Photo 212/7(5)

Genre: Architectural Photography

Close, head-on view of a section of wall carved with a frieze of Ramayana episodes. Another copy of this print at Photo 1000 (3143). 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: '495 - Unlike any other Temple which we have hitherto seen in Southern India, the outer wall of the enclosure is, in many places, handsomely carved both inside and out, and in a manner more resembling the bassi-relievi of Nineveh than anything else to be found in India. The sculptures are Vishnave in character, and probably represent scenes from some local recension of the Ramayana. In the upper row is the god with his usual attendants. In the second, Hunuman and his army. In the third, in the centre, I am afraid, a man shooting a woman with a blunderbuss. In the fourth a six-wheeled car is remarkable, though the horse that draws it seems very unequal to his work. The elephants, however, are, as usual, excellently represented.'