Picturing Wars in British India

The Imagery of Raja Deen Dayal

Narendra Luther features the photographs, life and work of a master photographer of the 19th century in a recent study titled ‘Raja Deen Dayal: Prince of Photographers’.

An excerpt from the book

Deen Dayal was born in a well-to-do Jain family of jewelers in 1844 in a place called Sardhana near Meerut in the state of Uttar Pradesh. After finishing school, he joined the diploma course for Engineering at the Thomason Civil Engineering College at Roorkee. Photography had been introduced as a part of the curriculum in the college in 1864. So, he acquired grounding in the subject there. On completion of his course in 1866, he got a job as Draughtsman and Head Estimator in the Public Works Department of the princely state of Indore. His salary was thirty rupees a month.

An apocryphal story tells us that around 1874, an English photographer was taking photographs of the Maharajas of the state. Deen Dayal introduced himself and asked if he could be allowed to handle the camera. The Englishman was so impressed by the quality of Deen Dayal’s work that he presented his camera and equipment to him and said, “Keep these. You are a better photographer than I am.”

According to another account, Deen Dayal’s interest in photography as an amateur attracted the attention of Sir Henry Daly, the Agent to the Governor-General in the General India States. With the latter’s help, he went on to take photographs of Lord Northbrook, the Governor-General of India, as well as the Prince of Wales and the royal party in 1875-76.

This led to the patronage of Sir Lepel Griffin of the Bengal Civil Service. Griffin had served in the Punjab and had authored The Rajahs of the Punjab in 1870. He was then posted in Central India. Deen Dayal accompanied him as an architectural photographer on his tour of Bundelkhand in 1882 and produced magnificent photographs of the ancient architecture of Gwalior, Khajuraho and other parts of the region. Sir Lepel included 86 of Deen Dayal’s photographs in a book entitled Famous Monuments of General India published from London in 1886. A copy of this book was presented to Queen Victoria. Lord Dufferin, the Viceroy of India, liked his work and so he was appointed official photographer to the Viceroy. He continued to be the official photographer to successive Viceroys like Earl Elgin and the Marquis of Lansdowne. In addition he was appointed official photographer to the Duke of Connaught, commander- in –chief of the Indian Army. He attained the unique distinction of getting the Royal Warrant of Appointment as ‘Photographer to Her Majesty the Queen’ from Queen Victoria, in 1887.

Having achieved a fair degree of renown both with the high officials and the cognoscenti with his photographs of ancient architecture and other views, Deen Dayal decided to cover the rest of the country and complete his series of photographs. He took leave of absence for two years from the Government. The pictures he took were published in the album Views of India. The only extant copy is said to be in Windsor Castle in England.

Deen Dayal soon found that a period of two years was not adequate to finish the task that he had undertaken. About that time, he also started feeling that his real avocation lay in photography. He then took voluntary retirement from Government service and became a full-fledged professional photographer. He set up a studio in Indore in 1874. Next year he covered the visit of the Prince of Wales to India.

In 1885 Deen Dayal came to Hyderabad with a letter of introduction from the Viceroy Lord Dufferin to the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Mehboob Ali Khan. The Nizam appointed him State photographer. He was so impressed by the superb quality of Deen Dayal’s photographic work that in 1895 he conferred the title of ‘Raja Musavvir Jung Bahadur, do hazari wa ek hazar sawar wa alam’ on him. It was a title that came from the Mughal period. It entitled him to keep a cavalry of 2000 and when going out, be followed by a procession of one thousand horses and fly a personal pennant. Of this string of titles, he used only ‘Raja’.

Deen Dayal settled down in Secunderabad and set up an establishment under the name of ‘Raja Deen Dayal & Sons.’ [The company] employed about 50 persons which included two German oil painting artists, an English Manager, four P.O.P. painting and Mounting experts, retouchers, chowkidars, bill collectors and four syces for the three carriages and six horses in his stable. Deen Dayal exhibited his business acumen in another matter also. Because of the prevalence of the custom of ‘purdah’ amongst the ladies in Hyderabad, Deen Dayal took the initiative of employing an Englishwoman, Mrs. Kennedy Levick, to be in charge of the ladies’ section of the studio. Her husband was a journalist. This helped in further promoting the business.

In 1894, Deen Dayal closed the studio in Indore and established a deluxe salon in Mumbai. It occupied the entire first floor of what is now the Khadi Bhandar Store in the Fort area. A notice in the Reception Room proclaimed that Deen Dayal had ‘tried, regardless of expense, to provide, this large room with everything that Oriental luxury and artistic taste can suggest’. His son, Gyan Chand, largely ran the Studio.

Deen Dayal was a superb photographer. His training in draughtmanship helped him compose a picture properly. He had also a rare facility with the play of light. The English encouraged and patronized him because of his skill and humility. In Hyderabad, it was his familiarity with the customs and manners the Indian court, which gave him an edge over his European rivals. He moved in the two worlds with perfect ease and confidence.

Deen Dayal was also endowed with a natural courtesy and tact born out of interacting with a cross section of the British ruling class, and the royalty and nobility of the princely states of India. . . . One day in 1894, while on a hunting trip, the Nizam was moved to compose the following couplet in Urdu in praise of his photographer.

Ajab yeh karte hain tasvir mein kamaal/Ustaadon ke hain ustaad Raja Deen Dayal (In the art of photography, surpassing all, a master of masters is Raja Deen Dayal.)

With the passage of time, his business flourished, his reputation spread, and his family expanded. Raja Deen Dayal was at the peak of his career during the period of fifteen years from 1885 to 1900. . . The decline in Deen Dayal’s fortunes had started in his own lifetime. By 1903, it was apparent that his sons were not very much interested in following the father’s profession. . . He [Deen Dayal] closed the establishment at Mumbai and became somewhat reclusive. His wife’s death a few months later added to his bereavement. About two-and-a-half months after his wife’s death, Deen Dayal fell ill. Shortly thereafter, on Wednesday, 5th July 1905, the great photographer passed away in Mumbai.

NOTEBOOK: The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in New Delhi, acquired 2857 negatives of Deen Dayal’s work in 1989. From time to time the Centre displays his work. A large number of photographs are still in private hands and with different museums. This feature on the life and work of Deen Dayal is excerpted from Narendra Luther’s book ‘Raja Deen Dayal: Prince of Photographers’. It is published by Creative Point, Hyderabad. ISBN 81-901752-0-3.