Raja Mahan Singh Mirpuri
c1890. Ink and gouache with yellow heightening on fibrous, brown laid paper with a Jaipur Court Fee tax stamp in blue ink, 13 1/2 x 8 3/4 inches (343 x 222 mm). Toning, handling creases and minor scattered surface soiling throughout. There are scattered coeval Hindi inscriptions in ink on the recto.
Raja Mahan Singh Mirpuri (1810 – 1844) was a famous general in the Sikh Khalsa Army. He was conferred by Maharaja Ranjit Singh the title of Raja for his conquests of Haripur, Nowshera and Peshawar. The town of Mansehra derives its name from him. Singh was murdered by his own soldiers in 1844, when mutiny broke out in the Sikh Khalsa Army. His death was avenged by his son, Chhattar Singh, who was himself killed soon after.
The first revenue stamps in India were issued in the mid-nineteenth century during the Raj, and they are still being issued to this day. Apart from issues for the whole of India, many princely states, provinces, and other states also had (or still have) their own revenue stamp issues. Before independence, Indian revenue stamps were closely modeled on similar designs from Great Britain, as is the case with this carriage motif stamp from Jaipur. The stamps were issued to denote various denominations, including rupees and annas. An anna (or ānna) was a currency unit formerly used in British India, equal to 1⁄16 of a rupee. It was subdivided into four (old) Paisa or twelve pies (thus there were 192 pies in a rupee). When the rupee was decimalized and subdivided into 100 (new) paise, one anna was therefore equivalent to 6.25 paise. This particular stamp was used as evidence of court taxes remitted for property dealings.
Item number: 1338
Price: $850.00
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