APPENDIX C METHODS OF TRAVEL IN EARLY DAYS

The dak or travelling system prevailing in India in the year 1857 was almost wholly arranged by the Post Office and was available for private individuals as well as for officials. When a traveller contemplated a journey he applied to the local postmaster for means of transport, giving, as a rule, two or three days' previous notice. Horse daks, i.e. wheeled conveyances drawn by horses, were available only on the great trunk roads, which were metalled. On other roads, the journey, when not performed on horseback, was accomplished in a palanquin or palkee, a kind of wooden box, about six feet in length by four in height, fitted at the sides with sliding shutters and suspended on two poles borne on the shoulders of four men. The pleasures of travelling in this fashion have been described by Bishop Heber and other writers. The traveller provided his own palanquin, and the postmaster supplied the palkee-burdars or palanquin-bearers, eight in number, as well as two mussalchees or torchbearers and two bhangy-burdars or luggage porters. The charges, about one shilling per mile for the entire set of twelve men, had to be paid in advance, the traveller notifying the time and place of starting and the duration and localities of halts. There was also an extra charge for demurrage or delays on the road attributable to the traveller himself. For these charges the postmaster undertook that there should be relays of dak servants throughout the whole distance, and, to ensure this, he had to write in advance to the different villages and post stations ordering relays to be ready at the appointed hours. The stages averaged ten miles each and were accomplished in three hours, at the end of which time the twelve men retraced their steps, having been succeeded by another twelve; for each set of men belonged to a particular station. The horse daks were established on the same system, several pairs of horses or ponies being kept at the different stages as relays. The bullock train, which was intended chiefly for baggage and parcels, was largely used for conveyance of troops during the Mutiny. There were one or two private companies in existence, but the public as a rule preferred to use the Government vehicles, as they were considered more reliable.

There were no hotels or inns on the road, but dak bungalows or rest houses, a convenient substitute, were established at places varying from fifteen to fifty miles apart, according as the road was much or little frequented. These bungalows were under Government control, a khidmatgar or servant and a porter being in attendance at each, the traveller paying a fixed sum for the use of his room and making a separate bargain for any few articles of provisions that might be obtainable. The building was little more than a thatched house of one story, divided into two or three rooms, to each of which a bathroom was attached. The khidmatgar cooked and served the meals ordered, while the porter supplied wood and water. The dak system was perfected by Lord Dalhousie, during whose administration many fine metalled roads, including the grand trunk road from Calcutta to the Punjab, were completed. The new system was a great improvement upon the primitive arrangements in force during the Punjab campaign of 1846, when, owing to the tedious nature of the journey and the slow method of progress, out of one hundred officers sent off by palanquin from Calcutta to aid Viscount Hardinge only thirty arrived at the Sutlej before the campaign was over.