Photo 1006/1

Green half-leather album, 385 x 322 mm, containing prints mounted on pages interleaved with tissue. The volume contains photographs taken for the Frontier Circle of the Archaeological Survey of India over the four seasons 1906-10. Copies of each of the four years' reports are bound in preceding the photographs for the relevant period, as follows:

1906-07. Prints 1-87, objects excavated from Jamalgarhi, Takht-i-Bahi, Sahribahlol and a few other sites. The majority of the photographs are of Gandharan sculpture from Sahribahlol, with some views of the excavations at that site. The report for this period was submitted by David Brainerd Spooner, who took charge of the Frontier Circle's work in the absence of Aurel Stein (then absent on his Second Central Asian Expedition) in September 1906. Spooner notes in his report that Babu Pindi Lal was appointed photographer to the Frontier Circle on 2 November 1906: 'The enthusiastic interest of Babu Pindi Lal in all branches of the work deserves special mention' (p. 3).

1907-08. Prints 88-302, including views of monuments in Kashmir visited by Spooner during a tour from August-September 1907 in the company of John Marshall, Director-General of Archaeology. Sites visited included Uri, Buniar, Sheri, Fathegarh, Patan, Parihasapura, Trigam, Srinagar, Hasanabad, Madani, Pandrethan, Pampr, Jaubrar, Avantipur, Bumzu and Martand. Other sites visited and photographed during the year included trial excavations at Shah-ji-ki-Dheri near Peshawar in January-April 1908, Jamalgarhi and Takht-i-Bahi, where Spooner supervised excavations between March and April 1908.

1908-09. Prints 303-399, including views of remains and monuments at Baramula, Srinagar, Avantipur, Wangat, Peshawar, Mansehra, Takht-i-Bhai, Shahji-ki-Dheri, Jamalghari and Hari Chand

1909-10. Prints 400-736. 'The photographs taken during the year ... form an unusually extensive and valuable collection. 163 negatives were taken in Western Tibet* and 106 of the remains recently recovered at Sahribahlol, including a number of sculptures showing new scenes or new motifs, which will prove of great interest to scholars.' Locations include Shahbazgarhi, Mian Khan, Charsadda, Landi, Takht-i-Bahi, Yakubai, Dagai. Kotgarh, Nirmand, Rampur, Sarhan, Sangra, Chini, Rarang, Kanam, Khab, Namgya, Shipki, Poo, Lio, Nako, Chung, Tabo, Drangkar, Litang, Kaze, Ki, Rupchu, Kardzod, Nyoma, Gya, Meru, Leh, Sospola, Alchi, Kalatse, Lamayuru, Bodkharbu, Chigton, Mulbe, Sahribahlol.

The photographs, including architecture, sculpture, inscriptions and relics, were taken under the direction of the Superintendent of the Archaeological Survey, Frontier Circle, a post held at this time by David Brainerd Spooner.

*In 1909, the Archaeological Survey asked the Rev August Hermann Francke of the Moravian Mission to conduct an archaeological tour along the Indian-Tibet border to the north of Simla. He undertook the tour from June to October and was accompanied by the Frontier Circle photographer, Babu Pindi Lal. Francke's personal narrative of the tour was published by the Government of India in 1914 as Antiquities of Indian Tibet and is illustrated with Pindi Lal's photographs. Original prints appear in this volume as prints 455-617, accompanying the Annual Report for the year 1909-10.