Bathing scene in Calcutta

Lala Deen Dayal was the most important Indian photographer in the early years of the medium. Trained as an engineer and a draftsman, he took up photography, attracting the attention of the Maharaja of Indore as well as important British officials. In 1875 Deen Dayal had the opportunity to photograph the visit of the Prince of Wales to India, after which Lord Dufferin, who represented the British crown as head of the government of India, appointed Deen Dayal his personal photographer; later he was court photographer to the ruler of Hyderabad, who bestowed many titles upon him. Deen Dayal exhibited some of his photographs at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893), which featured cultural exhibitions from around the world. This image is quite different from most of the professional photographs in the Asian Art Museum's collection; off the beaten path, it was taken in the neighborhood around the Kalighat Temple in Calcutta and depicts bathers and boats in a small river that flows toward that important temple in the south-central section of the city. Most foreign buyers likely would have been more attracted to photographs such as those of the Taj Mahal and Indian dancers. Two other images in this exhibition having to do with the Princely State of Rewa were taken by photographers from Deen Dayal's studio and were selected for an album that probably included some of his own pictures.