Means of Transport

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Travel on land

By palanquin or dandy

• Photographs showing a Palkee, Palki, Palanquin, with Bearers: Palanquin images from Prof. Emerita Fran Pritchett’s Indian Routes. Palanquin, India Library of Congress. Similar image Four Bengal men carrying man in palki or palanquin, undated. Click through to 2/2 images. Photograph is captioned Palkee and …?(=Bearers), Calcutta. Undated, before 1903. Smithsonian Learning Lab. Four men carrying a Palkee (Palanquin) c 1870s Old Indian Photos.
  • A description of various types of palanquins from the bottom of page 173 The General East-India Guide and Vade-mecum ... in British India and the Adjacent Parts of Asia (etc.) by J B Gilchrist 1825 Google Books. Page 178 describes a bangy used for carrying goods. "If not overladen, the bangy will generally keep pace with the palanquin".
  • Post-Masters were tasked with assisting travellers going from one place to another by 'laying the dawk' for them upon request and on due payment. This referred to appointing relays of bearers to be ready on certain nights, at certain stations by which the traveller passed passed. "Five men carry the palkee, four more attend as reserves to take their turn, two carry tin petarrahs, or boxes slung on a pole, and two carry torches". Dawk/dak, meaning Post, page 299 Hobson Jobson. The word survives in dak bungalow, a traveller's rest house. Routes, estimates of times, costs etc are included in ‪Itinerary and Directory for Western India: being a collection of routes through the provinces subject to the Presidency of Bombay, and the principal roads in the neighbouring states by Captain John Clunes 12th Regiment Bombay Native Infantry 1826‬. Google Books
  • "Account of a Late Palankeen Trip from Bombay to Mhow and Lahore" [December, 1837]. Part II, page 39 Narrative of a Late Steam Voyage from England to India via the Mediteranean. (Part II. Account of a Late Palankeen Trip from Bombay to Mhow and Lahore) by Captain T Seymour Burt. 1840. British Library Digital Collection.
  • "Chapter II The dawk journey from Calcutta and Madras to Bombay" page 7 The Overland Traveller, or Guide to persons proceeding to Europe via the Red Sea, from India by John Blackburn 1838. British Library Digital Collection.
  • “Across India in a Palkee” [in 1845] page 149 Glimpses of Old Bombay and Western India, with other papers by James Douglas 1900 Archive.org. Article with images: "Bombay to Calcutta ...1,400 Miles In 25 Days, in a Palanquin... Old Photos, Bombay, now archived.
• Photograph: Missionary being taken up hill on a litter [dandy], Darjeeling, ca.1890 Photographs from Scottish Missions, the National Library of Scotland. USC Digital Library. Dandy, dandi page 296 Hobson Jobson 1903 (first published 1886) Archive.org
• Postcard: Rickshaw Mussoorie. Dandy Mussoorie paperjewels.org. "A very unusual early split-screen postcard", by Julian Rust, undated.
• "Old-Time Conveyances in Calcutta" by Frank E Bushby pages 138-141 Bengal Past and Present, Vol-41 January-June 1931. Archive.org

By horse or bullock drawn vehicle

• 1814 Sketches of the line of march with bullock carts, elephants, horsemen, etc. by Captain Robert Smith, probably Bengal Engineers c 1814. British Library online Gallery. Click on “zoomable image” to enlarge.
• A description of bullock carts pages 179-183 The General East-India Guide and Vade-mecum ... in British India and the Adjacent Parts of Asia (etc.) by J B Gilchrist 1825 Google Books
• "Journeys Through India" page 32 How the World Travels by A. A. Methley 1922 Archive.org
• Ecka/ekka page 336 Hobson Jobson. A small one horse carriage. Ekka (carriage) Wikipedia. Hackery page 407 Hobson Jobson. Bullock cart used for goods and materials, or in some parts of India equivalent to an ekka.Tonga/tongha page 930 Hobson Jobson. A carriage drawn by a pair of ponies or oxen.
  • Photograph: An ekka native 4 passenger omnibus c 1880s Wikimedia
  • Photograph: No 28 ‘Ekka' with passenger and baggage, coming from Cashmere (Kashmir) to Murree probably taken 1901-1903 flickr.com This was No 28 of a series of stereoscopic views and a description of this photograph appears on page 100 India through the stereoscope : a journey through Hindustan by James Ricalton 1907 Archive.org
  • Photograph: An ekka, an ox-drawn cart c 1914 at Belgaum page 56 Chota Sahib... You've Had a Busy Day by Charles Nida Google Books
  • Photograph: Indian Men in Ox Cart [drawn by a pair of oxen] oldindianphotos.in. Three men with ekka (carriage) pulled by team of bullocks 1862 Photograph is titled A bullock Ekka (Indian carriage & pa[ir?]) North W Province. Smithsonian Learning Lab, source National Anthropological Archives.
  • Images of ekkas and other carts from Early Modern India: a Select Glossary Professor Frances Pritchett.
• Photograph: Hospital Shwebo, [Burma] with Different Descriptions of Ambulances, 1887 – 1897 Wall Street Journal. This photograph was included in an exhibition at the J Paul Getty Museum
• Travelling by gharry, driven by a “mail driver” from the posting station, from Raneegunj, then the end of the railway line to Benares, page 137 My Diary in India, in the year 1858-9, Volume 1, by William Howard Russell, Special Correspondent of The Times 1860 Google Books.
• A description of the vehicles in a Calcutta street, with a drawing of a bullock cart, page 28 In the Himalayas and on the Indian Plains by C F [Constance Frederica] Gordon Cumming 1884 Archive.org. Some parts of the book were first published in 1876 in From the Hebrides to the Himalayas.
• Description of journeys from Lights & Shades of Hill Life in the Afghan and Hindu Highlands of the Punjab, a Contrast by F St J Gore 1895 Archive.org
  • Description of a trip in an ekha, page 170
  • Description of a trip on a mail tonga, from Kohat, page 254

By motor transport

• "Roads And Motor Transport In India" by Brigadier-General Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, Adviser on Mechanical Transport Services in India, 1915-19. Journal of the Royal Society of Arts Vol. 68, No. 3529 (July 9, 1920), pp. 541-552 jstor.org. Available to read for free on JSTOR, but first you must register, see Miscellaneous tips

Dak bungalows

• "Dak Banglas & Their Dark Tales" by Aditi Shah December 12th 2018. Live History India, now an archived webpage. "The word ‘dak’ is Urdu for 'post' and dak banglas were initially built by the British Indian Public Works Department to help postal officers relay the mail in stages."

Inflated animal skins

• The Khatnaoo, an inflatable bullock skin used for water travel (may also be called a Dareyi). Also known as a mussuck or mussak.
  • Description of a raft made from a charpoy bed-frame fastened over two mussaks by Harry Lumsden of the Guides, probably c late 1840s, quoted in Soldier Sahibs: The Men Who Made the North-West Frontier by Charles Allen Google Books, Also available page 101 Archive.org/Books to Borrow/Lending Library version.
  • C 1857 Illustration: page 125 Cavalry Experiences and Leaves from My Journal by Colonel H A Ouvry 1892 Archive.org
  • Photograph: Mussucks for Crossing the Beas below Bajoura 1866 (North West India), by Samuel Bourne. From an album of photographs. J. Paul Getty Museum.
  • Photograph: Senais on the Sutlej facing page 122, with a description, page 121, Lights & Shades of Hill Life in the Afghan and Hindu Highlands of the Punjab, a Contrast by F St J Gore 1895 Archive.org. With photographs by the author.
  • Crossing the Sutlej near Simla upon inflated animal skins c 1905 University of Houston Digital Library. From India Illustrated: Being a Collection of Pictures of the Cities of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras, Together with a Selection of the Most Interesting Buildings and Scenes throughout India, published by Bennett, Coleman, & Co., publishers of the English language newspaper Times of India, c 1905.
  • Stereoscopic photograph of inflated bullock skin boat, or dreas, at the side of the river Sutlej (British Library). Image 35, with a description , page 123 India through the stereoscope : a Journey through Hindustan by James Ricalton 1907 Archive.org
    • Further images, possibly taken at the same time by James Ricalton, but not named, from calisphere, University of California, and others: Crossing Sutley in bullock-skin boats. India, Ferry boats of Bullock Skins on the Sutley River in the Himalayas, India, Boatmen - Sutley River. India, Two versions of Inflated Bullock Skins Used for Ferry Boats on Sutlej River in Punjab, India: Radford University Digital Collections, Cornell University Library, Boatman leaving Sutley River and carrying home boats, India.
  • "The British Empire and India (part 1 of 2)" Includes a segment at 3.16 on the Khatnaoo. YouTube
• C 1890: a reference to mussaks or inflated skins, used for water travel. Page 72, also page 74 Some Rambles of a Sapper by Brigr-Genl. Herbert Henry Austin. 1928 Hathi Trust Digital Library
• A smaller inflated sheepskin, usually used as a water-carrier's bag: Illustration: Our Bath [swimming pool] with a description on page 124 of an inflated sheep’s hide, used for fun in the pool. "Curry & Rice," on Forty Plates, or, The Ingredients of Social Life at "Our Station" in India by‬ George Francklin Atkinson 1858 Hathi Trust. Note: Illustration can be rotated.

Travel by air

• See Aviation.