Questions About Covers From India

Hello All,
Today has been a long day trying to determine where these covers (postal stationery) came from and/or where they went. I had to take a nap half way through. These are the ones I still have questions about because either I don't understand the postmarks nor can read the writing. Any help will be greatly appreciated and save my sanity. Lots of photos.
Thanks, Will

#1

I can tell where it's going, but what town did it come from? The postmark reads "Experimental"

#2

Cannot read where it's going.

#3


Mystery cover! I cannot makes heads or tails of it.

#4


Partial postmark - what town was it mailed from? Clue on back?

#5


Origin? Destination? Date?

#6


Same as #5's problem - Origin? Destination? Date?

#7


Origin? Destination?

#8


Destination?

#9


Origin? Destination? Couple of possibilities on back, but uncertain.

#10


I just don't know...wish postmarks were not partial.

#11


A 8 IN 1?

#12


Another code on back under CDS handstamps - T 2 4 J DN?

#13


Mystery postmark on front and another code on back - T 2 5 A UP?

Thanks!

I'm waiting here with you - great scans!

1. is almost certainly an Experimental PO CDS. Experimental POs were established to test the waters, and see if there was enough demand to justify a permanent PO, with its own CDS. The Experimental PO CDSs were numbered, but as they were constantly being reassigned, there's little way of knowing where this one was used. [Edit: Just checked on Mukundgarh, and I see it was in the former Jaipur State. No help in working out the origin of the card, though.]

2. Very hard to read the destination, but I think it was a local, within Jaipur Town.

3. is a mystery to me, too, but if I had to nominate a suspect, I'd say it's Nepalese.

4. I'll let Rod222 tell you. Travancore is his special subject.

5. This is from Soruth State. I'd take a large bet it was sent from Veraval, but I can't make out the date or destination. (That said, most of the correspondence I've seen from Veraval was to the State capital, Junagadh.)

6. Rod222 can beat his brains out on this one. I wouldn't hold out much hope, though. There is a manuscript date in the message, though, that corresponds to 18 September 1943.

7. Looks as if it was to Jaipur Town, but I can't make out the CDS.

8. Looks like another local, within Jaipur Town

9. Can't make out anything beyond Gwalior in the originating CDS. The destination was probably Ramgarh, with Ujjain as a transit CDS, rather than vice versa.

10. There's a 2nd Delivery Delhi CDS on the back, but that's the best I can do.

11. Cancelled by a TPO CDS

12. Probably another TPO cancellation

13. It looks like a Delhi duplex on the front and a Bombay receiver on the back

Got so absorbed in this, I almost incinerated my dinner. I hope Rod222 will happen along to fill in some of the gaps.

Tonymacg - Thanks so much! So much closer than I could ever get! Hope your dinner was not burnt. Paging Rod222 to thread! The Experimental postmark is neat. I tried researching online and saw postal cards where the post office did time trials, but nothing this postal card. I know what TPOs are so that's another step stone into the right direction. Every little nugget of information helps :)
Will

Dinner was salvageable, although with an actually rather agreeable smokey flavour

The Experimental PO system was very widespread in British India. They bob up all over the place. For the most part, they're only of academic interest, though I think one or two might have been used in the Persian Gulf. If they were, they could only be identified by the times they were used, because the Experimental PO cancellers were reassigned after the experimental PO was closed, or upgraded to a permanent office. This was usually after a year or so.

Actually, the Jaipur State PO also had Experimental PO cancellations as well:





They don't seem to be very common.

The British Indian TPO system was vast, and extraordinarily complex. I knew a man once who studied it to the nth degree. He didn't collect stamps, or even the cancellations. He was just fascinated by the TPO system. Alas, he's moved on to the great sorting van in the sky, and can no longer comment on your examples.

Nice cover above!

I did find a web site that has some beginning information about TPOs and those from India.

http://www.tpo-seapost.org.uk/tpo2/tpindia.html

Will, that Web site probably tells you all you'll want to know about Indian TPOs. If you really get bitten by the bug though, the best thing to do would be to join the India Study Circle (http://www.indiastudycircle.org/index.html) where you'll find mountains of information.

This is my favourite Indian TPO cover





not, I'm afraid, for its TPO connections, but because it's a combination cover of Jind State and Indian stamps, and rather scarce.

Crikey,
I don't know much........
Tony is the Guru.

Anyhow for what it's worth..
No4

BTW Travancore has experimental pmks as well

I cannot date the article
as I cannot establish the Malabar year
???3

KAR= Karkatakam (Malabar 12th Month)

TAD =travancore Anchal dept = Travancore Postal Dept

Posted from Chenganoor to Thiruvella (sic) aka thiruvalla

Both towns are on a main road (not far from each other)
the main road, as most, follows the lee of the Ghat Mountains
and inland from the Arabian sea.

One would assume a motorised vehicle would have
delivered the card next day

The 6 cash postcard was issued in 1932

map of the two close towns (circled in red)
...............and that's all I got

Since Rod has taken the pains to describe about the card, here is the matter in the letter :
"C Yohannan, Chakkanattu Veedu, Chenganoor, 18-12-113

My dear Sir, I hereby inform you that I shall go to "kamaanam" parish for the deputation speech on 114 chingam 12th, Sunday.

Yours ...???"

Thomas

Rod, Thanks for the help with the Travancore postal cards. You know your stuff. Tholath, interesting message. It beats the usual ones that I can read from the missionaries. I didn't post them here, but I've come across a few aerogrammes recently from India about commercial spice trading and those are neat.
Will

Thanks Thomas (applause!)
The first time ever, I have seen a
Travancore letter transcribed,
That's quite a moment

Battle, Travancore in the early years was
filled with missionaries, we have a lot of evidence of this,
not that I agree with it, quite the opposite.

If the Malabar year was 113
then the Gregorian calender date for the lettercard
was 2nd August 1938, Battle.

Thomas,
I studied Thai back in the 1980's
and the calendar months sound very similar,
I often think the common link is Buddhism.
Any comments?

The influence was probably just generic 'Indian', rather than specifically Buddhist I suspect. The Indian cultural influence spread all over Southeast Asia: in Central Java, you have Candi Borobudur and Candi Prambanan, the one one Budhhist the other Hindu, built within a few kilometers and a few years apart. I've seen, and pretended to decipher (to baffle and amaze the Constant Companion) Sanskrit inscriptions in southern Vietnam. It was even Indian missionaries who brought Islam to Indonesia.