Photo 1002/26(1342)

Genre: Architectural Photography

Photograph incorrectly credited to H.H. Cole in Bloch's list. View of the stupa, with a scaffolding platform leading to the summit, and workers engaged in filling in the breach. Reproduced in photogravure in H.H. Cole, 'Preservation of national monuments in India' (vol. II, c. 1885), part 7, 'Great Buddhist Tope at Sanchi', pl. 1: 'In March 1881, Mr Mears, Superintendent of Public Works at Sehore, was deputed by the Political Agent of Bhopal to visit Sanchi. The Supreme Government furnished a sum of R.2,000 for preliminary operations, and jungle was removed from the several ruins on the Sanchi Hill, the carved stone fragments were collected, the great breach made in 1822 repaired, creepers removed from the face of the mound, and the shaft that had been sunk in the tope filled in. A series of photographs, showing these operations, was taken...' Another copy of this print can be found at Photo 1000 (1416), where a note states that the original negative was made over to Major Cole in September 1882 by order of Sir Lepel Griffin: the negative was presumably placed in the Indian Museum collection in Calcutta after Cole had used it in his publication.

Exhibited Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal, Traces of India: Photography, Architecture, and the Politics of Representation 1850-1900, 14 May- 28 September 2003. Exhibited Museum of Sydney. Imagining India, 16 May - 17 August 1997.

Subjects = Archaeological Survey of India Collections; Archaeological Survey of India Collections (Indian Museum Series); conservation & restoration; Indian architecture; Indian architecture (Buddhist); stupas