Photo 10/6

Album measuring 313x395mm, with prints mounted one to a page with letterpress captions pasted beneath. A specially made front cover carved from ivory has been fixed onto the original album cover. This consists of a panel with inset plaques containing views in relief of Benares scenes. The cover also contains the carved inscription 'Presented to H.E. Lord Reading by Maharaja Benares 1 Dic [sic] 1921'. A slip of paper signed 'Prabhu Narayan 1-12-21' by the Maharaja of Benares is pasted into the inside front cover. The Photographer's name is pasted into the last page of the album. Although given as a presentation album to Lord Reading in 1921, most of the photographs were probably taken in the first decade of the century, particularly those from Sarnath, which appear to show items from the 1905 excavations soon after they had been retrieved.

The album contains topographical and architectural views in Benares (modern Varanasi) and at Sarnath. Prints 2-20 are views of the ghats on the west bank of the Ganges taken from the river, moving from south to north. Prints 21-25 show buildings in Ramnagar, prints 27-33 are views of buildings in Benares. Prints 34-41 are of the remains of the Buddhist stupa at Sarnath, built on the site of the spot where the Buddha gave the 'Sermon in the Deer Park'. Forty of the prints in this album are duplicated in Photo 17/3 from the Earl Kitchener Collection.

Note on dating: Several prints in the album date back to at least 1883. Prints 7, 8, 11-13 also appear in Photo 177, an album dated January 1883. A number of other views are probably also of this period.

Process = Gelatine prints

Photographers = Madho Prasad (and Babu Jageswar Prasad), ;