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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 3, p. 418.

CHAPTER VIII POSTS AND TELEGRAPHS I. Post Offce Postal ser- PRIOR to the year 1837 India possessed no general postal vice prior system. A few lines of mail couriers, connecting the principal towns with the seats of Government, had been established for the conveyance of official letters and parcels; but their use by private individuals was conceded only as a privilege on pay- ment'. In I837, under the provisions of Act XVII of that year, a public post was established, and the Government reserved to itself the exclusive right to convey letters for payment in the territories of the East India Company. The postmasters of the Presidency towns supervised the working of a certain number of Provincial post offices, and provided for the conveyance of mails over a few main lines of com- munication, while Collectors had charge of District post offices and local mail lines. The charges for the conveyance of letters were levied in cash, payable in advance, and varied according to weight and distance. Thus, the charge for sending a letter from Calcutta to Bombay was one rupee, and from Calcutta to Agra I2 annas, per tola2. Establish- In 1850 a Commission was appointed to report on the menlt of working of the Post Office, and the result was the repeal of the Postal depart- Act XVII of I837 and the enactment of Act XVII of .854 ment on its (the Indian Postal Act). This Act marks the commencement present footing. of the organization of the Indian Post Office on its present footing. Under its provisions the whole department was placed under the control of a Director-General; the office of Postmaster-General was separated from that of Presidency 1 The conveyance of letters by such couriers (kasid, paltarar, or harkdra) was extensively developed under native rule from early times. And it is interesting to notice that the vernacular words (ddik in Northern India, and tappil in the south and west) are derived, like the English word, from the stages at which relays of couriers, or other methods of conveyance, were stationed. 2 A tola is three-eighths of an ounce, being the precise weight of a rupee.