The Feudatory State of Bhor

Bhor was a princely state in the Kolhapur Residency and Decca States Agency, presently a part of the Indian state of Maharashtra. The state was spread over 910 square miles and stretched from Satara in the Western ghats to the outskirts of the cantonment city of Poona.

In 1697, Maratha Chhatrapati granted an estate in Bhor, near Satara, to Shankarji Narayan, one of the eight hereditary Maratha ministers (Maha Ashta Pradhan). The state remained subservient to the Maratha Confedeciary till 1818 when a change of power brought it under the realm of the British East India Company. An 1820 treaty placed it within the Satara state and it went under direct British control in 1849. The state paid a small tribute to the British government every year and remained so till the end of the British rule. The rulers of Bhor ceded to the Union of India in 1948.

The rulers of Bhor were Brahmins, the same as the Peshwas. The state subsisted on agriculture and was involved in the production of opium.

Stamps of Bhor

Bhor had seven state post offices and was authorized to issue its stamps, a privilege first exercised in 1879. In its history, Bhor issued a total of two stamps that had confirmed postal usage. The stamps were handprinted and saffron in colour. However, the colour of the ink varied from saffron to maroon, and so did the quality of the paper on which it was printed. 

The stamps of Bhor showed a crude design and were mostly hand-seals that printed the name of the state and the denomination of the stamp in Devanagari script. The first line of the inscription had the abbreviations of Bhor Postal Service. The second line gave the denominations. The stamps of 1879 were issued in two denominations – ½ anna (oval Sg: IN-BR-1) and 1 anna (rectangle Sg: IN-BR-2). incidentally, the ½ anna stamp has the philatelic distinction of being the first oval stamp in the world. 

Though the postal system of Bhor was taken over by the British in 1895, another stamp seems to have been issued in 1901, of the denomination ½ anna and was typographically printed. However, it is unlikely that this stamp was postally used.