Unfinished roof of Bhojpur Temple. Built by Raja Bhoja - 1882
Photograph of the unfinished dome of the Shiva Temple at Bhojpur in Madhya Pradesh, taken by Deen Dayal in 1882, from the Lee-Warner Collection: 'Scenes and Sculptures of Central India, Photographed by Lala Deen Dayal, Indore.' The co...
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Photograph of the Lat Masjid, at Dhar, Madhya Pradesh, taken by an unknown photographer in c.1902. Dhar in the Malwa region of central India had long periods of Hindu and Muslim rule. It was once the capital of the Hindu Paramara dynasty, known for their patr...
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Photograph of a Mosque, at Dhar, Madhya Pradesh, taken by an unknown photographer in c.1902. Raja Bhoja was a famous 11th-century king of the Hindu Paramara dynasty which ruled Dhar between the 9th and 13th centuries. The Paramaras were known for their support fo...
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View from the river looking towards the ghat and riverside buildings, with Aurangzeb's Mosque in the left background from 'Views of Benares, from the River Side' taken by Brajo Gopal Bromochary in 1869. "This spot is one of the five chief places of worship on the ...
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This photograph is a very oblique view taken from the north-west corner of the court, looking towards the high arch of the main facade of the 'jami masjid' or congregational mosque in Jaunpur. Jaunpur lies some 58 kilometres to the north of the fame...
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Lion capitals, torana beams and other sculpture fragments lying on the ground near the Great Stupa, Sanchi, Bhopal State - 1875
Photograph of lion capitals, torana beams and other sculpture fragments lying on the ground near the Great Stupa at Sanchi, from the Archaeological Survey of India Coll...
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Side view of the Asokan Edict Pillar, Lauriya Nandangarh, Champaran District - 1865
Photograph of the Ashokan Edict Pillar at Lauriya Nandangarh, Champaran District, taken by Sir Benjamin Simpson in c.1860s. Ashoka (reign ca. 272-231 BC) was the most illustrious king of the Maurya dynasty. After...
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Full-length carte-de-visite portrait of a young lady wearing an exotic mixture of eastern and European clothes. The inscripiton indicates that she comes from a Jewish merchant community which felt happier in the business environment of the day in adopting a Ch...
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Photo Feature:
When New Delhi was new: archival images of the Capital under construction.
Rare images of Delhi's great buildings taking shape.
Delhi is in flux this week as new ministers settle into offices in North and South Block and move into their stately bungalows. The buildings they occup...
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Enclosure (once a Hindu Temple) of Zein-ul-ab-ud-din's Tomb, in Srinagar, Kashmir
Probable date A.D. 400 to 500 (?)
Photograph of the enclosure surrounding Zain-ul-abidin's tomb at Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, taken by John Burke in 1868. This photograph is reproduced in Henry Hardy Cole's Ar...
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Ruins of the Temple of Martand, Kashmir - 8th century AD
Photograph of the ruins of Martand from the 'Strachey Collection of Indian Views', taken by Samuel Bourne in 1864.This Hindu temple to the sun deity was built by Lalitaditya (c.724-60), the most powerful and renowned monarch of the Karkota...
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Temple of Jyeshteshwara [Shankaracharya], on the Takht-i-Suliman Hill, near Srinagar. Probable date 220 B.C.
Photograph of the Shankaracharya Temple on the summit of Takht-i-Suleiman (Throne of Solomon), near Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, taken by John Burke in 1868. This view was reproduced in...
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Group of temples near the village of Wangut in the Scind Valley, Kashmir - 8th century AD
Photograph of a temple at Wangat, Jammu and Kashmir, taken by John Burke in 1868. This photograph is reproduced in Henry Hardy Cole's Archaeological Survey of India report, 'Illustrations of Ancient Buildin...
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View of the Dashashvamedha Ghat from the Kitchener of Khartoum Collection: 'Views of Benares. Presented by the Maharaja of Benares' by Babu Jageswar Prasad in 1883.
Dashashvamedha Ghat, on the River Ganges at Varanasi, is one of the busiest of the cities many ghats, where residents and pilgrims...
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Print from an album of 41 albumen prints by Edmund David Lyon. Kalugumalai (Vulture's Hill) is a rounded granite hillock in the Thoothukodi district of Tamil Nadu. It is known for its Jain rock carvings and a 7th-8th century monolithic temple carved out of the...
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Photograph with scenic vista of Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra, by an unknown photographer, from an album of 40 prints taken in the 1860s. Mahabaleshwar, at 4500 ft in the Sahyadri hills, is the largest and most popular hill-station in Western India, although subject to extrem...
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Parbati Temple, Poona
1850s to 1870s
Photographed by Francis Frith, born 1822 - died 1898
Whole-plate albumen print from wet collodion glass negative
Francis Frith was one of the most successful commercial photographers from the 1850s and 1860s. He also established what was to become the larges...
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A photograph of Malabar hill, Bombay from the 'Vibart Collection of Views in South India' taken by an unknown photographer about 1855. Malabar hill, near Bombay is 180 feet high and forms a peninsula enclosing Back Bay to the north. Today, the Hill and t...
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A photograph of a view of Bombay from Malabar Hill from the 'Vibart Collection of Views in South India' taken by an unknown photographer about 1855. Originally, Bombay was composed of seven islands separated by a marshy swamp. It’s deep natural harbour led the Po...
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A photograph of the Walukeshwar temple in Maharashtra from the 'Vibart Collection of Views in South India' taken by an unknown photographer about 1860. The kings of the Silhara dynasty who ruled Bombay from the 9th to the 13th Centuries originally built Walkeshar Temple...
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Essay:
Malabar Hill and the Pirates of Malabar
From 'Maddys Ramblings'
A cursory look at the name of one of the costliest bits of real estate in Bombay (nowadays called Mumbai) signifies its relationship to the South West coastal area of Malabar. There is a reason to that, and I thought I would ...
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