The postal system in India is, perhaps, as ancient as her temples, for, like all postal systems, it was born of the necessity of maintaining communication, so that the emperor might keep in touch with the officers in charge in provinces at a distance from the capital: and himself, be kept informed of what was taking place.

IBN Batuta, traveling in India, in the time of Mohamed Bin Tughlak, in the middle of the fourteenth century says: - "There are, in Hindustan, two kinds of couriers, horse and foot; these are generally termed "El Wolam". The horse-courier, which is generally a part of the sultan's cavalry, is stationed at a distance of every four miles.

As to the foot-couriers there will be one at a distance of every mile occupying stations which they call "El Davah" and making on the whole three miles: so that there is, at the distance of every three miles, an inhabited village, and without this, three sentry boxes the courier sit prepared for motion with there loins girded. In the hands of each is a whip about two cabits long, and upon the head of this are small bells, whenever, therefore, one of the couriers leave any city he takes his dispatches in one hand and the whip, which he keeps constantly shaking, in the other. In this manner he proceeds, shakes his whip, upon this, out comes another who takes the dispatches and so proceeds to the next, for this reason it is that the Sultan receives his dispatches in so short a time."

The postal service in India was first thrown open to the public in 1837. Charges were levied in cash, and the lowest rate being Two Annas for every hundred miles, copper tokens of the value of Two Annas were struck and made available for the payment of postage. The first issue of Postage Stamps in India was made in Sindh in 1852.

They were of three kinds.

1. The design embossed on white paper, without colour. 2. Blue, embossed on white paper. 3. The design embossed on vermilion wafers. The first official Air Mail flight ever undertaken was on the 18th February 1911 when 6500 letters and postcards were flown from the U.P Industrial and Agricultural Exhibition Grounds, in Allahabad, to Naini Junction by M. Pequet, a French aviator. A souvenir postmark was provided by the postmaster General U.P. for the occasion the seal being destroyed immediately after the flight.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India