INDIA - POSTAL HISTORY


Two letters of salutation addressed to Major Vans Agnew ("Major Sahib"), the first bearing the inked seal impression of Maharajah Malhar Rao II Holkar VII Subadur Bahadur, written on gold-sprinkled paper, comprising six lines of text written in nasta'liq script in black ink, further marginal text in nasta'liq and in nagari script, the illumination consisting of five lines of gold squares interspersing text; the second letter by his Minister Pantla Johg, comprising six lines of text written in nasta'liq script in black ink, marginal note in nagari script; with envelope bearing descriptions of the contents in Persian and English, two pages, plus envelopes, small folio, both dated 19 Rabi'ii, 1237 [13 January 1822]
|BOTH LETTERS IN THEIR ORIGINAL SILK ADDRESS BAG, in Kharita form, embroidered with a paisley pattern in gold and silver thread, with large seal attached in red wax of Maharajah Malhar Rao Holkar Subadur, devotee of Muhammed Akbar Shah, dated with the regnal year 12, 1234 [1818-19]. The Maharaja belonging to the Holkar dynasty of the Marathas was the Maharaja Holkar of Indore, Hokar State (reigned 1811–1833). The recipient, Patrick Vans Agnew, was Liaison Officer at the court of the Holkars in Mandassor and Acting Resident in Indore in 1818, and was father of Patrick Alexander Vans Agnew of the HEIC, whose death at Multan in 1848 was to hasten the Second Anglo-Sikh War and the British annexation of the Punjab. The letters and their envelope form part of the muniments of the Vans Agnew family of Barnbarroch and Sheuchan.