Indian Themes on foreign stamps…

 

L.A. Mayer Institute for Islamic Art

 

The L.A. Mayer Institute for Islamic Art is a museum in Jerusalem, Israel, established in 1974. The museum houses Islamic pottery, textiles, jewelry, ceremonial objects and other Islamic cultural artifacts.

The museum was founded in memory of  professor, Leo Aryeh Mayer, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a scholar of Islamic art who died in 1959. It has nine galleries organized in chronological order, exploring the beliefs and art of Islamic civilization. In addition to Mayer's private collection, the museum houses antique chess pieces, dominoes and playing cards; daggers, swords, helmets; textiles; jewelry; glassware, pottery and metalware produced in Islamic countries, from Spain to India. A collection of Islamic carpets was added in 1999.

- Kenneth Sequeira

email : kenneth.sequeira@hotmail.com 

Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

 

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zeljko Vasilik, Croatia

 

 

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Indian Themes on foreign stamps……

 

Sher Shah Suri

Sher Shah Suri (1486- 1545) also known as Sher Khan  was the founder of the Sur Empire in northern India, with its capital at Delhi. An Afghan (Pathan) by origin, he defeated the Mughals and took control of North India in 1540. He first served as a private before rising to become a commander in the Mughal Army under Babur and then as the governor of Bihar . He is also remembered for purportedly killing a fully grown tiger with his bare hands in Bihar.

In 1537, Sher Khan turned against his master and overran the state of Bengal to establish the Sur Empire. A soldier of fortune, Sher Khan also proved himself a gifted administrator as well as an able general. His reorganization of the empire laid the foundations for the later Mughal emperors, notably Akbar the Great, son of Humayun. During his five year rule from 1540 to 1545, he set up a new template for civic and military administration. He conquered Bihar in 1534 & Bengal in 1538. In 1539, Sher Khan faced Humayun in the battle of Chausa. He forced Humayun out of India. Assuming the title Sher Shah, he ascended the throne of Delhi.

He adopted a tri-metal coinage based on copper, silver and gold coins and re-organised the postal system in his kingdom. The system of tri-metalism which came to characterize Mughal coinage was introduced by Sher Shah. While the term rūpya had previously been used as a generic term for any silver coin, during his rule the term rūpiyacame to be used as the name for a silver coin of a standard weight of 178 grains, which was the precursor of the modern rupee.

Sher Shah rebuilt the longest highway in South Asia. The highway was called the Shahrah-e-Azam (also Sadak-e-Azam, Badshahi Sadak and later Grand Trunk Road by the British). It is still in use in present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab region Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal. Mughals extended Grand Trunk Road westwards: at one time, it extended to Kabul in Afghanistan, crossing the Khyber Pass. The road was later improved by the British rulers of  colonial India. It was extended to run from Calcutta to Peshawar (present-day Pakistan). Over the centuries, the road acted as a major trade routes in the region and facilitated both travel and postal communication.

Sher Shah built monuments including Rohtas Fort (now a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Pakistan), many structures in the Rohtasgarh Fort in Bihar, Sher Shah Suri Masjid, in Patna, built in 1540-1545 to commemorate his reign.Qila-i-Kuhna mosque, built by Sher Shah in 1541, at Purana Qila, Delhi, a Humayun citadel started in 1533, and later extended by him, along with the construction of Sher Mandal, an octagonal building inside the Purana Qila complex, which later served as the library of Humayun. 

Sher Shah died from a gunpowder explosion during the siege of Kalinjar fort on May 22, 1545 fighting against the Chandel Rajputs. His death has also been claimed to have been caused by a fire in his store room.

His mausoleum, the Sher Shah Suri Tomb (122 ft high) stands in the middle of an artificial lake at Sasaram, a town that stands on the Grand Trunk Road.

India (1970) & Pakistan (1991) released stamps to honour him.

 

- Kenneth Sequeira, Dubai ( UAE)

email : kenneth.sequeira@hotmail.com

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Color and Perforation Error on MS

 

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Stamps on Yoga from China…

 

Indian theme on foreign stamps

The Miniature sheet ( Customized)  features Taj Mahal, Yoga and Shri BKS Iyengar

The Chinese Postal department released eight stamps featuring the Karnataka born and Pune-based, internationally acclaimed Yogacharya BKS Iyengar during the China-India yoga summit held in Guangzhou between June 17 and 19 last year .It is a customized Miniature sheet.

About B.K.S : Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar Generally known as B. K. S. Iyengar Born December 14, 1918, in Bellur, Kolar, district, Karnataka, India. He is the founder of Iyengar Yoga; He is considered one of the foremost yoga teachers in the world and has been practicing and teaching yoga for more than 75 years. He has written many books on yoga practice and philosophy, He has also written several definitive yoga texts. Iyengar yoga classes are offered throughout the world,

He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1991 and the Padma Bhushann in 2002. In 2004, Iyengar was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine.

-Jagannath Mani, Bangalore  email : jagannath_mani7@yahoo.co.in  Blog :  www.olympicgamesphilately.blogspot.com

 

 

Europa 2012  "Visit... "

Here are some recent stamps featuring EUROPA 2012 theme, stamps  issued by Kazakhstan and Lithuania.

Kazakhstan

Date of Issue: 11th April 2012

Lithuania

Date of Issue : 28th April 2012 

View all :  Euroapa stamps

 

Extraordinary stamps of  2011

Here are some more stamps selected in  top ten stamp  list of 2011 released by  stamp News .com

 

Mythical Creatures

 

This Australia Post's stamp issue, released in October 2011, features Mythical Creatures including a fairy, troll, mermaid, griffin, unicorn and a dragon.

Included in this stamp issue is an Australian first, a special effect 3D mini sheet. It comes with viewing glasses and is housed in a special stamp pack complete with a standard mini sheet.

Zodiac issue by Liechtenstein and China

 

Club News

New issue no.57 March 2012 of "ITS Stamp News" has been released . Book your copy and send order immediately, if you are not a subscriber.

Subscription rates are as under:

Subscription Rates: (By Air-mail)

Sample Copy :Rs.40 / US $2 / Euro 1.50

Four Issues :Rs.150 / US $8 / Euro 6

Twelve Issues :Rs.450 / US $24 / Euro 18 [Free Classified advt. of 30 words]

Twenty Issues : Rs.750 / US $40 / Euro 30 [Free Classified advt. of thirty words in five issues]

- Suraj Jaitly    Mobile: +91 98728 51244
MIG # 3464, Phase Two, Dugri Road, Ludhiana - 141 013 INDIA

email : indianthematicsociety@gmail.com 

ITS at : http://indianthematicstamps.webs.com/
ITS Stamp News at : http://itsstampnews.blogspot.com/
ITS Postal Auction photos at : http://www.flickr.com/photos/its_offers/

 

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Indian themes on foreign stamps…

 

Great Indian Personalities

Mohammad Ali Jauhar

 

Mohammad Ali Jauhar (1878-1931) was an Indian Muslim leader, activist, scholar, journalist and poet, and was among the leading figures of the Khilafat Movement.

He was one of the founding members of All India Muslim League and its former president.

Mohammad Ali Jauhar is remembered as a fiery leader of many of India's Muslims. He is celebrated as a hero by the Muslims of Pakistan, who claim he inspired the Pakistan movement. But in India, he is remembered for his leadership during Khilafat Movement and the Non-Cooperation Movement (1919–1922) and his leadership in Muslim education.

The famous Muhammad Ali Road in south Mumbai, is named after him. He along with Gandhi traveled to Britain for attending round table conference sometimes in the 1930s. There he delivered his famous speech which included his wish not to get buried in 'slave India'. During the same tour he fell ill and died in London. Respecting his wish, his followers brought his dead body to Palestine, which was then a British Mandated territory (not in Turkish control), and buried him at Baitul Muqaddas. Many Indian Muslims with interest in history were wondering if his tomb is still intact. One Hyderabadi scholar Omar Khakidi who was working with MIT, Boston, found Ali's grave, which was still in good shape.

    

India (1978) & Pakistan (1978,1991) released stamps in his honour .

- Kenneth Sequeira :  email : kenneth.sequeira@hotmail.com 

P.O Box 27181

Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

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Indian theme on foreign stamps..

 

Dayananda Saraswati

Mauritius Post issued a set of 5 stamps on death centenary of Dayananda Saraswati in 1993

Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati (1824 – 1883) was an important Hindu religious scholar, reformer, and founder of the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement. He was the first to give the call for Swarajya -"India for Indians" – in 1876, later taken up by Lokmanya Tilak. Denouncing the idolatry and ritualistic worship prevalent in Hinduism at the time, he worked towards reviving Vedic ideologies. Subsequently the philosopher and President of India, S. Radhakrishnan, called him one of "makers of Modern India," as did Sri Aurobindo.

One of his most influential works is the book Satyarth Prakash, which contributed to the Indian independence movement. He was a sanyasi (ascetic) from boyhood, and a scholar, who believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas.Dayananda advocated the doctrine of karma and skepticism in dogma, and emphasized the ideals of brahmacharya (celibacy) and devotion to God. The Theosophical Society and the Arya Samaj were united from 1878 to 1882, becoming the Theosophical Society of the Arya Samaj. Among Maharishi Dayananda's contributions are his promoting of the equal rights of women, such as the right to education and reading of Indian scriptures, and his translation of the Vedas from Sanskrit into Hindi so that the common person might be able to read them.

Swami Dayananda's creation, the Arya Samaj, unequivocally condemns idol worship, animal sacrifice, ancestor worship, pilgrimages, priest craft, offerings made in temples, the caste system, untouchability, child marriages and discrimination against women on the grounds that all these lacked Vedic sanction. The Arya Samaj discourages dogma and symbolism and encourages skepticism in beliefs that run contrary to common sense and logic. To many people, the Arya Samaj aims to be a "universal society" based on the authority of the Vedas.

India released stamps on him in 1962 & 2000. Mauritius released these stamps on his death centenary .

       

 

- Kenneth Sequeira

email : kenneth.sequeira@hotmail.com 

P.O Box 27181Dubai, (United Arab Emirates)

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Indian theme on foreign stamps..

 

Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda (1863 -1902)  was the founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. He is considered a key figure in the introduction of Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the "Western" World, mainly in America and Europe and is also credited with raising interfaith awareness, bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion during the end of the 19th century. Vivekananda is considered to be a major force in the revival of Hinduism in modern India. He is perhaps best known for his inspiring speech which began: "Sisters and Brothers of America," through which he introduced Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1893.

Vivekananda arrived in Colombo on 15 January 1897 and received an ecstatic welcome. Here, he gave his first public speech in East, India, the Holy Land. From there on, his journey to Calcutta was a triumphal progress. He traveled from Colombo to Pamban, Rameshwaram, Ramnad, Madurai, Kumbakonam and Madras delivering lectures. People and Rajas gave him enthusiastic reception. In the procession at Pamban, the Raja of Ramnad personally drew the Swami's carriage.

On way to Madras, at several places where the train would not stop, the people squatted on the rails and allowed the train to pass only after hearing the Swami. From Madras, he continued his journey to Calcutta and continued his lectures up to Almora. While in the West he talked of India's great spiritual heritage, on return to India the refrain of his 'Lectures from Colombo to Almora' was uplift of the masses, eradication of the caste virus, promotion of the study of science, industrialization of the country, removal of poverty, the end of the colonial rule.These lectures have been published as Lectures from Colombo to Almora. These lectures are considered to be of nationalistic fervor and spiritual ideology. His speeches had tremendous influence on the Indian leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi, Bipin Chandra Pal and Balgangadhar Tilak.

Sri Lanka issued the stamp on 15th Jan 1997 to mark 100 years of his visit to Colombo.

- Kenneth Sequeira,

Email : kenneth.sequeira@hotmail.com 

P.O Box 2718, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

India Post issued a commemorative postage stamp on Swami Vivekanada in 1963 and 1993.

 

 Date of Issue : 17 January 1963

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Swami Vivekananda : Centenary of Chicago Address

Date of Issue : 11 September 1993

 

Customized stamp on Swami Vivekanada from Malaysia

 

To commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda (1863-2013), Ramakrishna Mission Malaysia observed the release of the ‘Arise, Awake!’customized postal stamp on Aug 2.The stamp takes inspiration from the holy man’s famous quote “Arise, Awake! Stop not till the goal is reached”.

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Indian theme on foreign stamps….

 

Afanasy Nikitin - First Russian to visit India

 

Afanasy Nikitin was a Russian merchant from the 14th century to travel to and document his visit to India. He described his trip in a narrative known as The Journey Beyond Three Seas.

In 1466, Nikitin left his hometown of Tver on a trip to India. He travelled crossing the Caspian Sea, then the Arabian Sea, by crossing the Black Sea to India

During his trip, Nikitin studied the population of India, its social system, government, military (he witnessed war-games featuring war elephants), its economy, religion, lifestyles, and natural resources. The abundance and trustworthiness of Nikitin's factual material provide a valuable source of information about India at that time. On his way back to Tver, Nikitin died.

In 1955, the local authorities of Tver erected a bronze monument to Afanasy Nikitin on the bank of the Volga River. There is a folk legend, that this statue was raised because Nikita Khrushchev upon visiting India, told Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru that there was a statue of Nikitin in Russia when in fact there was not (Nehru had asked if the Russians had honored the first Russian to visit India). So as not to be proven a liar, Khrushchev phoned back to Russia demanding that a statue of Nikitin be built immediately, before Nehru's state visit to Russia.

In 2000, a black obelisk was erected in Nikitin's honor at Revdanda, 120 km south of Mumbai, the probable location where he first set foot in India.

In 2006, the Indian organization "Adventures & Explorers," with the support of the Embassy of India in Moscow and the Tver Regional Administration sponsored the "Nikitin Expedition", in which 14 travellers set out from Tver to retrace Nikitin's journey through Russia, the Middle East, and Central Asia to India. The expedition lasted from 12 November 2006 to 16 January 2007. The Indian national newspaper, The Hindu, filed several reports of the expedition's progress. After reaching India, two members of the "Nikitin Expedition" set out in March 2007 from Mumbai in SUVs to retrace Nikitin's travels around India itself. The Calcutta Telegraph filed a report on its progress in one of its March editions.

Russia released stamps on Nikitin in 1965 & 2005.

The statue was featured on a Russian postage stamp in 2005 commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the establishment of the Tver region (oblast). Nikitin was also featured on a coin commemorating the 525th anniversary of his journey.

- Kenneth Sequeira, Dubai (UAE)

Email : kenneth.sequeira@hotmail.com

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New Stamp from India..

 

Employee’s State Insurance Corporation

 

Date of Issue : 24 February 2012

Image : Stamps of India

 

 

India Post issued a commemorative postage stamp  on 24 February 2012 at the concluding function of Diamond Jubilee Year of Employees’ State Insurance Corporation.

Indian Themes on Foreign Stamps…

The history of writing

The history of writing records the development of expressing language by letters or other marks. Hindi is a standardised and sanskritised register of the Hindi-Urdu language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi and Western Uttar Pradesh. It is an official language of India.

The Constitution of India, adopted in 1950, declares Hindi in the Devanagari script as the official language of India. English continues to be used as an Official language of India along with Hindi. The Constitution of India has stipulated the usage of Hindi and English to be the two languages of communication for the Central Government. Most of government documentation is prepared in three languages: English, Hindi, and the official state language.

The dialect upon which Standard Hindi is based is khariboli, the vernacular of Delhi and the surrounding western Uttar Pradesh and southern Uttarakhand region. This dialect acquired linguistic prestige in the Mughal Empire (17th century) and became known as Urdu, "the language of the court." After independence, the Government of India set about standardising Hindi as a separate language from Urdu.

Venda was a bantustan, a territory set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa as part of the policy of apartheid. It was founded as a homeland for the Venda people, speakers of the Venda language. In 1979, it was declared independent by the South African government and its residents lost their South African citizenship. Its independence was not recognized by the international community. The sovereign nation of Venda didn't practice apartheid, leading to relationships across the racial divide. Venda was re-absorbed into South Africa on 27 April 1994.

Venda issued stamps only from 1979 - 1989. These stamps were released in 1988

- Kenneth Sequeira, email : kenneth.sequeira@hotmail.com

Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

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Bihar Stamp Expo 2012….

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: Pradeep Kumar Malik, Patna

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