Photo 212/2(30)

Genre: Architectural Photography

View from the interior of the arcade in Trimul Naik's Palace, looking along the length of the quadrangle also seen in prints 27-8. The European figure in the background, who appears in a number of the Madurai photographs, may well be Lyon himself. Lyon's 'Notes to accompany a series of photographs prepared to illustrate the ancient architecture of southern India' (Marion and Co., London, 1870), edited by James Fergusson, gives the following description of this photograph: '320 - gives perhaps the best idea of the grandeur of the old palace; it is the view which presents itself on turning to leave the audience-hall, before again descending the steps into the quadrangle. The two pillars in the foreground are those of the arcade, which, as before stated, completely surrounds the quadrangle, and the whole facade of the same arcade on the north side is also shown in this view. The pillars are of hewn stone, covered with fine chunam or plaster, and are about 45 feet in height; the patchy appearance, caused by the plaster having fallen off the lower part of the pillars, is probably owing to the damp of the earth during the rainy season. The natives however, say it has been, caused by the numbers of bullocks employed in bringing supplicants to the Court, who tie their animals to the pillars during their retention there on business.' Another copy at Photo 1000/29(2970).