A Map or Two
This page contains details from 19th-century maps of Kashmir & Panjâb. The first pleasant item is a detail from a colored wood-engraving from 1885, produced in London by J.S. Virtue & Co. It shows (in red) some of the main postal and travellers’ routes that were used to reach the Kashmir valley from the south and west, i.e., through and around the Pirpanjal that forms the southern wall of the valley. To get a sense of the scale here, look at the M in KASHMIR on the map below for locating Shapeyan. The postal runner distance directly north from there to Srinagar was about 30 English miles.
Geological Description in 1894
Of course one needs to know how well one’s postmarks correlate with the ancient geology. At one time the whole of Kashmir valley was a large lake, the deepest portion being naturally somewhere at the bottom of Wular Lake as it remains to us today.
Srinagar itself sits on old strata (~ ‘purana’ in the dull violet-grey color.) The map shows that the two sides of the valley are of vastly different age, with strata to the north (the aqua color) being of the very oldest, called Gondwana on the map, while the strip to the south in the same color as that of the vast Punjab plain is the youngest in the region (post-tertiary it says.) The pale yellow and orange bands are upper and lower tertiary, respectively. The red highlands (Himalayan, Hindu Kush, and Karakoram) are old, marked Archaean, but not so old as the strips of Gondwana aforementioned. It would be interesting to see how modern geology treats the same. Map from John Murray, Albemarle St., London, date unknown.
Panj-âb means “five rivers”, so-named for five of the many tributaries of the Indus River. By tradition, these rivers are: Beas, Sutlej, Ravi, Chenâb, and Jhelum. The latter was known to the Greeks as the Hydaspes, reached by the armies of Alexander the Great. It is this river too that passes through Srinagar and (in a manner of speaking) through the Wular Lake itself on its passage westward. It formed the effective western boundary between Jammu-Kashmir and British India.
Rail Lines in Punjab
The two map details below, from the great Constable series produced in the early 1890s, show important stretches of the rail system pertinent to the covers collector. The main line reached Lahore in 1870, Jhelam in 1879, and finally Peshawar in 1883, the year of the first New Color rectangulars. At Peshawar (upper left corner) adventurers proceeded on different conveyance through the Khyber Pass connecting Afghanistan; the tired lucky ones were going in the other direction.
Off the map south and east from Amritsar (lower right corner) the main line encounters Jalandhar, Ludhiana, and Amballa en route to Delhi, details below. The current India-Pakistan border lies between Amritsar & Lahore, and also between Sialkot & Jammu. The uninterrupted line that connected Sialkot & Amritsar (about 75 miles) was traversed in the old postal period by runners in less than half a day.
In spite of all the apparent railway doings involving Hoshiarpur on many a railway cover, there seems to have been no actual track at the town of that name, only the road to Jalandhar, which is the closest (but not so close) point on the main line. The district, however, was also called Hoshiarpur, and perhaps the important junction went by that name? The famous narrow-gauge line from Amballa up to Simla via Kalka was not completed until November 1903, an Edwardian affair. Amballa south, passing through Karnal, goes straight to hell, I mean Delhi.
Speaking of the rails, here is an unusual railway cover. It originated in Amritsar (last line of the Persian.)
The embossed Victoria is cancelled with the
L.51 circle on 22 May 1889 and the State stamp was cancelled with a bar-T
of the travelling post office. According to the Srinagar arrival marking, the letter was received
there (possibly at the Sher Garhi office) on 15 jeth ~ 27 May 1889. The yellow instruction label of
the Rail Mail Service reads “transmission to Inspector Gen.
R.M.S., Calcutta.”
British Military in 1894
The map below from John Bartholemew & Co. (1893 for original edition) shows part of the jurisdiction of the Bengal Army in the Punjab & Kashmir in the 1890s. Military Districts 1st Class were LAHORE, RAWAL PINDI, and MEERUT. Military Districts 2nd Class were the Punjab Frontier Force (PFF), Peshawar, Sirhind, and Rohil Khand. District Headquarters are underlined in blue. Meean Meer, for example, was the large military cantonment in the southeast suburbs of Lahore. The large and small red stars are forts, 1st and 2nd Class, respectively.
Main Postal Routes
There were five main routes for getting to, around, or through the Pirpanjal mountain range that forms the daunting southern wall of the Kashmir valley. There were of course many other postal-runner lines connecting small post offices for which most Kashmir collectors, alas, will never see covers. One important line not described here, and for which a significant amount of interesting material is extant, is the line between Srinagar and Leh, via Dras and Kargil (think apricot jam.) This route found its way through the spectacular and difficult Zoji La. The map (minus the coloring) is taken from John Murray’s Handbook for Travellers in India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon, 17th ed. 1955.
Himalayan. There must have been some sort of mail making its way to and from points east. The complete absence (so far) of philatelic material from our period must be reckoned an unfortunate gap in Himalayan philately and has no doubt helped to cut Kashmir off from that romantic field to which it technically belongs. Wolfgang Hellrigl reports a registered commercial cover from Leh to Lhasa (Tibetan stamps were added in Gyantse), dated 1925.
The Karakoram, how about Karakoram philately? There was indeed a difficult passage north from Leh into Chinese Turkestan (briefly ‘Kashgaria’, Xinjiang today) that was used over the centuries by caravan routes. The way is blocked even more effectively now than when the bandits infested the high passes. A main stop on this line north is the oasis town of Yarkand† on the fringe of the Tarim Basin.
The Black Line: Less romance now, we have to focus on the Black Line. It was known as the Imperial Road, having been used by Mughal rulers in times past. It takes us from Gujarat, say, in India to Srinagar in the Kashmir valley, a distance of about 175 miles. Strangely enough, mail on this fine old travellers’ route is not commonly seen. Compared with the 18000' Ladâkh and Tibetan ordeals, this passage is a walk in the park, for which parts of it was. But that still did not make it easy, and it was often impassable in winter even for intrepid folk. North of Rajouri, one may spot two junctions that detour west into Poonch on the Blue Line, one at Thanna Mundi and the other at Baramgalla. These were primarily wintertime detours for all but Poonchians. The passage northeast from Baramgalla rises quickly toward the Pirpanjal Pass at 11600'. The traveller then crosses the Rutten Pir (8200') and upward to Poshiana & Aliabad Serai across the border in Kashmir. (A serai is Mughal building.) From here there is a “grand view” from the summit of the pass. Then follows the descent to Hirpur on the road leading onto the plains of the Kashmir valley. The large town of Shupiyan lies farther on and from there directly north to Srinagar was typically a two-day’s march for the traveller (instantaneous for postal runners) on a fairly easy road bordered by poplars. Camping grounds awaited the typical traveller in the European Quarter in the southern section of Srinagar. Special guests received a goat and perhaps an elephant ride. In the synopses the numbers are English miles between the flanking locations:
Synopsis of Pirpanjal Route. Start Gujarat 29 Bhimber 27 Nowshera 28 Rajouri 14 Thanna Mundi 10 Baramgalla 8 Poshiana 11 Aliabad Serai 9 Sukh Serai 3 Hirpoor 8 Shupiyan 11 Shadi Marg 17 Sher Garhi 0 Srinagar.
Synopsis of the Red Line: Jammu City 15 Akhnûr 24 Chauki Chora 10 Thandapani 12 Dharamsala 10 Sialsia 12 Rajouri . . . whereupon the route heads to the Pirpanjal pass as before.
The Blue Line. Punch, or Poonch, is a region of western Kashmir that used its own postage stamps in the 1876-94 period. Its capital of the same name is a town on the Suran, or Sooran, river. It is hardly surprising that its postal doings are entwined with that of Kashmir (to which it was ‘feudatory’) and indeed they shared the same stamp and seal engraver, a certain Rahat Ju, who cut most of the Kashmir & Jammu implements. Winter mail between Srinagar and points south in the Panjab via Bhimbar was detoured through Punch when the Pirpanjal became impassable. The detour adds 40-some miles to the postal runners’ winter trek. Starting from Srinagar and heading westward along the Jhelum River to Uri, one could opt for the Poonch detour by proceeding south for about 20 miles through the Bitarh valley toward the 8500' Haji Pir pass. After reaching Punch (City) itself the trek southeast to Thanna Mundi is about 30 miles. The mails could then proceed south on the Pirpanjal route. Currently the region between Punch and Uri sees the India-Pakistan cease-fire line cross twice. The other, harder-but-shorter, route to Punch was via Gulmarg and over the Firozepur La. Another postal line that originated at Punch went down-river through Kotli and beyond southward. While the map does not show an obvious route between Kotli and Nowshera on the Pirpanjal line, there was indeed a runner line between the two that passed through Seri and Kirutha (not shown on the map.) Seri and Kotli boast fine 3-ring cancellations, among other things we are bound to assume.
Synopsis of Main Punch Detour: Gujarat City 29 Bhimber 27 Nowshera 28 Rajouri 14 Thanna Mundi 16 Sooran 14 Punch 9 Kahota 8 Aliabad 7 Hyderabad 10 Uri 26 Baramulla 14 Pattan 17 Srinagar.
Murree Green Lines. Passage into the Kashmir Valley from the West, starting say at Rawalpindi in the Panjab, was effected through the British hill-town of Murree situated some 40 miles northeast of Rawalpindi at an altitude of 7200'. From Murree, three routes could be taken into Kashmir: (a) From Murree 28 miles northwesterly is the large station of Abbottabad (name chopped at left edge of map.) This was the easier if longer route that was taken when winter or supply conditions so required. The march proceeds north to Mansehra, then east into Kashmir reaching Muzaffarabad and Domel, where there is connection to the Jhelum River and thus clear passage east to Srinagar via Garhi, Uri, Baramulla, etc. (b) Much more common for the mails was a 21-mile leg going northeasterly from Murree that descended directly to the Jhelum river at the border town of Kohala. Following the river upstream north, one again reaches the vicinity of Muzaffarabad at Domel and on as before. (c) There is also the difficult short-cut from Kohala directly across to Garhi, a saving of some 50 miles compared with route (a).
Synopsis of Abbottabad Route: Rawalpindi 40 Murree 28 Abbottabad 14 Mansera 33 Muzaffarabad 1 Domel 9 Garhi 12 Hattian 15 Chakoti 16 Uri 11 Oorumboo 15 Baramulla 14 Pattan 17 Srinagar.
Synopsis of the short Kohala Route: Rawalpindi 40 Murree 10 Daywal 11 Kohala 14 Garhi 12 Hattian 15 Chakoti 16 Uri 11 Oorumboo 15 Baramulla 14 Pattan 17 Srinagar.
The Red Line, an old route, is called the Jammu Link and was largely abandoned with the development of easier passage through the Banihal pass on the Yellow Line.