Over six years spent travelling around India, Louis Rousselet learned photography and captured some of the most beautiful scenes of the Subcontinent, from the Himalayas to the Nilgiris and from coast to coast
In conversation with professional geographer Dr Manosi Lahiri about the ways in which travellers have helped to draw the map of India
For our 36th edition of Sarmaya Spotlight, we bring you the most picturesque destinations, thrilling travel stories and colourful souvenirs from across the Subcontinent
French traveller Jean de Thévenot (1633–1677) lived in the seventeenth century. He was also a linguist and naturalist. He was the famed cartographer Melchisédec Thévenot’s (1620–1682) nephew, who is said to have influenced his passion for exploring the world. This travelogue documents his travels across the Ottoman Empire, the Aegean Sea islands, Egypt, Palestine, and… Read more »
A voyage from England to India was published in the late 18th century and contains two large folding maps and 13 etched illustrations. It recollects Edward Ives’s (1719-1786) service in India with the British Army. Edward Ives was a surgeon on board the flagship Kent, commanded by Charles Watson (1714-1757). The travelogue chronicles Ives’ remarks… Read more »
This mid 19th-century book by Fanny Parkes Parlby is an account that illustrates her independent travels in India. Fanny Parkes, born as Frances Susanna Archer in 1794, arrived in Calcutta from England in 1822 and eventually set out on solo explorations, sometimes on horseback or a boat, across India. She pieced together her account from… Read more »
Inside the studios and minds of seven contemporary artists who have interpreted and re-imagined objects from our collection to tell us stories in their unique styles
This album documents the extensive tour of the Indian subcontinent undertaken by the Prince of Wales, Edward VII, the eldest son of Queen Victoria. Prince Edward travelled widely across India between November 1875 to May 1876. Following the revolt of 1857, the British Royals embarked on long tours to establish relations with their colonies and… Read more »
‘Wanderings of a Pilgrim, in Search of the Picturesque, During Four-and-Twenty Years in the East; With Revelations of Life in the Zenana’ was authored by Fanny Parkes Parlby. Published by P. Richardson in 1850, the rarebook includes several illustrations and offers a British female perspective on Indian life in the 19th century.
This photograph, taken by Samuel Bourne, is of the ice cave at the foot of the Gangotri glacier. The image shows two men at the foot of the glacier where the river emerges out of the ice cave, also called ‘Gomukh’. Recalling his reaction upon reaching the glacier, Bourne writes, “we reached our destination at… Read more »
Photographer and author Chirodeep Chaudhuri curates a virtual exhibition of photographs taken during Sarmaya’s trip to Madhubani
This is an engraving after an older one by Jean Bellin, the official engraver and cartographer of the king of France. It is a town plan of Goa in the panorama view including mountains, trees, buildings, elephants, ships in the harbor, boats resting on the shore, and religious buildings. It depicts the fort of Goa,… Read more »
Robert M. Grindlay served the British East India Company from 1804-1820, in India. A self-taught amateur artist, he made many sketches and illustrations recording the landscape and life of early 19th century India. These illustrations were later published and copied in engravings. This book is such a collection of coloured engravings. The topics in the… Read more »
This book deals mainly with some aspects of what may be termed the psychical life of the inhabitants of the Madras Presidency, and the Native States of Travancore and Cochin. There are elaborate descriptions of snake worship, magic and charms.
An important, early and rare photographically-illustrated record of the art and architecture of western India with special emphasis on Ahmedabad, the capital of Gujarat.
This is an engraving on Hand-made paper, after Hilippus Baldaeus (1632 – 1672). Craganor is the Anglisised name of the region of Kodungallur, a municipality in the Thissur district of Kerala. In history, the place was one of the leading ports and commercial centres of South India, also associated with the ancient port town of… Read more »
This is a mid-17th-century travelogue by historian Thomas Herbert, who chronicles his journey to the Middle- East, Asia and Africa with particular emphasis on the empires of Persia and India during the 17th century. Thomas Herbert (1606-1682) was a courtier to Charles I (1600-1649). He travelled to the court of Shah Abbas (1571-1629) of Persia… Read more »