Dogri Philatelic Glossary

Some familiarity with the Dogrî script is needed by the J&K covers collector, primarily for reading the samvat calendar months on common Jammu circular postmarks. Hybrid forms abound, with features taken from local merchant scripts, nagari forms, Punjabi forms, etc. Diving right into the postal action is the easiest way to make practical progress. The links take one down this rather long page quickly. Moslem months written in Dogrî are rare, no surprise. Some background reading about the language situation in Kashmir, past and present, is provided through this external link†.

asû

asû 6 ~ 20 September.

asû 10 (not 20) ~ 24 September.

asû 22 ~ 6 October, with convenient corroboration from the datestamp with it.

asû 29 ~ 13 October. Hybrid rendering, with the sû in nâgarî form. The diacritic below marks the long-u. Compare with preceding.

1940 asû 5 ~ 19 September 1883.

asû is in the center of both datestamps. The larger circle with the illegible blob at the top (it reads ‘Srinagar’) acted as both a despatch & arrival marking, a clearer version of which will be seen in the bâdro entry downscreen. The smaller circle is a Jammu marking, the top line of which reads Jammu. The bottom lines on each are the day numerals, 23 and 27.

31 baisâkh ~ 11 May. The top line is Jamvu.

baisâkh 28 ~ May 8. The 8 was inserted the wrong way around on the implement so that its impression is a mirror-image.

baisâkh for 1937 ~ 1880 in the second and third lines. ‘Sialkot’ appears at top. The expected diamond of bars segment of this duplex is not really visible on the right-hand edge of the envelope. See next entry.

baisâkh 13 ~ April 23. The diamond of bars shows a little better here on the right edge.

baisâkh 4 ~ April 14 on the Srinagar Circle. ‘Srinagar’ at top in the usual blobby impression. Image taken from internet.

baisâkh on the post 1886 version of the Jammu Circle. Image taken from internet.

baisâkh 15, in merchant script for reference.

1937 baisâkh 27 ~ 7 May 1880, in merchant script for reference.

bârah ânâ 12 ~ twelve annas. Lower section same in Urdû, not Persian.

bhâdro 23 ~ 7 September from the Srinagar Circle. There are a number of different transcriptions and renderings in the different scripts, bhâdrom ~ bhâdo, etc. This is the clearest example we have seen of the Srinagar Circle; the name ‘Srinagar’ is even legible at the top. Séfi & Mortimer thought this seal was for Jammu. Curious, for that would have made any number of covers difficult to understand.

bhâdo 18 ~ 1 September on the early version of the Jammu Circle.

bhâdro 23 & 24 ~ 8 & 9 September on the early Jammu and Srinagar Circles, respectively.

bhâdro 15 ~ August 29 in a Sialkot State duplex.

26 chait ~ 6 April.

châr ânâ ~ 4 annas. The Persian in the lower portion is chahâr. Most of these bug-seals show Urdû in the lower section, but not here.

ch'ê ânâ ~ 6 annas. The 6 is also transliterated chha in Dogrî & Urdû. No Persian 6 here (which is shesh.)

ek ânâ ~ one anna. Notice the introductory aleph hamza in the Urdû. Were it absent, one would read yek, as in Persian.

ek rupaiye ~ one rupee ~ 16 annas.

gilgit maghar at ~ 8 maghar. This image is a restrike of the Gilgit State duplex by Staal & Sharma 1981.

Gulmargh. The number below, which looks like an 89 is probably the Dogri 49 for the year 1892.

hâ ~ and so forth, etc., κτλ., usw., וכו׳ ...

20 hâd ~ 2 July.

hâdh 22 ~ 4 July, in merchant script for reference.

har mas 1 ~ month hâdh 1 ~ 12 June, in merchant script for reference.

1945 mas har ~ 1945 month hâdh ~ June-July 1888, in merchant script.

Jammu on stamps (here a 4a missing-die forgery) is seen left of sun emblem at top. To the right of the sun is ‘Kashmir’.

Jammu in two-element renditions. The dot above the first element signifies nasalization, here the -m in front of a labial b/v.

Another Jammu.

Another Jammu, but in handwriting.

Jammu. In yet another rendition at top. Second line 43 is probably the Dogri date for 1886. Third line katik upside down, with an odd form for the ka-. Last line is ‘20’.

Jasmergarh & Jasrota. These are post offices east of Jammu. The month shown on the first scan is katik, several weeks earlier than the December date also in evidence.

19 jeth ~ 30 May.

kâkal ~ urgent. It often appears in the top line of covers. It is also found within the Bhadarwah 2-ring postmark, Type SM84.

kâkal zaruri ~ letter urgent, in Dogri, Persian, and (by some reports) Shastri. The Dogri script element ja serves for za, and that is formally indicated by underdotting, which may or may not be absent here.

kalamro ~ realm or dominion. Persian qalamrao or qalamrav. A variant v-ending occurs on the 8a New Rectangular, detail right.

kâr sarkâr/Jambû or Jamvû ~ Government Service seal in the form of a Staal-Sharma restrike. Same in Persian (read instead Jammûn) bottom line.

Kashmîr. The five Dogri elements to the right of the sun. Contrast with following two entries, which exhibit hybrid spelling using elements from the nâgarî system.

Kashmîr.

Kashmîr.

kâtik 23 ~ November 6.

17 kâtik [1943] ~ 1 November 1886. The day numeral has both numerals of 17 inserted into the implement upside down.

katik, in merchant script for reference.

Ladâkh.

Ladâkh. This duplex was not known to Séfi & Mortimer and its reading was left an open question in Staal. Month insert is maghar.

lambar. Transcription of 'number' from English. The dot is the 'm' here. Taken from a Staal-Sharma restrike of a Jammu registration seal.

mâg 21 ~ 1 February. The spelling is more standardly mâgh; see maghar and Ladakh entries for the gh form.

mâgh. Here 16 mâg.

maghar 3 and magar 5 in two different spellings. The postmark on left is Jammu, on right Srinagar.

maghar 2 ~ November 15 on the Sialkot duplex, for Jammu State.

1944 maghar 1 ~ 15 November 1887, in merchant script for reference.

Manavar. This item is a Staal-Sharma restrike of the postmark of the Manovar (Manawar) post office. It is dated 20 poh, with the 20 upside-down at the top.

masûl bâkî ~ 'postage due'. Dogri prefers bs to vs.

As above in postal use on a 1a official. KB371.

pargana. An administrative sub-division for the collection of revenue. It’s head office is called tahsîl.

pâv âna ... The denomination ¼a is written out in words in the upper part of the oval. Reading counter-clockwise starting at about the 10 o'clock position is: mahsûl dâk kalamrav jama va kâshmîr. We note that in ‘Kashmir’ the a is written long in the Dogri, short in the Persian. The long-â version is sometimes seen also in Persian on covers.

15 phâgan is consistent with the 27 February cancel-date also appearing here.

phâgan 8 ~ 17 February.

phâgan 1934 ~ March 1878, in merchant script for reference.

pîche pahuchî ~ too late. There are several types, some of which show a more orthodox treatment of the final cî element. The one here looks more like m in nagari-form, which it is not.

poh. This is a Staal-Sharma restrike of the postmark of the Manovar (Manawar) post office, dated 20 poh, with the 20 upside-down at the top.

19 poh.

poh 12 ~ 24 December (Christmas Eve!) Notice that the h-element was inserted backward in the implement.

postkârd. A transcription into Dogri elements from English. Vowels o marked by caret and â by the v-mark.

pos[t]mastar.

rajistarî ~ registration, from English. The second line is lambar ~ number, from English. The third line is tolâ, the letter weight. The last line is a (here) unidentified t. This slot was elsewhere reserved for a date (tarîkh?), a seal, or a signature.

ek rupaiye ~ one rupee ~ 16 annas.

31? sâvan ~ 14 August.

The Srinagar Circle (in purple!?) dated sâvan 18 ~ 31 July (1888.) Image taken from internet.

Syâlkot. This marking shows part of the extraterritorial State duplex (with the obliterator portion not visible.) The samvat month is baisâkh.

Singh.

Skardu. A Staal-Sharma restrike of State duplex.

Srînagar.

Tibbat. Taken from the State postcard, where “Tibet” refers to “Little Tibet,” which is to say, Ladâkh & Baltistan.

tîn ânâ ~ three annas. Notice the different treatments of the tîn in the Dogri in this entry and the next. Here, the long-i and -n are rendered explicitly.

tîn rûpaiye ~ three rupees. Lower section same in Urdû (Persian 3 is sih.)

tîs ~ thirty. (Persian 30 is sî.)

tolâ. A unit of weight, used for gold, letters, etc. The circumflex over the first element means o and the v-mark is -â.

va. As a separate syllable va means ‘and’. The b and the v can be easily confused, and indeed were sometimes used interchangeably. As a rule, spoken Dogri prefers the b. To complicate things, this element is naturally used for rendering the Persian vav or Arabic wa, and thus may act as a o, etc., when transcribing such, though it does not have that as a pronunciation.

Numbers

The Dogri numerals 2 through 8 are shown below in the form of Staal-Sharma restrikes of the 9-bars obliterators in purple. Numeral 4 (the gamma-looking numeral in black) is a drawing by Anthony Bard. The missing ‘1’ is probably not missing, but was done first with twelve bars set sideways.

The 9-bar-9 obliterator used at Srinagar would seem to be another of the preceding series. Séfi & Mortimer and others display this item with bars horizontal and erroneously assign it to Jammu.

The Jammu 12-bar. Instead of the Dogri numeral ‘1’. Some authors have taken this to be a Persian m, which it certainly resembles. One candidate would be mahsûl for postal tax. Boggs, in a minority opinion (1941, p 56), suggests sahîh, meaning ‘correct’ or ‘passed’, a usage known from documents.

Dogri 9 in date. The color-coded item on the left shows the samvat date “1923” highlighted in red.

Another 9. This is a Jammu circular date stamp for 19 poh.

Another 9 on the Jammu cds. Taking the Dogri numeral to be a 9, we would have 9 asû ~ 23 September, which is consistent with the railway marking.

20 katik [19]43 ~ 4 November 1886. The month is written upside-down and strangely, as if ‘chatak’. The top line is Jammûn in one of its several Dogri forms. This item is one of the Staal-Sharma restrikes of 1981.

74. This combination appears on virtually every Jammu-Kashmir cover, and others beyond. It is said to be a symbolic warning to those who would tamper with the letter.

The number that looks like an 89 is probably the Dogri [19]49 for the year 1892.

1804. This detail was taken from a picture of a Sikh coin or token from long before the stamp period.

hâ = and so forth, κτλ., usw., etc., וכו׳ ...

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