The Raja of Indo-Anglia

Shweta Sharma, The Sunday Guardian, November 29, 2010

Ajab yeh karte hain tasvir mein kamaal kamaal,

Ustaadon ke hain ustaad Raja Deen Dayal.

— Mir Mehboob Ali Khan, Nizam VI, Hyderabad

Raja Deen Dayal was that great thing: a true pioneer, a figure who blazed a path that every Indian who picks up a camera follows today. His is a name that should be synonymous with 19th century photography in India, yet sadly his work remains neglected outside the attentions of Indian art historians and some photographers.

At a time when photography in India was strictly the preserve of Europeans, Deen Dayal’s work was so compelling that he became the photographer of choice for agencies of the British Government like the Archeological Survey, for Europeans living in India, and even for the richest Indians. His beautiful, meticulously constructed portraits evoke their time wonderfully, while his lavish visuals of the architectural wonders of the day remind the viewer just how storied India’s past is.

His photographs provide a compelling portrait of one segment of India during British rule, of its lavish costumes and lifestyles, of the unstinted affluence the nobility here enjoyed, and the strange social dynamic (captured elegantly in books like E.M. Forster’s A Passage To India and Nayantara Sahgal’s Mistaken Identity) that grew between the rajahs and the white overlords they pandered to. Students of history and Indian photography will therefore be delighted that an exhibition called Raja Deen Dayal: The Studio Archives from the IGNCA Collection is on at the newly-opened twin galleries in Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA).

More than 200 photographic reproductions have been selected from the rare 2,857 glass plate negatives in the IGNCA archive, representing the rich diversity of Dayal’s photographic journey, spanning over three decades, from 1874-1905. The IGNCA acquired the studio archives of the photographer from his family in August 1989.

“We decided to host this exhibition as he was undoubtedly the most prolific Indian photographer of his time, a man who made his mark on the work of European counterparts then. He is a towering figure in Indian photography,” says Professor Jyotindra Jain, member secretary of the IGNCA and the joint curator of the show (along with Pramod Kumar K.G.). For this exhibition, IGNCA has brought together more of his work than has even been on public display before.

Deen Dayal was born in 1844 into a middle-class Jain family in Sardhana, near Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. He studied at the Thompson Civil Engineering College, where in 1854, photography was introduced as a subject. This was where he began his training. Upon leaving college, he came into contact with Sir Lepel Griffin of the Bengal Civil Service, who commissioned the Indian to join him on his mission to document monuments of the architectural heritage of Central India. It was during this tour that Deen Dayal photographed temples, forts and palaces at Gwalior, Orchha, Sanchi, Jhansi, Omkareswar and other places. He firmly established himself as a much sought-after photographer for the documentation of archaeological monuments. As a result, the Archaeological Survey of India became his greatest patron.

“Winning around 12 national and international prizes at that time was a matter of great pride. Despite the fact that he worked without artificial aids like a flash bulb, the results were as magnificent as the prints from a modern day camera. He is a true visual historian of India, and his pictures were used by the ASI for the conservation of historical monuments like Taj Mahal,” says Narendra Luther, the author of Raja Deen Dayal: Prince of Photographers.

Luther says the significance of Dayal’s work even today is paramount. “The quality of his pictures, considering the era he clicked them in, is marvellous. Most of the people and places he clicked are no more, but his work remains eternal. He is the benchmark for photographers today.”

Noted photographers like Ram Rahman made a beeline for the exhibition. He points out that Deen Dayal’s works are not only an important part of India’s photographic heritage but that they are a crucial historical document. “For me, the most important thing about Deen Dayal remains that he was a local and not a firang. His works hold more significance because of the fact that he did such great work that survives even today, despite living during the colonial era, when Indians were not expected to fulfill these roles.” Rahman told Guardian20.

The images at the exhibition are digital reproductions of bromide silver photographs produced by the Raja Deen Dayal & Sons Studio between 1988-89. His vintage prints, usually albumen prints, are mostly in private collections across the world.

Rahman says, “My favourite part of this exhibition was seeing a few of Deen Dayal’s architectural images, which I had not seen before. But there should have been at least one original picture by Deen Dayal on display. The original albumen prints are the size of the negatives. Here, those images have been simulated. A glass print would have given an average viewer an idea of how prints used to be in those days,” he says.

Though Deen Dayal worked as official photographer to several Viceroys, after 1885 he worked as the court photographer of the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad , where he remained until his death. In 1886, he opened his studio, Deen Dayal & Sons, Secunderabad, and in 1892, he opened a Zenana Studio in Hyderabad where a woman photographer named Kenny Levick shot the native ladies, ‘protecting them from the gaze of the profane and the stern’.

According to photographer Raghu Rai, Deen Dayal came to the fore at a time when only British photographers in India were doing portraits, which meant the subjects, instead of posing looked like cattle brought for slaughter. “Naturally, Deen Dayal’s body language, being a Indian, was different. Indian women, who were very shy, didn’t like posing for British photographers and looked away from the camera. But with Dayal, it was different. They looked into the camera and that gave far more gentler results,” says Rai.

The exhibition also marks the launch of the newly created twin-art galleries at the IGNCA. “Many commercial galleries are mushrooming in the capital these days. But they offer limited space for exhibitions. Apart from the Lalit Kala Academy and the National Gallery of Modern Art, no other gallery can host extravagantly-curated exhibitions and shows. This gallery offers Delhi a space as big as Lalit Kala Academy’s two floors put together,” says Jain.

The exhibition will be on until 28th February.

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