Raja Deen Dayal: Capturing India Frame by Frame

He is called the Prince among Photographers and it is said that so impressed was the Nizam of Hyderabad with Lala Deen Dayal’s pictures that he recited an impromptu couplet in praise of him in 1894 CE, To quote the Nizam Mehboob Ali Pasha

‘Ajab ye karte hain, tasveer mein kamaal kamaal; ustaado ke hain ustaad Lala Deen Dayal’ (Deen Dayal’s work is magical He is the best among among the best !)

The mid 19th century CE saw the start of photography as we know it. By the mid 1840’s a series of European photographers, early explorers were trooping into India to capture this exotic land. In 1847 CE William Armstrong Fallon surveyed in Temples in the Ajanta and Ellora caves and published a book. In 1855 CE Thomas Biggs, captured the beauty of Bijapur, Aihole, Badami and other old capitals in Central India.