The Indian Princely State
Legal Documents Collection

ca.1890 - ca.1960
(About 10,000 manuscripts in 18 boxes)

CONTENTS LIST & KEY TO THE FOLDER NUMBERING SYSTEM

Each folder has a unique number consisting of 4 parts: a princely state code prefix, followed by a denomination or "face value" indication, followed by a decimal point, followed by a language/script code, followed by a sequential number. The folders are grouped into boxes as below.

• The princely state code (see table below) identifies the state or entity that issued the documents in the folder.
  
  
• The denomination indicates the value imprinted on the documents and/or the value of the court fee stamps affixed to them. All denominations (except documents from Travancore state) are in numbers of rupees (R) and annas (A). (There were 16 annas to the rupee, but the folder codes reflect the values actually used on the documents, that is, a document with "8 annas" imprinted and three 4-anna stamps affixed is listed as "20A", while a document with "1 rupee" imprinted and one 8-anna stamp affixed is listed as "1R8A", etc.). Documents from Travancore use a different currency, the chakram (C). (Some of the Travancore documents use annas as well). Some documents have no denomination and so no denomination code is used.
  
  
• Documents from a given state (and even within a given denomination group) are separated into different folders by language or script. Most folders are in English (E), Devanagari Script (D), or Urdu Script (U). Some are in Gujarati Script (G). Documents from Travancore appear to be in Malayalam Script. The Travancore folders are labelled as Malayalam Script, but no language code was used in the folder numbers.
  
  
• Within each State/denomination/language grouping, each folder receives a sequential number, when more than one folder exists in the group. Documents are also grouped ino separate folders when the stamp or crest or seal or printing color is different.
  
  

Thus J6R8A.U5 indicates the fifth consecutive folder of Urdu Script documents denominated at 6 rupees and 8 annas, from Jaipur.