Milestones

The history of the Post Office is closely linked to the history of mankind. There is a record of a messenger system in the Atharvaveda. The earliest known letter was found on Clay tablets during c. 2095 BC. There are references about existence of a postal system in Egypt during c. 2000 BC.

The history of India's postal system began long before the introduction of postage stamps. The communication of important military and political information was instituted by Cyrus the Great (580-529 BC) in the Persian Empire. He formed an innovative postal system throughout the empire, based on several relay stations called Chapar Khaneh (house of courier).King Chandragupta maintained communication system during c. 322 BC and the Great Ashoka also established communication system during c. 274. The first Sultan of Delhi, Qutb-ud-din Aybak (ruled from 1206 to 1210) created a messenger post system that was expanded into a ‘horse and foot runner’ service by Alauddin Khilji in 1296. Sher Shah Suri introduced horse dak system in 1541 and constructed the 4,800 km. Grand Trunk Road from Bengal to Peshawar for the use of postal services. He built 1700 relay posts where horses were changed. In 1556 King Akbar employed postal runners and set up relay stations. The old postal system of Mysore state, called the 'Mysore Anche', dates from the time of Chikka Deva Raja in the seventeenth century. Lord Clive established a postal plan (known as Jamidara Pratha) on 24 March 1766 in West Bengal. East India Company established post offices in Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta (now Kolkata) between 1764 and 1766. The main purpose of this postal system had been to serve the commercial interests of the East India Company.

The establishment of the modern postal system in India can be traced back to the second half of the 18th century. For the facility of prepayment of postage on letters, 'Copper Tickets' , pre-paid token stamps in 2 Annas value were introduced from Patna in 1774 by the East India Company during the period of Warren Hastings, the then Governor General of India.

The postal system, established by Lord Clive in the year 1766, was further developed by Warren Hastings by establishing the Calcutta G.P.O. under a Postmaster General in the year 1774. Postal Service was open to the public for the first time against payment.

Thus Postal system has contributed to Indian history in so many ways. This section provides an overview of the events in the history of postal system in India, that we call "milestones". These milestones are shown here in chronological timeline of different time periods.

The Special cover depicts Shershah Suri the first emperor started horse dak system and the cancellation depicts mounted post carrying mail bag. The cover also depicts harkara (Messengers) and postman's uniform through Ages.

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