barracks. On the southwestern extremity of Prayag lies Khusrobagh that antedates the fort and has three mausoleums, including that of Jehangir's first wife – Shah Begum.)
It was from Prayag that Prince Salim, later to become emperor Jehangir, revolted against his father, the Mughal emperor Akbar. In 1602, prince Salim held a parallel imperial court in Akbar's fort here, ignoring the royal summons to leave Prayag and proceed to Agra. However, before his death in 1605, Akbar named Salim his successor.
Before colonial rule was imposed over Prayag, the city was rocked by Maratha incursions. But the Marathas also left behind two beautiful eighteenth century temples with intricate architecture.
In 1765, the combined forces of the Nawab of Awadh and the Mughal emperor Shah Alam lost the war of Buxar to the British. Although, the British did not take over their states, they established a garrison at the Prayag fort --- realising its strategic position as the gateway to the north west. Governor General Warren Hastings later took Prayag from Shah Alam and gave it to Awadh alleging that he had placed himself in the power of the Marathas.
In 1801 the Nawab of Awadh ceded the city to the British East India Company. Gradually the other parts of Doaba and adjoining region in its west (including Delhi and Ajmer-Mewara regions) were won by the British. When these north western areas were made into a new Presidency called the "North Western Provinces of Agra", its capital was Agra. Prayag remained an important part of this state.
In 1834, Prayag became the seat of the Government of the Agra Province and a High Court was established. But a year later both were relocated to Agra.
In 1857,Prayag was active in the Indian Mutiny. After the mutiny, the British truncated the Delhi region of the state, merging it with Punjab and transferred the capital of North west Provinces to Prayag, which remained so for the next 20 years.
In 1877 the two provinces of Agra (NWPA) and Awadh were merged to form a new state which was called the United Provinces. Prayag was the capital of this new state till the 1920s.
An ancient seat of learning
It was a well-known centre of education (dating from the time of the Buddha), and in the first few decades of the 20th century. Allahabad University was established on 23rd September 1887. it is the fourth oldest university of India after Calcutta, Bombay and Madras University. In the 19th century, the Allahabad University earned the epithet of 'Oxford of the East'. Its jurisdiction at the time extended over a large part of north and north west India (today's U.P, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and M.P.). Between 1887 and 1927 at least thirty-eight different institutions and colleges of this area were affiliated to Allahabad University. Allahabad University is also a major literary centre for Hindi. It also holds the world record for the world's first letter delivered by airmail (from Prayag to Naini, just a few km. across the river Yamuna) (1911).
Prayag's role in the freedom struggle
During the 1857 rebellion there was an insignificant presence of European troops in Prayag. Taking advantage of this, the rebels brought Prayag under their control. It was around this time that Maulvi Liaquat Ali Khan unfurled the banner of revolt. Long after the mutiny had been quelled, the establishment of the High Court, the Police Headquarters and the Public Service Commission, transformed the city into an administrative center, a status that it enjoys even today.
The fourth session of the Indian National Congress was held in the city in 1888. At the turn of the century Prayag also became a nodal point for the revolutionaries. The Karmyogi office of Sundar Lal in Chowk sparked patriotism in the hearts of many young men. Nityanand Chatterji became a household name when he hurled the first bomb at the European club. During the movement for independence, Prayag was at the forefront of all political activities. Alfred Park in Prayag was the site where, in 1931, the revolutionary Chandrashekhar Azad killed himself when surrounded by the British Police. Anand Bhavan, and an adjacent Nehru family home, Swaraj Bhavan, were the center of the political activities of the Indian National Congress. In the climactic years of the freedom struggle, thousands of satyagrahis, led, inter alia, by Purshottam Das Tandon, Bishambhar Nath Pande and Narayan Dutt Tewari, went to jail. And when freedom finally came, the first Prime Minister of free India, Jawahar Lal Nehru, and Union ministers like Mangla Prasad, Muzaffar Hasan, K. N. Katju, Lal Bahadur Shastri, all were from Prayag.
Prayag was the birthplace of Jawaharlal Nehru, and the Nehru family estate, called the Anand Bhavan, is now a museum. It was also the birthplace of his daughter Indira Gandhi, and the home of Lal Bahadur Shastri, both later Prime Ministers of India. In addition Vishwanath Pratap Singh and Chandra Shekhar were also associated with Prayag. Thus Prayag has the distinction of being the home of several Prime Ministers in India's post-independence history.
The first seeds of the idea of Pakistan were also sown in Prayag. On 29 December 1930, Allama Muhammad Iqbal's presidential address to the All-India Muslim League proposed a separate Muslim state for the Muslim majority regions of India.
Reorganisation of Prayag
Prayag division and the district was majorly reorganised a few years ago.and teh city was renamed again as Prayag.
The Etawah and Farrukhabad districts of the Prayag division were merged with the Agra division, while Kanpur dehat was carved out from the Kanpur district and a separate Kanpur division was created.
Parts of the western areas of Prayag were carved out to create a new district named Kaushambi. Now the new Prayag division consists of Prayag, Kaushambi and Fatehpur districts.
Prayag is an extremely important and integral part of the Ganga Yamuna Doab, and its history is inherently tied with that of the Doab region, right from the inception of the town.
The city was known earlier as Prayāga - a name that is still commonly used. That it is an ancient town, is illustrated by references in the Vedas (circa 1500 B.C.) to Prayag, where Brahma, the Hindu Creator of the Universe, is believed to have attended a sacrificial ritual. Excavations have revealed Northern Black Polished ware objects in Prayag, further corroborating the conjecture that Prayag existed as a town as early as 1100 B.C.
When the Aryans first settled in what they termed the Aryavarta, or Madhyadesha, Prayag or Kaushambi was an important part of their territory. The Vatsa (a branch of the early Indo-Aryans) were rulers of Hastinapur (near present day Delhi), and they established the town of Kaushambi near present day Prayag. They shifted their capital to Kaushambi when Hastinapur was destroyed by floods.
In the times of the Ramayana, Prayag was made up of a few rishis' huts at the confluence of the sacred rivers, and much of the vats country was continuous jungle. Lord Rama, the main protagonist in the Ramayana, spent some time here, at the Ashram of Sage Bharadwaj, before proceeding to nearby Chitrakoot.
The Doaba region, including Prayag was controlled by several empires and dynasties in the ages to come. It became a part of the Mauryan and Gupta empires of the east and the Kushan empire of the west before becoming part of the local Kannauj empire which became very powerful.
Objects unearthed in Prayag indicate that it was part of the Kushana empire in the 1st century AD. In his memoirs on India, Huien Tsang, the Chinese chronicler who travelled through India during Harshavardhana's reign (A.D. 607-647), writes that he visited Prayag in A.D. 643.
When the Muslim rule came, Prayag became a part of the Delhi Sultanate when the town was annexed by Mhd Ghori in A.D. 1193. Then the Mughals took over from the slave rulers of Delhi and under them Prayag rose to prominence once again.
Acknowledging the strategic position of Prayag in the Doaba or the "Hindostan" region, at the confluence of its defining rivers which had immense navigational potentials, Akbar built a magnificent fort – one of his largest – on the banks of the holy Sangam and re-christened the town as Illahabad in 1575. (The Akbar fort has an Ashokan pillar and some temples, and is largely a military barracks. On the southwestern extremity of Prayag lies Khusrobagh that antedates the fort and has three mausoleums, including that of Jehangir's first wife – Shah Begum.)
It was from Prayag that Prince Salim, later to become emperor Jehangir, revolted against his father, the Mughal emperor Akbar. In 1602, prince Salim held a parallel imperial court in Akbar's fort here, ignoring the royal summons to leave Prayag and proceed to Agra. However, before his death in 1605, Akbar named Salim his successor.
Before colonial rule was imposed over Prayag, the city was rocked by Maratha incursions. But the Marathas also left behind two beautiful eighteenth century temples with intricate architecture.
In 1765, the combined forces of the Nawab of Awadh and the Mughal emperor Shah Alam lost the war of Buxar to the British. Although, the British did not take over their states, they established a garrison at the Prayag fort --- realising its strategic position as the gateway to the north west. Governor General Warren Hastings later took Prayag from Shah Alam and gave it to Awadh alleging that he had placed himself in the power of the Marathas.
In 1801 the Nawab of Awadh ceded the city to the British East India Company. Gradually the other parts of Doaba and adjoining region in its west (including Delhi and Ajmer-Mewara regions) were won by the British. When these north western areas were made into a new Presidency called the "North Western Provinces of Agra", its capital was Agra. Prayag remained an important part of this state.
In 1834, Prayag became the seat of the Government of the Agra Province and a High Court was established. But a year later both were relocated to Agra.
In 1857,Prayag was active in the Indian Mutiny. After the mutiny, the British truncated the Delhi region of the state, merging it with Punjab and transferred the capital of North west Provinces to Prayag, which remained so for the next 20 years.
In 1877 the two provinces of Agra (NWPA) and Awadh were merged to form a new state which was called the United Provinces. Prayag was the capital of this new state till the 1920s.
An ancient seat of learning
It was a well-known centre of education (dating from the time of the Buddha), and in the first few decades of the 20th century. Allahabad University was established on 23rd September 1887. it is the fourth oldest university of India after Calcutta, Bombay and Madras University. In the 19th century, the Allahabad University earned the epithet of 'Oxford of the East'. Its jurisdiction at the time extended over a large part of north and north west India (today's U.P, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and M.P.). Between 1887 and 1927 at least thirty-eight different institutions and colleges of this area were affiliated to Allahabad University. Allahabad University is also a major literary centre for Hindi. It also holds the world record for the world's first letter delivered by airmail (from Prayag to Naini, just a few km. across the river Yamuna) (1911).
Prayag's role in the freedom struggle
During the 1857 rebellion there was an insignificant presence of European troops in Prayag. Taking advantage of this, the rebels brought Prayag under their control. It was around this time that Maulvi Liaquat Ali Khan unfurled the banner of revolt. Long after the mutiny had been quelled, the establishment of the High Court, the Police Headquarters and the Public Service Commission, transformed the city into an administrative center, a status that it enjoys even today.
The fourth session of the Indian National Congress was held in the city in 1888. At the turn of the century Prayag also became a nodal point for the revolutionaries. The Karmyogi office of Sundar Lal in Chowk sparked patriotism in the hearts of many young men. Nityanand Chatterji became a household name when he hurled the first bomb at the European club. During the movement for independence, Prayag was at the forefront of all political activities. Alfred Park in Prayag was the site where, in 1931, the revolutionary Chandrashekhar Azad killed himself when surrounded by the British Police. Anand Bhavan, and an adjacent Nehru family home, Swaraj Bhavan, were the center of the political activities of the Indian National Congress. In the climactic years of the freedom struggle, thousands of satyagrahis, led, inter alia, by Purshottam Das Tandon, Bishambhar Nath Pande and Narayan Dutt Tewari, went to jail. And when freedom finally came, the first Prime Minister of free India, Jawahar Lal Nehru, and Union ministers like Mangla Prasad, Muzaffar Hasan, K. N. Katju, Lal Bahadur Shastri, all were from Prayag.
Prayag was the birthplace of Jawaharlal Nehru, and the Nehru family estate, called the Anand Bhavan, is now a museum. It was also the birthplace of his daughter Indira Gandhi, and the home of Lal Bahadur Shastri, both later Prime Ministers of India. In addition Vishwanath Pratap Singh and Chandra Shekhar were also associated with Prayag. Thus Prayag has the distinction of being the home of several Prime Ministers in India's post-independence history.
The first seeds of the idea of Pakistan were also sown in Prayag. On 29 December 1930, Allama Muhammad Iqbal's presidential address to the All-India Muslim League proposed a separate Muslim state for the Muslim majority regions of India.
Reorganisation of Prayag
Prayag division and the district was majorly reorganised a few years ago.and teh city was renamed again as Prayag.
The Etawah and Farrukhabad districts of the Prayag division were merged with the Agra division, while Kanpur dehat was carved out from the Kanpur district and a separate Kanpur division was created.
Parts of the western areas of Prayag were carved out to create a new district named Kaushambi. Now the new Prayag division consists of Prayag, Kaushambi and Fatehpur districts.
Kumbha and Magh Mela
The word 'Mela' is fair in Hindi. Except in the years of the Kumbha Mela and the Ardha Kumbha Mela (Ardha is half in Hindi, hence the Ardha Kumbha Mela is held every 6th year), the Magh Mela takes place every year in the month of Magh (Jan - Feb) of the Hindu calendar. Kumbh Mela (the Urn Festival) occurs four times every twelve years and rotates between four locations: Prayag (Allahabad), Haridwar, Ujjain and Nashik.
The Sangam seen from shores of the Ganges River.In Allahabad, these religious fairs take place at the Sangam (confluence) of the Yamuna and the Ganges River which is holy in Hinduism. In the Kumbha Mela of 2001, which was called the Maha (great) Kumbha Mela because of an alignment of the Sun, Moon, and Jupiter that occurred only every 144 years, almost 75 million people visited the banks of the river to take part in the festivals. During the Melas, an entire township is built on the river's banks, with functioning hospitals, fire stations, police stations, restaurants and other facilities.
Monday, August 28, 2006
The Allahabad mail...
In April 1931, Imperial Airways planned two experimental airmails from London to Melbourne and return. This was the first official air mail between Great Britain and Australia.
Letters could be addressed to New Zealand and were accepted in New Zealand for the two return flights from Australia. Carriage between Australia and New Zealand was by sea. A major reason for the flight was that the Dutch had already established an air route from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies and were planning a flight to Australia.
The mail passed through Allahabad in the course of its journey.
The cover was flown from Allahabad to Delhi. It is postmarked 2 May 1931 and was flown to Delhi on 5 May. It was not backstamped.
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