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In photographs: 19th century South India


In the summer of 1854, Captain Linnaeus Tripe, an officer in the East India Company army, arrived in South India. In Bangalore, he set up a studio, ready to create an ‘accurate’ visual record for the Company. (It is probably why you’d find his photographs more ‘informational’ than ‘aesthetic‘).

Tripe’s initial experiments with photography coincided with the Great Exhibition of 1851 (when photographs were exhibited publicly for the first time). Soon after, he had joined the Photographic Society of London as a founding member.

By the winter of 1854, he proceeded to photograph Mysore, Belur and Hullabede (Halebidu). These photos were exhibited at the Madras Exhibition of 1855 (also considered India’s first Industrial exhibition).

Hullabede (capital of the Hoysala dynasty between the 11-14th century) : Temple of Siva, Sculptures / December 1854 / J.Paul Getty Museum, CC0

The jury, selecting images for the show noted that: ‘… Captain Tripe is entitled to a First Class Medal’.

This led directly to Tripe’s appointment as ‘official photographer’ for a diplomatic mission to the Burmese court in 1855. In 1857, Tripe became the official photographer of the Madras Presidency.

Beginning in January 1858, Tripe photographed sites in South India – covering Madurai, Trichy, Srirangam, Thanjavur, and Pudukkottai.

Take a look at our selection below (along side notes, reproduced as is).

19th century photograph of Viravasuntarayan Mandapam (South India).
Viravasuntarayan Munapam (Mandapam), 1858 / Met Museum / CCO

You can find these photographs in the collection of Rijksmuseum (Netherlands), University of Edinburgh, the Met Museum [US], the Cleveland Museum of Art [US], the J.Paul Getty Museum [US], and LACMA [US]. Digital copies have been released under an open license and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons during our Indian Heritage Online campaign.



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