Conserving Deen Dayal’s works opens a window to India’s past

For a long time, there has been a sense of awe about the photographs of Raja Deen Dayal (1844-1905). Much was spoken and written about him, yet only a fraction of his vast photographic collection was ever seen. Some were in British museums, a few others with the Alkazi Collection and the rest buried or unseen.

Only a small portion of his work was ever available for viewing. But now that problem has been addressed with the Indira Gandhi National Centre of the Arts (IGNCA) in New Delhi launching a conservation effort of rare glass negatives and other photographs of Deen Dayal. Glass negatives must be stored under specific temperature and humidity conditions to prevent the emulsion from deteriorating. Conservation efforts now use specialised technology, with some images being digitised for preservation.

Rediscovering the past

“These are not just visual archival records; these are heritage filled with emotions. With the conservation of Raja Deen Dayal glass negatives, IGNCA is not only restoring photographs, but also restoring his memory, method and meaning,” Sachchidanand Joshi, member-secretary, was quoted as saying in the August 8 edition of The Times of India.

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These glass negatives have been stored in IGNCA since 1991, after it was donated to them by Deen Dayal’s descendants, according to the report in TOI. There are about 3,000 glass negatives, a comprehensive collection of his works. These include pictures of temples across the country, Agra Fort and palaces, and also portraits shot in his studios, which he ran in Indore, Secunderabad and later in Bombay.

Glass negatives are a pioneering effort in which photos are taken on glass plates coated with collodion and silver nitrate. These needed to be developed soon after exposure, requiring early photographers to carry portable dark rooms with them, to be developed on site. It is not easy to conserve them since the emulsion can get detached from the glass plates. Conservationist Rahul Sharma is handling the project for IGNCA

When completed, the conservation and digitisation work is bound to open up a world that has been well chronicled but not fully seen in all its original glory. Deen Dayal’s archive will change all that and will open up a new, old world for us.

So, who was Deen Dayal, and how did he grow to become the most influential Indian photographer of that period?

From draughtsman to royalty

Raja Deen Dayal (1844-1905) was the first Indian photographer who tried and introduced royal photography to India, other than, of course, his work on monuments, which he did for the British government. Deen Dayal, who earned a diploma in draughtsmanship at the Thomson Civil Engineering College in Roorkee, studied the basics of photography when it was introduced there in 1864. He was working as a draughtsman in the public works department when he introduced himself to a British photographer and showed his ability to take photographs.

With the help of Sir Henry Daly, agent of the governor general of central Indian states, Deen Dayal went on to take photographs of Lord Northbrook, the governor general of India and later that of the Prince of Wales and the royal party in 1875-76. Deen Dayal was patronised by various British officers, mainly Sir Lepel Griffin of the Bengal Civil Service and accompanied him as an architectural photographer on his tour of Bundelkhund in 1882 and took “magnificent photographs” of the architecture of Gwalior, Khajuraho and other parts. Eighty six of these pictures were used by Sir Lepel in Famous Monuments of Central India.

Dayal’s big break came after a copy of this book was presented to Queen Victoria, and Deen Dayal then became official photographer to successive viceroys like Earl Elgin and the Marquis of Lansdowne, and also official photographer of the Duke of Connaught, commander-in-chief of the Indian army. Soon, the major appointment followed: the royal warrant appointing him as ‘Photographer to her Majesty the Queen’ from Queen Victoria in 1887. After her death, the warrant was renewed. Deen Dayal’s life has been chronicled by Narender Luther in his book – Raja Deen Dayal: Prince of Photographers, in which many of the pictures he took can be seen.

Lens of eminence

In one picture, Deen Dayal can be seen in a group photo with him seated and a British assistant standing behind him. Only a few Britishers stood while Deen Dayal was seated, showing the prominence he enjoyed. In 1894, Deen Dayal established his state-of-the-art studio in the Fort area of Bombay. The Times of India dated November 26, 1896, called it “the most splendidly equipped photographic salon in the East”. Deen Dayal, due to his drive and expertise, moved effortlessly from photographing monuments in his early days to studio portraits and then to court photographer. He had an aesthetic sensibility that he brought into most of his pictures.

After he settled down in Hyderabad and became a court photographer of the Nizam, his work flourished and diversified. He attended durbars, made portraits of the Nizam and his family, apart from shooting landscapes and monuments. To look like he was part of the Nizam court, he grew a beard and sported a turban, though he remained a Jain, a vegetarian and teetotaller. Newspapers in England and India praised his work off and on, and he was also decorated with various awards in photo exhibitions in England and India. In 1903, he photographed the Delhi durbar, accompanying the Nizam. The Nizam was so impressed with his work that he wrote a couplet in Deen Dayal’s honour:

Ajab yeh karte hain tasvir mein kamaal kamaal

Ustaadon ke hain ustad Raja Deen Dayal

(In the art of photography, surpassing all

A master of masters is Raja Deen Dayal.)

Framing colonial power

Deen Dayal was a pro-establishment photographer always shooting to please his patrons, the British on one side and then the Nizam. He was positioned between Anglo-India and princely India. His portraits, which showed imperial might and glory, all had a purpose. His photos of Lord Curzon’s shikars, displaying tiger trophies prominently, reflect imperial power but today appear repulsive due to their disregard for a majestic animal. His photographs of the imperial durbars and Nizam’s durbars also serve the purpose of what is expected of a court photographer.

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It was doubtful if Deen Dayal had an Indian vision for this reason. His picture of his British patron Lepel Griffin atop the Chichai waterfall near Rewa is both beautiful and imperial. The slow shutter speed also shows the water falling in a swooshy way, like in paintings. To even take such a picture required a notion of the picturesque, which Dayal must have learnt from Samuel Bourne’s pictures or court paintings. His landscape photos of Indore in the 1870s and 1880s are “fine landscapes which incorporate the graceful attenuated trunks of the palms as the principal feature of the composition but the overall effect of the scene succeeds because the artist was so adept at seizing the light at the right moment, thereby committing to the negative a delicate translation of fronds, dense ground cover and water through exquisite nuance and detail,” writes Gary Simpson in India Through The Lens.

Though Deen Dayal was not a news photographer, he was much talked about in British newspapers due to the photos shown in the Bengal Photographic Society exhibitions. Later on, after Independence too some of his available pictures started appearing in magazines in India. His portraits showed the way for later Indian photographers. But much is left to be seen of his photographs, which will now become possible. According to Simpson, Deen Dayal is assured of a place in the canon of names we will continue to remember as having profoundly shaped the way early modern India would continue to be visualised.

(Part of this article is from the author’s forthcoming book ‘All in a Flash: News Photography in India’ to be published by Niyogi Books.)