Raja Lala Deen Dayal (Template:Langx; c. 1844 – 1905; also written as 'Din Dyal' and 'Diyal' in his early years), famously known as Raja Deen Dayal[1]) was an Indian photographer. His career began in the mid-1870s as a commissioned photographer; eventually he set up studios in Indore, Mumbai and Hyderabad. He became the court photographer to the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad, Mahbub Ali Khan, Asif Jah VI, who awarded him the title Raja Bahadur Musavvir Jung Bahadur, and he was appointed as the photographer to the Viceroy of India in 1885.[2]
He received the Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria in 1897.[3]
The Nizam of Hyderabad conferred the honorary title of Raja upon him.
Early life and education
Deen Dayal was born in Sardhana, Uttar Pradesh, near Meerut in a family of jewellers.Template:Citation needed He received technical training at Thomason College of Civil Engineering at Roorkee (now IIT Roorkee) in 1866 as an engineer in lower subordinate class.[4]
Career
In 1866, Deen Dayal entered government service as head estimator and draughtsman in the Department of Works Secretariat Office in Indore.Template:Sfn Meanwhile, he took up photography. His first patron in Indore was Maharaja Tukoji Rao II of Indore state, who in turn introduced him to Sir Henry Daly, agent to the Governor General for Central India (1871–1881) and the founder of Daly College, who encouraged his work, along with the Maharaja himself who encouraged him to set up his studio in Indore. Soon he was getting commissions from Maharajas and the British Raj.[4] The following year he was commissioned to photograph the Governor-General's tour of Central India.Template:Sfn In 1868, Deen Dayal founded his studio – Lala Deen Dayal & Sons – and was subsequently commissioned to photograph temples and palaces of India.Template:Sfn He established studios in Indore (Mid 1870s), Secunderabad (1886) and Bombay (1896).[5]
In 1875–76, Deen Dayal photographed the Royal Tour of the Prince and Princess of Wales.Template:Sfn In the early 1880s he travelled with Sir Lepel Griffin through Bundelkhand, photographing the ancient architecture of the region.Template:Sfn Griffin commissioned him to do archaeological photographs: The result was a portfolio of 86 photographs, known as "Famous Monuments of Central India".[6]
The next year he retired from government service and concentrated on his career as a professional photographer. Deen Dayal became the court photographer to the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad in 1885. Soon afterward he moved from Indore to Hyderabad.[6] In the same year he was appointed as the photographer to the Viceroy of India.Template:Sfn In time, the Nizam of Hyderabad conferred the honorary title of Raja upon him. It was at this time that Dayal created the firm Raja Deen Dayal & Sons in Hyderabad.Template:Sfn
Raja Deen Dayal was appointed photographer to Queen Victoria in 1897.Template:Sfn
In 1905–1906, Raja Deen Dayal accompanied the Royal Tour of the Prince and Princess of Wales.Template:Sfn
Legacy
The Lala Deen Dayal studios' collection of 2,857 glass plate negatives was bought by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi in 1989. Today it is the largest repository of his work. A large collection including celebrated images of the 1870s' famine are with the Peabody Essex Museum, US and the Alkazi collection in Delhi. In 2010, a retrospective exhibition of his work was held at IGNCA, curated by Jyotindra Jain.[7][8]
In 2006, a curated collection of Raja Deen Dayal's photographs was exhibited at the Salar Jung Museum during the Times Hyderabad Festival;[9] subsequently in November, the Ministry of Communications, Department of Posts released a commemorative stamp honouring him; the ceremony was held at Jubilee Hall, Hyderabad.[3]
Gallery
Photographs taken by Deen Dayal in the 1880s, sourced from the British Library, George Curzon's Collection: Views of HH the Nizam's Dominions, Hyderabad, Deccan, 1892.
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Bashir Bagh Palace, Hyderabad
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The interior of the Basir-bagh Palace
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Drawing Room of Chowmahalla Palace, Hyderabad
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A distant view of the Falaknuma Palace from an opposite hillside, taken by in the 1880s
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Rashtrapati Nilayam, Hyderabad, then Residency House circa 1892
Notes
- ↑ The Library of Congress (Washington, DC, USA) gives the date of his death as 5 July 1905, which is probably an error, and gives the preferred form of his name as "Deen Dayal, Raja". The Union List of Artist Names gives his year of death as 1910 and the preferred form of his name as "Dayal, Lala Deen".
- ↑ Portrait of a photographer. The Tribune(8 February 2004).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lala Deen Dayal stamp released: Many photographers fail to match Deen Dayal's ability even today, says Union Minister. The Hindu(12 November 2006).
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Biography. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
- ↑ HOME :: Raja Lala Deen Dayal. www.laladeendayal.in. Retrieved 2019-06-02.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Vignettes of a splendorous era. The Hindu(28 November 2010).
- ↑ The Raja of images. Hindustan Times(3 December 2010).
- ↑ Framing history. Indian Express(1 December 2010).
- ↑ Deen Dayal's 'eyes' capture bygone era. The Times of India(26 April 2006).
References
- Deen Dayal, Raja, LC Control Number n 79141503. Anglo-American Name Authority File. Retrieved 18 August 2006.
- Canadian Centre for Architecture; Collections Online, s.v. “Dayal, Lala Deen”, cited 18 August 2006.
- Nineteenth-Century Photography: An Annotated Bibliography, 1839–1879{{#if:Johnson|, Johnson}. G.K. Hall(1990)
- History of photography, India, 1840–1980{{#if:Thomas|, Thomas}. Andhra Pradesh State Akademi of Photography(1981)
- Union List of Artist Names, s.v. "Dayal, Lala Deen", cited 18 August 2006.
Further reading
- Princely India: Photographs by Raja Deen Dayal, 1884–1910, by Deen Dayal (Author), Clark Worswick. Knopf, 1980. Template:ISBN.
- Raja Deen Dayal : Prince of Photographers, by Narendra Luther, Sureshchand Deendayal. Hyderabadi, 2003. Template:ISBN.
- Lala Deen Dayal: the eminent Indian photographer, 1844–1910, Deen Dayal (Raja), London Borough of Camden. Libraries & Arts Dept., 2002.
- Raja Deen Dayal Collection at Alkazi Foundation