Description

These are manuscripts and typescript documents of 34 different princely states that existed as distinct political entities in pre-independence India. Although the majority of these states were tiny principalities in western India (primarily in what is now Rajasthan), some (e.g., Hyderabad) were located in other regions of India and represented major powers in the region at that time. The documents date from the 19th century through World War II, and are in English, Hindi, Rajasthani dialects, Urdu, Persian, Gujarati, Malayalam and other languages. The scripts employed include Devanagari, Urdu (Perso-Arabic script), English, Gujarati and Malayalam. The documents themselves appear to cover many aspects of official life of these states: decrees by local government officials, requests and petitions to the court, commercial permits, trade documents, land dispute documents, court affidavits (sometimes bearing thumb-prints and/or signatures), etc. Almost all the documents are one or two pages in length and bear the colorful imprint of the seal of a given princely state government. (most of these imprinted papers were available in various denominations, sometimes referred to as "court fees", and someone submitting documents to the court had to purchase an appropriately-denominated imprinted sheet on which to write out the document. Many of them, in addition to having the denominated seal or imprint on the sheet, also bear one or more printed "court fee" stamps (affixed to the sheet like postage stamps) to make up the required amount. These court fee stamps are philatelically interesting to collectors, and like the imprinted sheets, were issued by individual princely state authorities, usually bearing colorful symbols or portraits of the local rulers.