India Princely State Rajput Royalty Document Sultan Muhammad Saadat Ali Khan IN

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India Princely State Rajput Royalty Document Sultan Muhammad Saadat Ali Khan IN:
$84.96

For your consideration is an authentic 1908 CE princely-state administrative manuscript from the Princely State of Tonk, handwritten in Devanagari script on original handmade Indian paper and measuring approximately 5.75 inches by 7.25 inches. This document represents a genuine internal bureaucratic endorsement issued from the Diwans Office, the principal executive authority of Tonk State beneath the ruling Nawab. It bears an original applied circular black ink seal reading Office of the Honorable Diwan Sahib, Tonk State, which conclusively identifies the issuing authority and firmly anchors the document within the formal administrative structure of the state.

The manuscript dates securely to 1908 CE, with the year written in Devanagari numerals on the verso. Significantly, no date appears on the recto, a feature entirely consistent with Tonk State clerical practice for internal memoranda and file-routing endorsements during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In such documents, the front was reserved for the administrative instruction and official authentication by seal, while dating and file-movement notations were customarily added later on the reverse as the paper circulated through successive offices.

The recto contains a concise but formal administrative endorsement stating that a petition ( ) was submitted in accordance with official instructions and placed before the competent authority for consideration, with directions that appropriate action be taken. The language is functional and procedural rather than ceremonial, reflecting the documents role as a working instrument within the machinery of government rather than as a proclamation intended for public display. The presence of the Diwans Office seal authenticates the memorandum as an official government record and confirms its use within the highest level of Tonks civil administration.

The verso preserves additional clerical annotations written in the characteristic shorthand of Indian princely-state bureaucracy, including the notation (seen), indicating that the matter was reviewed, along with instructions for re-submission in accordance with orders. These endorsements document the internal circulation of the file through the Diwans Secretariat and provide rare, direct evidence of how petitions were processed, reviewed, and advanced within the administrative system. The dated entry on the verso establishes the precise year of use and situates the document firmly within the early twentieth-century phase of Tonks modernized governance.

Executed on fibrous handmade paper and written in a professional clerical hand using carbon-based black ink, the manuscript survives in honest, unrestored condition, retaining the tactile and visual qualities of everyday official paperwork of the period. Unlike ornate royal sanads, illuminated grants, or formal decrees, ephemeral administrative memoranda such as this were produced for immediate use and typically discarded once their function was complete. As a result, surviving examples are comparatively scarce and are of particular interest to collectors and scholars concerned with the practical realities of princely governance rather than its ceremonial faade.

This document offers a tangible and historically correct insight into the daily operation of the Tonk State administration during the reign of Muhammad Saadat Ali Khan, illustrating the mechanisms by which petitions were handled and authority was exercised at the executive level. It is a museum-worthy artifact of South Asian administrative history, notable for its clear provenance, secure dating, and unembellished authenticity as a working record of princely-state governance in 1908.