Travancore D.L.O. Half Chuckram Wrapper...1897 from Mannanam to Quilon

Half Chuckram wrapper....1897 a.d. From Mannanam to Quilon..with Dead Letter Office oval cancels(red & black) along with Refused letter rectangular cancels ( red & black).

Wrapper sent to the DEAD LETTER OFFICE. ..

Posted from Mananam to Quilon.

Refused rectangular box seal & NISCHEDICHU seal in Red rectangular box and finally to the D.L.O. with oval frankings in Black & Red...

Travancore wrapper watermark.....is it "Bengal Paper Mills -Co Ltd", which is the normal watermark? Looks like something else with full line inscriptions beneath.....

Yes, got it......it's 'The Nazrani Deepika'.....probably a print set off into the wrapper, from the fresh print of the newspaper.





Nazrani Deepika.

The dawn of April 15, 1887 witnessed a rare moment in the history of publishing in Travancore, when Deepika, (Nazrani Deepika- as it was initially named) India's first Malayalam Newspaper was first published. A marvel at that time, it was the realization and fulfillment of a long-cherished dream of many, which its Founder Editor Fr. Emmanuel Nidhiry (Nidhirikal Mani Kathanar), a renowned priest, initiated and shaped.

Intially the newspaper was printed on a crude, hand-made wooden press built by the legendary and far-sighted visionary Carmelite monk, Fr. Kuriakose Elias Chavara (now Saint Chavara) at Mannanam; a remote hamlet near the town of Kottayam in Central Kerala over a quarter century before then. This event further marked the epoch-making but humble dawn of organized, elite, free press journalism in Kerala.