In the summer of 1854, Captain Linnaeus Tripe, an officer in the East India Company army, arrived in South India. In Bangalore, he set up a studio, ready to create an ‘accurate’ visual record for the Company. (It is probably why you’d find his photographs more ‘informational’ than ‘aesthetic‘).
Tripe’s initial experiments with photography coincided with the Great Exhibition of 1851 (when photographs were exhibited publicly for the first time). Soon after, he had joined the Photographic Society of London as a founding member.
By the winter of 1854, he proceeded to photograph Mysore, Belur and Hullabede (Halebidu). These photos were exhibited at the Madras Exhibition of 1855 (also considered India’s first Industrial exhibition).
The jury, selecting images for the show noted that: ‘… Captain Tripe is entitled to a First Class Medal’.
This led directly to Tripe’s appointment as ‘official photographer’ for a diplomatic mission to the Burmese court in 1855. In 1857, Tripe became the official photographer of the Madras Presidency.
Beginning in January 1858, Tripe photographed sites in South India – covering Madurai, Trichy, Srirangam, Thanjavur, and Pudukkottai.
Take a look at our selection below (along side notes, reproduced as is).
You can find these photographs in the collection of Rijksmuseum (Netherlands), University of Edinburgh, the Met Museum [US], the Cleveland Museum of Art [US], the J.Paul Getty Museum [US], and LACMA [US]. Digital copies have been released under an open license and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons during our Indian Heritage Online campaign.
Brihadeshvara Temple, Tanjore
The double-storied exterior base of one of the largest temples constructed and still standing on the Indian subcontinent is articulated with niches containing images of Hindu gods. Within these walls is an inner sanctum containing a monolithic linga (the phallic emblem marking the sacred presence of the god Shiva).
Avenue of Trees, Srirangam (Tamil Nadu)
A rare, beautiful example of Linnaeus Tripe concentrating simply on the landscape, this carefully composed image depicts a picturesque avenue of banyan trees, dense with foliage. Nearly 1,000 miles of road in the Salem District of India were lined by these trees, providing travelers with shade and shelter from the country’s intense climate.
Meenakshi Temple, Madurai
1858 / Cleveland Museum of Art / CC0
An important pilgrimage site for centuries, this temple continues to draw tens of thousands of worshippers per day.
Initially established during the 1100s, it was expanded on multiple occasions over the next 500 years. The addition of a series of enclosure walls included gateways topped by towering superstructures ornamented with miniature temples and images of deities.
[Trimul Naik’s] Palace, Madurai
This 17th-century palace (c.1636) was built by King Tirumala Nayaka, a king of Madurai’s Nayaka dynasty that ruled Madurai from 1623 to 1659. The palace is located two kilometres (1.2 mi) south east of the Meenakshi Amman Temple.
Thirumalai Nayakkar Mahal, Madurai
Neerali Mandapam, Madurai
The Neerali Mundapam, is situated in the bed of the [Vygay] River and used on the occasion of an annual festival for the resting place of the god Sundareshwara (an incarnation of the Hindu god Shiva) and his consort Minakshi. Tripe has photographed the temple in a dry riverbed, which gives the image of this grand building a barren tone.
View of the Trimium fort [Tirumayam], Tamil Nadu
View of the Trimium fort, built 1687 around a hill, in the distance. On the left is a road flanked by small straw-roofed huts.
Photographs of the Amaravati Marbles in the Central Museum Madras
Tripe stayed in Madras in 1858 to photograph sculptures from the ruined Buddhist stupa at Amaravati, called The Elliot Marbles after Walter Elliot, the antiquarian, linguist and member of the Madras Council who recovered them. (Text: V&A London)
“Drum slab carved with a stupa attended by several figures, with naga (snake) females and naga kings inside the gateway worshipping relics of the Buddha; the drum of the stupa is carved with dharmacakras (wheels of the law), stupas and possibly the Enlightenment”.
The drum frieze panels and dome slabs are carved with a stories from the life of the Buddha: the Enlightenment, the First Sermon, Sarvamdadavadana, Suruci Jataka, nagas, Monkey’s offering (Elliot no. 116).
Rock Fort in Trichy
Note accompanying the photograph: The rock through a gap in the fort wall on the west side. General view looking towards the Rock and its fortifications, surmounted by a small temple. Due to overexposure, the sky has been overpainted on the negative.
Tomb of Nathar Shah
View along the street towards the Tomb of Nathar Shah. This is considered to be the most important Islamic building in the city – the Nathar Shah’s Mosque, contains the tomb of the saint Sultan Nathar Shah (British Library). He was one of the 900 Qalandars (unmarried saints) who settled in Trichy when it was part of the Chola Empire under the reign of Rajendra I.
As a result of the cost-cutting measures that followed the British Government’s administrative takeover of India from the East India Company, Tripe was forced to close his studio.
