A group of five engraved brass badges, a brass seal of office and a gilt-bronze Plaque

India, 19th Century

(7)

Footnotes

Inscriptions:

1. Oval seal: mohr-e daftar-e gudam mohemm punjab be-entezam lala jyoti presad sahib-e hend gomashta 1848 'isawi
'The seal of the Warehouse office of Punjab under the administration of Lala Jyoti Presad Sahib, the Indian representative 1848 of Christian [calendar]'.

2. A plaque: chapras be-hokm-e kernel tala sahib bahador hamrahi-ye jud presad ... sana 1865 'isawi astihan chahiya zel'e gunda
'The Chapras by the order of Colonel Tala (sic) Sahib Bahadur together with Jud Presad .... The year 1865 of Christian [calendar], Astihan (?) Chhahiya (?) a district of Gonda'.

Chaprasy is the bearer of a chapras, i.e. a badge-plate inscribed with the name of the office to which the bearer is attached. The henchman, bearing such a badge on a cloth or leather belt. The term belongs to the Bengal Presidency" (Henry Yule and Arthur C. Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, The Anglo-Indian Dictionary [1902], reprint, 1996, p.220).

Colonel Tala must be Major Hector Tulloch who was born 16 April 1935, son of John Tulloch. He entered the Indian Engineers in 1855; served in P. W. D till 1868; municipal Engineer of Bombay from 1868 to 1873; Engineering Inspector to Local Government Board, Whitehall between 1873 and 1897, retired in 1897, C,B in 1898 (C.F. Buckland, Dictionary of Indian Biography, New York 1968, p. 431).

In English: 'Colonel Tulloch 1865'.

3 & 4. Two identical plaques: chaprasi-ye sarkar muha rao raja sawai binay singh bahador samvat 1872
'The chaprasi of Sarkar MahaRao Raja Sawai Binay Singh Bahador Samvat 1872 (AD 1815-16)'.

This may refer to Rao Raja Binay Singh, the fourth Rao Raja of Alwar in Rajasthan (1815-1857).

5. A round plaque: numbr 5 pumel (?) barqandaz
'Number 5 guard of ...'

6. Oblong plaque: chapras-e sarkar-e raja balwant singh bahadur 'adalat-e fawjdari muti'allaqa zel'e tijara 1242
'The Chapras of Sarkar Raja Balwant Singh Bahador of the Criminal Court belonging to the district of Tijara AH 1242/AD 1826-27'.

This refers to Maharaj Balwant Singh of Bharatpur in Eastern Rajasthan. In the devanagri inscription the name of the district is Tijara, which is the name of a town in a neighbouring State 227 miles NW of Bharatpur city but it is not impossible that a smaller place of that name was also in Balwant Singh's territory. The date 1826 is the year he came to the throne.

7. Gilt bronze plaque: Qur'an, sura LXI, al-saff, part of verse 13; dated AH 1253/AD 1837-38.