Shaping Histories: Capturing India’s Monuments on the Film, 1855–1920
Core idea: The exhibition argues that photography did not simply record India's monuments. Photographs helped produce historical knowledge, shape archaeological practice, circulate colonial ideas, create tourist images, and eventually influence what came to be understood as India's cultural heritage.
1. Basic facts to remember
| Item | Key information |
|---|---|
| Exhibition | Histories in the Making: Photographing Indian Monuments, 1855–1920 |
| Curator | Dr. Sudeshna Guha |
| Period covered | 1855–1920 |
| Main subject | Photography, monuments, archaeology and colonial knowledge |
| Main argument | Photographs actively made histories, rather than merely documenting them |
| Important fields | Photography + archaeology + colonialism + science + tourism |
| Major photographic forms | Calotypes, albumen prints, silver gelatin prints, negatives, stereographs, postcards, cartes-de-visite, cabinet cards |
| Important idea | The photograph is not neutral; framing, captions, circulation and context affect meaning |
The exhibition was presented by DAG and curated by Sudeshna Guha; its original New Delhi presentation ran from August–October 2024.
2. Why does the exhibition begin in 1855?
1855 is significant because some of the earliest systematic photographic documentation of Indian monuments dates from this period.
Photography was increasingly being used for archaeological and architectural surveys. Thomas Biggs, William Henry Pigou, Andrew Neill, and William Johnson and William Henderson produced important early images of temples, caves and ruins.
Remember:
1854 → photographic apparatus supplied to Thomas Biggs
1855 → Biggs photographs monuments in western India
1856 → Pigou and Neill photograph sites including Mysore and Hampi
So, photography becomes connected to the colonial project of seeing, classifying and recording India's past.
3. Key photographer: Thomas Biggs
Thomas Biggs
- Worked with the Bombay Artillery.
- In 1854, received photographic equipment to make photographic records of caves and temples of western India.
- Produced more than 100 paper negatives of sites including Bijapur, Aihole, Pattadakal, Badami and Belgaum.
- His work represents the early institutional use of photography for architectural documentation.
Important photograph
Thomas Biggs, Iwullee, East Front of the Temple (Durga Temple, Aihole, Bijapur), 1855
Why important?
It demonstrates the attempt to use photography systematically as a form of archaeological evidence.
Exam keyword:
Photography as archaeological documentation
4. William Henry Pigou
William Henry Pigou
Important for photographing monuments in Mysore and southern India.
Important photographs
- Mysore, Idol car at the temple of Chamondee (Chamundi Temple), 1856
- Nursapoor, Window of Perforated Stone (Narsapur), 1856
His photographs show how architectural details could be isolated and recorded for scholarly study.
Remember:
Pigou = Mysore / Chamundi Temple / 1856
5. Andrew Charles Brisbane Neill
Andrew Neill
Continued the photographic work associated with Pigou, particularly at Hampi, then commonly called Beejanuggur/Vijayanagara.
Important photograph
** Beejanuggur, Sculptured Granite Wall (Hampi), 1856**
The photograph demonstrates the archaeological interest in architectural fragments, sculpture and ruins.
Exam connection:
Photography transformed ruins into visual evidence that could be studied away from the site.
6. William Johnson & William Henderson
Important site: Elephanta
** Caves of Elephanta – 7. From the Water Cave, 1855–62**
These photographs belong to the early systematic documentation of India's monumental architecture.
Why important?
They show how photography could make difficult-to-access monuments available to audiences who could not physically visit them.
Key concept:
Photography = transportation of visual knowledge
7. John Murray
Important photograph
John Murray, Khas Mahal, Agra Fort, c. 1858–62
- Waxed paper negative.
- Demonstrates the continued experimentation with photographic materials.
- Shows that early monument photography involved significant technical challenges.
8. Photography + colonialism
This is one of the most important ELE10 themes.
Colonial administrators and scholars wanted to survey and classify India's landscape, architecture and antiquities.
Photography appeared to offer:
- accuracy
- detail
- perspective
- visual evidence
- reproducibility
- scientific authority
The camera therefore acquired the reputation of objectively recording “facts.”
But the exhibition challenges this assumption.
Key argument:
A photograph is never simply a neutral record.
The photographer chooses:
- what to photograph
- where to stand
- what to include
- what to exclude
- how to frame the monument
- how to caption it
- how the image is circulated
Therefore, photographs construct historical meaning.
9. Linnaeus Tripe
Linnaeus Tripe
Tripe's photographs are particularly important for understanding the relationship between image + caption + colonial ideology.
Important series
Madura series, 1858
His photographs were praised for their technical and informational qualities.
But the accompanying written descriptions could encourage viewers to interpret Indian monuments through a colonial framework of British progress, governance and Christianity.
Exam concept:
Image + caption = constructed historical meaning
Do not study the photograph alone. Ask:
What does the image show?
What does the caption tell us to see?
10. Felice Beato and the 1857 Uprising
Felice Beato
Beato photographed places associated with the 1857 uprising, including:
- Delhi
- Lucknow
- Agra
- Kanpur
He became particularly important for his panoramic photographs.
Important concept: the “empty” city
His photographs of Delhi and Lucknow often contain very few people.
At first, this might appear to be simply an aesthetic choice.
But the absence of people can also reveal the violence and forced displacement that followed the uprising.
Exam point:
Absence can itself become historical evidence.
The photograph may hide violence while simultaneously revealing its consequences.
11. James Fergusson
James Fergusson
An important architectural historian.
He used photographs as historical evidence in his study of Indian architecture.
Important publication
** Tree and Serpent Worship (1868)**
Photographs of the Sanchi toranas and Amaravati stupa contributed to his construction of India's ancient architectural history.
Key concept:
Photography helped transform monuments into objects of scholarly comparison and historical classification.
12. Field photography
What is field photography?
Photography undertaken at archaeological or architectural sites, rather than inside a studio.
Its purpose was supposedly to capture:
“facts on the ground.”
But field photography was technically difficult.
Photographers had to deal with:
- heavy equipment
- chemicals
- glass plates/paper
- changing light
- exposure times
- transportation
- weather
- difficult terrain
The development of photographic technology during the 1860s gradually made fieldwork easier.
13. James Waterhouse
Important photograph
James Waterhouse, Ruins of Western Gateway, Sanchi (The Great Stupa, Sanchi), December 1862
It demonstrates the technical achievement involved in producing archaeological photographs under field conditions.
Remember:
Waterhouse = Sanchi = 1862
14. Edmund David Lyon
Important photograph
** Ramisseram Pagoda (Long Side Aisle), Rameswaram, 1867–68**
This is especially important because the photograph was retouched.
The colonnades were highlighted in ink.
Why is this important?
It destroys the simplistic idea that photographs automatically provide untouched reality.
The photographer could intervene in the image.
Key concept:
Photograph = technological image + human intervention
15. Photography and the creation of archives
In 1869, the colonial government ordered photographs of monuments and sites to be collected for an encyclopaedic repository in Britain.
This is important because photographs became part of institutional knowledge systems.
They could be:
- classified
- numbered
- labelled
- stored
- compared
- reproduced
- circulated between institutions
Big idea:
The archive does not simply preserve history—it helps organise what counts as history.
16. Samuel Bourne
Samuel Bourne
One of the most famous photographers associated with nineteenth-century India.
He is especially important for the picturesque.
Important photographs
- A View on the Dal Canal, Kashmir, c. 1860
- Ice Cave, Source of the Buspa, c. 1860–70
- Shankaracharya Temple, Takht-i-Sulaiman Hill, Kashmir, c. 1860
What is the “picturesque”?
A visual style that emphasises:
- dramatic landscapes
- composition
- light and shadow
- ruins
- mountains
- scenery
- romantic atmosphere
Photography therefore moved beyond purely scientific documentation.
It also became an aesthetic and commercial product.
17. Indian photographers
An important feature of the exhibition is that the history of Indian monument photography is not exclusively British.
Indian photographers participated in photographic culture and developed their own relationships with colonial visual narratives.
Important name:
Raja Deen Dayal
- Began photographing professionally around 1878.
- Initially worked as a draftsman-surveyor in the Public Works Department.
- Photographed monuments and architectural sites across central and northern India.
- Worked at places including Gwalior, Agra, Sikandra, Delhi, Mount Abu, Ajanta and Ellora.
- Photographed the restoration of Sanchi in 1882–83.
Exam importance:
Deen Dayal challenges the idea of a simple division between:
“British photographer” vs. “Indian subject.”
Indians themselves became producers of photographic knowledge.
18. Photography becomes a commodity
By the late nineteenth century, monument photographs were no longer only for scholars and government officials.
They became commercial objects.
Forms included:
- stereographs
- postcards
- cabinet cards
- cartes-de-visite
- albums
- souvenir photographs
Photography therefore entered the worlds of:
tourism + collecting + commerce + popular culture
19. Stereographs
Underwood & Underwood
The exhibition includes an Underwood & Underwood stereoscope from 1901.
Stereoscopic photographs created an illusion of three-dimensional depth.
Why important?
The viewer could experience monuments almost as if they were physically present.
This changed the relationship between:
viewer ↔ monument
The monument became something that could be consumed visually from a distance.
20. Postcards
Postcards are crucial to the final part of the exhibition.
Important date:
1896 → postcard production begins in India
By the early twentieth century, postcards helped circulate images of Indian monuments to huge audiences.
Why are postcards historically important?
They:
- commercialised monuments
- simplified historical narratives
- created stock images of famous sites
- circulated images internationally
- shaped tourist expectations
- allowed Indian publishers to offer alternative interpretations
21. Indian publishers and alternative histories
The exhibition points out that Indian publishers did not necessarily reproduce the same colonial interpretations as British publishers.
For example:
H. A. Mirza
His postcard captions could offer a less empire-centred interpretation than British publishers such as Raphael Tuck & Sons.
Some Indian publishers also avoided defining monuments purely through religious categories.
Key concept:
The same monument can produce different histories depending on who photographs, captions and circulates it.
22. Narayan Vinayak Virkar
Important photograph
Narayan Vinayak Virkar, Samathi (Samadhi), Raigad Fort, c. 1919
This is significant because it demonstrates the presence of Indian photographic practices within the period covered by the exhibition.
23. Photography as “currency”
This is a key exhibition concept.
Photographs circulated between:
- India
- Britain
- museums
- archives
- scholars
- tourists
- collectors
- publishers
They became objects of exchange.
Photography therefore created an early international network for exchanging information about Indian monuments.
Excellent exam phrase:
“Photographs became currencies of historical knowledge.”
24. Most important concepts — memorize these
1. Photography as evidence
The camera was believed to provide objective visual evidence.
2. Colonial gaze
Photographs could reproduce colonial assumptions about India, its past and its people.
3. Constructed image
Photographs are shaped by framing, technology, captions and editing.
4. Photography + archaeology
Photography helped archaeologists document, compare and classify monuments.
5. Field photography
Taking cameras into archaeological sites transformed the production of knowledge.
6. Archive
Photographs were collected, classified and preserved as institutional knowledge.
7. Picturesque
Monuments became aesthetically attractive landscape images.
8. Commercialisation
Photographs became souvenirs, postcards, stereographs and collectible objects.
9. Indian photographic agency
Indian photographers and publishers participated in producing alternative visual histories.
10. Heritage-making
Photographs helped determine which monuments were repeatedly seen, circulated and remembered as India's heritage.
25. Must-know timeline
1847 → Despatch concerned with illustration and preservation of Indian monuments.
1854 → Thomas Biggs receives photographic equipment for documenting caves and temples.
1855 → Biggs photographs Aihole/Pattadakal; Johnson & Henderson photograph Elephanta.
1856 → Pigou photographs Mysore; Andrew Neill photographs Hampi.
1858 → Tripe's Madura photographs; Beato photographs sites connected to the aftermath of 1857.
1862 → Waterhouse photographs Sanchi.
1867–68 → Edmund Lyon photographs monuments of Madras Presidency, including Rameswaram.
1868 → Fergusson publishes Tree and Serpent Worship.
1869 → Colonial government orders collection of monument photographs for an encyclopaedic repository.
1878 onward → Raja Deen Dayal develops his professional photographic career.
1882–83 → Deen Dayal photographs restoration work at Sanchi.
1896 → Postcard production begins in India.
1901 → Underwood & Underwood stereoscope represented in the exhibition.
c. 1919 → Virkar photographs Raigad Fort.
1920 → End of the exhibition's chronological period.
26. Photographer → photograph → significance
| Photographer | Photograph/site | Date | What to remember |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas Biggs | Durga Temple, Aihole | 1855 | Early archaeological photography |
| William Johnson & William Henderson | Elephanta Caves | 1855–62 | Monument documentation |
| William Henry Pigou | Chamundi Temple, Mysore | 1856 | Early architectural photography |
| Andrew C. B. Neill | Sculptured wall, Hampi | 1856 | Ruins as archaeological evidence |
| John Murray | Khas Mahal, Agra Fort | c.1858–62 | Early photographic processes |
| Linnaeus Tripe | Madura series | 1858 | Image + colonial caption |
| Felice Beato | Delhi/Lucknow | 1858 onward | 1857 aftermath, colonial memory |
| James Waterhouse | Sanchi | 1862 | Field photography |
| Edmund David Lyon | Rameswaram | 1867–68 | Retouching/intervention |
| Samuel Bourne | Kashmir | c.1860s–70s | Picturesque photography |
| Raja Deen Dayal | Sanchi, Gwalior, Agra etc. | 1878 onward | Indian photographic agency |
| Narayan Vinayak Virkar | Raigad Fort | c.1919 | Indian visual histories |
The exhibition catalogue and DAG's collection information provide the dates, works and processes above.
27. ELE10 exam-ready argument
If asked “Discuss the role of photography in documenting Indian monuments between 1855 and 1920,” build your answer around this:
Introduction:
Photography emerged in nineteenth-century India as a technology that appeared capable of objectively recording monuments.
Point 1 — Archaeology:
Photographers such as Biggs, Pigou and Neill used photography to document temples, caves and ruins.
Point 2 — Colonial knowledge:
Photographs became instruments of surveying, classification and colonial knowledge-making.
Point 3 — Not neutral:
Tripe, Beato and Lyon demonstrate that photographs were shaped by captions, framing, retouching and political context.
Point 4 — Fieldwork:
Waterhouse and others demonstrate the technical and scientific challenges of photographing monuments in the field.
Point 5 — Indian agency:
Raja Deen Dayal and Indian publishers complicate the idea that monument photography was exclusively colonial.
Point 6 — Commerce:
Stereographs, albums and postcards transformed monuments into objects of tourism and consumption.
Conclusion:
Photography therefore did more than preserve India's monuments. It helped select, classify, interpret, circulate and ultimately create the visual idea of India's historical heritage.
One-line revision formula
**1855–1920 = Photographing monuments → producing evidence → constructing colonial knowledge → developing archaeology → commercialising images → creating competing Indian/colonial histories → making heritage.**
Tags :
Indian Monuments, Colonial Photography, Indian History, Architectural Heritage, Photography History, 1855-1920, Historical Photographs, British India