Asian and African studies blog

The Lalitavistara is a Mahayana sutra (Sanskrit sutra or Pali sutta, meaning text, discourse, canonical scripture) about the life story of Gautama Buddha, covering the time of his descent from Tushita heaven until his first sermon in the Deer Park at Sarnath, Varanasi, India. It narrates how the Buddha manifested in this world and gained awakening.


The Lalitavistara, with five Dhyani Buddhas on the wooden cover, Patan, Nepal, 1803. British Library, I.O San 688, cover

The title Lalitavistara has been translated as “the play in full”. It consists of 27 chapters and is written in Sanskrit and a vernacular dialect also known as 'Buddhist hybrid Sanskrit'. Portions of the text date back to the earliest days of the Buddhist tradition, but it is not known when the Lalitavistara was finally edited (Winternitz 1933: 252-3). Both the style and language of the text suggest a compilation: the work includes a continuous narrative in Sanskrit prose, with metrical passages in mixed Sanskrit, and the topics of the prose and verse parts often overlap. The point of view also changes occasionally from the third person to the first person, where the Buddha himself narrates the events. It is therefore believed that the Lalitavistara is not the work of a single author, but an anonymous compilation in which very early and more recent passages stand side by side.


The Lalitavistara, written in Sanskrit in Devanagari script on paper, Queen Maya dreams of a white beautiful elephant entering her womb, 1803. British Library, I.O San 688, f.36r

In the Lalitavistara the miraculous element in the legend of the Buddha’s conception and birth is overemphasised, compared to accounts in other Buddhist schools. There are also a number of concepts and stories that appear in the Lalitavistara for the first time that are missing in similar Pali texts. One is in chapter 10, recounting the first day of the young Buddha as a Bodhisattva, while chapters 12 and 13 also contain episodes which are missing in other biographies of the Buddha. The last chapter (27) praises the Lalitavistara itself and enumerates the merits one gains by honouring this text (Winternitz 1938: 251, 252).


The Lalitavistara, written in Sanskrit in Devanagari script on paper, Queen Maya giving birth to the Buddha, 1803. British Library, I.O San 688, f. 73v

The Lalitavistara, like other post-canonical Buddhist literary works written in hybrid and pure Sanskrit, represents the Buddha not just as a sage, but as an extraordinary being “adorned with the 32 marks of the Great Man”. The Buddha’s beneficial power, compassion, and omnipotence is stressed in these texts, where this marvellous being is depicted as a living miracle: upon seeing him the blind see, the deaf hear, the dumb speak, the sick are cured, and so on. Everywhere he lives he is worshipped and respected by the kings, the wealthy, the gods and all other beings (Lamotte1988: 645-6). In the Lalitavistara, the Buddha says that when he was born, this trichiliocosm (a universe of a billion worlds) trembled, and all the gods bowed their heads to his feet and paid homage to him; he is superior to all the gods, he is the God of Gods, but he will still follow his worldly customs (Lamotte 1988: 624).

The Lalitavistara, written in Sanskrit in Devanagari script on paper, the monks crossing the Ganges on a boat, while the Buddha flew to the other side of the river, 1803. British Library, I.O San 688, f.221r

The oldest copies of the Lalitavistara date from the end of the second century or the beginning of the third century, and it can be assumed that the original composition (or compilation) dates from the beginning of the Christian era. Although the Lalitavistara summarises a series of the jatakas (stories of the former existences of the Buddha), the biography remains incomplete, as it doesn’t mention the Buddha’s first return to Kapilavastu (the principal city of the Śākya clan) or his missionary trips, and there is no account of his demise. The Lalitavistara ends with setting in motion of the Wheel of the Dharma, which perhaps suggests that the narrative aims to tell the story of the complete awakening of a bodhisattva in his last existence (Lamotte1988: 654-5).

The Lalitavistara sutra has inspired elaborate artwork in different parts of Asia, and the themes of the text can be seen in temple art in Gandhara, and at the Borobudur temple complex in Java.


The Lalitavistara, written in Sanskrit in Devanagari script on paper, the Buddha conquering all demonic congregation, 1803. British Library, I.O San 688, f.195v

There are three complete and one abridged manuscript copies of the Lalitavistara at the British Library, all from the collections of the India Office Library. The copy most often written about, and illustrated above, is I.O San 688, part of the B.H. Hodgson collection, which is adorned with coloured illustrations depicting scenes of the life of the Buddha. According to the colophon, the text was inscribed in Patan, Nepal, in 1803 by the Buddhist Pandit Amrtananda for Captain W.D. Knox, who is described as someone whose “liberality and other virtues surpassed the Hindu divinities and proved him to be an Avatara of Buddha”. An illustration at the end of the manuscript shows the presentation of the volume (ralitavisara) to Captain Knox, the first British resident in Nepal and an officer in the army of the East India Company, depicted in the military attire of the period and holding a prayer wheel.


The Lalitavistara, written in Sanskrit in Devanagari script on paper, with a painting of Pandit Amrtananda and Captain Knox. Patan, 1803. British Library, I.O San 688, f. 253v

The same two figures appear with the Bodhisattva Manjushri (representing transcendent wisdom) and auspicious symbols on the back cover of the manuscript.

Pandit Amrtananda and Captain Knox depicted on the wooden cover of the Lalitavistara, Patan, 1803. British Library, I.O San 688, back cover

The two other manuscripts of the Lalitavistara in the British Library (I.O San 341 and I.O San 2880) are copies of the 1803 manuscript given to Capt. Knox described above (I.O. San 688).

The manuscript I.O San 341 was made for Henry Thomas Colebrooke – a Sanskrit scholar, orientalist, and Chairman of the East India Company – in the 19th century, who wrote at the beginning: “The Lalita Vistara ... Knox”. This copy is also annotated on the first folios, but it is not illustrated. There is a blank page on which is written in a second hand: śodha ṭīkā para (correct according to the tika, i.e. commentary or gloss), and there are a few corrections in the same hand. This manuscript is part of the H.T. Colebrooke collection.

The abridged copy (I.O San 2575), which is named 'a Buddha Purana', was copied in the 19th C. It is part of the collection of Colin Mackenzie (1753-1821) and was copied by one of his pandits. The manuscript comprises just a table of contents to the Lalitavistara, and contains a note by Colebrooke at the beginning, which reads: 'An abridgment of the Lalita Vistara, a Purana, containing the history of the life of Buddha. The original was brought from Nepal by Capt Knox. This abridgement by a pandit in Mr. Colebrooks’s service, contains the whole substance of the voluminous original.'


Note by Colebrooke at the beginning of a manuscript containing a list of contents of the Lalitavistara, 19th century. British Library, I.O San 2575

Bibliography
Igunma, Jana, and San San May, eds. Buddhism: Origins, Traditions and Contemporary Life. London: The British Library, 2019.
“Lalitavistara | Life Story, Biography & Legends | Britannica.” 4 July 2024 . 
Lamotte, Etienne. History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Saka Era. Louvain-la-Neuve: Université catholique de Louvain, Institut orientaliste, 1988.
‘The Play in Full / 84000 Reading Room’. n.d. 84000 Translating The Words of The Buddha. Accessed 4 July 2024. 
Winternitz, Moriz. A History of Indian Literature. 2, Buddhist Literature and Jaina Literature. Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1933.

Azadeh Shokouhi, Sanskrit cataloguer

The first part of this blog post on the Gitagovinda, a 12th-century Sanskrit poem by Jayadeva devoted to the Hindu god Krishna, explored the contents of the poem and its allegorical interpretations. This post will focus on the region in eastern India which gave birth to the Gitagovinda, and the role of the Gitagovinda in the ritual of the Jagannatha temple at Puri.

The region known as Orissa (now Odisha) in eastern India has been the cradle of various traditions and religions. In the 6th century BCE, it had associations with Buddhism and Jainism. For centuries, both these traditions received patronage from the rulers of the region. From the accounts of the 3rd and 4th centuries CE it can be inferred that as the result of contact between the royal families in Odisha and Sri Lanka, there were mutual influences on religion through the local tribes who worshipped their own deities. The new settlers Sanskritised the names of these deities and worshipped the local gods, but did not change their iconographic features, as a sign of respect to the religious sentiment of the local dwellers. Even Mahayana Buddhists incorporated some aspects of the local pantheon into their belief system during the 5th and 6th centuries CE.

Avatars of Vishnu. Gitagovinda, Sanskrit in Oriya script, with black ink illustrations, 18th century. Or. 13502, fols. 4v, 5r

Throughout the 4th-7th centuries CE different dynasties in the region worshipped Vishnu in various forms, like Narayana or Madhava, and certain royals, although claiming to be devout worshippers of Gokarneshvara (Shiva), granted charters in favor of the god Narayana, or even a village to the god Vishnu (Mishra 1971: 7, 8). Such grants of land were made by the rulers to Brahmins or to temples. Compared to royal families, elite groups such as merchants, military chiefs and nobles were more influential in activities such as temple building between the 6th and the 12th centuries (Singh 1994: 6, 296). It was in such an environment that the cult of Jagannatha emerged and developed.

In the 12th century, Vishishtadvaita vada, the Vaishnava devotional sect from South India, was influential in Odisha. According to Vaishnava traditional accounts, Ramanuja, the great Vedanta philosopher and one of the most important exponents of the Vaishnava tradition, visited Puri in Odisha in the early 12th century and established a school in the city. Having met and influenced the king of Puri, Ramanuja introduced the ritual of Vaishnavism to the Jagannatha temple. Consequently, Jagannatha has since been worshipped as the supreme form of Vishnu (Stoller Miller 1977: 5). As a result of this neo-Vaishnavism being merged with the remnants of other traditions in the region, Vaishnavite deities were worshipped in a Buddhist Tantric way, with an admixture of Brahmanical ritualism.

Deities on the first folio of the manuscript, Gitagovinda, Sanskrit in Oriya script, with black ink illustrations, 18th century. Or. 13502, f. 3r

Originating in eastern India in the 12th century, the Gitagovinda soon spread across the whole of the Indian subcontinent. By the 15th century, the Gitagovinda had already become part of the ritual of the Jagannatha temple at Puri, whose construction started in the 10th century and was completed in the 12th century. Because of their role in the nightly worship of Krishna, the songs of the Gitagovinda have been chanted in the Jagannatha temple for more than seven hundred years and are revered throughout Odisha. A key aspect of Odissi, a classical dance originating from Odisha, is the performance of these songs as the art form was developed through the religious art of temple dancers who dance Gitagovinda songs in praise of Jagannatha.


The Jagannatha temple with the three deities, depicted across all 12 folios of palmleaf, in a manuscript of Gitagovinda, with Sanskrit text in minute Oriya script. British Library, Or. 14110.

A unique manuscript of the Gitagovinda (Or. 14110), a copy of unknown date, was acquired by the British Library in 1982. It is a stitched palm-leaf folding book consisting of 12 leaves altogether with the text and illustrations only on the obverse. The poem’s Sanskrit verses are written in minute Oriya script, and there are also Sanskrit mantras written in Oriya script throughout the text.

This manuscript stands out for its format, layout, and artwork, because the text and accompanying illustrations are arranged in the shape of the façade of the Jagannatha temple at Puri in Odisha. There are three figures in the center, the deities Jagannatha, Subhadra (the younger sister of gods Krishna and Balarama also known as Balabhadra) and Balabhadra (the elder brother of Krishna). This trio of deities is worshipped at the Jagannatha temple.

Detail of the three deities in the Jagannatha temple, in a manuscript of Gitagovinda, with Sanskrit text in minute Oriya script. British Library, Or. 14110.

As mentioned, the history of the Jagannatha temple shows an amalgam of various influences and traditions. According to the 15th-century poet and scholar, Saraladasa, the cult of Jagannatha was identified with the cult of the Trimurti, the three supreme Hindu deities: Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver) and Shiva (the destroyer). Saraladasa equates Subhadra with Brahma. But since the Jagannatha temple is still dedicated to the cult of Hari-Hara (Vishnu-Shiva) and the worship of Sri Vidya (the Goddess), Subhadra is suggested to stand for Shakti (Hindu paramount goddess and consort of Shiva) who was worshipped in the form of Ekanamsa. The name Ekanamsa was changed to Subhadra, and consequently the goddess lost her position as the principal deity (Starza 1993: 63, 64). Balabhadra is sometimes considered as Shiva and sometimes as Ananta or the serpent, therefore representing the Naga cult, i.e. snake worship. But in essence, he is one of the deities in the Puranas (sacred literature of the Hindus which serves as a popular encyclopedic collection of myths, legends and genealogy) (Mishra 1971: 157).

Avatars of Vishnu, Gitagovinda, Sanskrit in Oriya script, with coloured illustrations, 18th century. IO San 3508, f. 5r

Most Vaishnavites, particularly Krishnaites, consider Jagannatha to be an abstract representation or avatar of Krishna or Vishnu. It has been suggested that Jagannatha may have originally been a local deity of an unknown tribe, whose worship was later incorporated into Brahmanism. When this new god was introduced, he was regarded as another manifestation of Vishnu.

Further reading:

Mishra, Kanhu Charan. The Cult of Jagannātha. [1st ed.]. Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay, 1971.
Mukherjee, Prabhat. 1981. The History of Medieval Vaishnavism in Orissa. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services.
Singh, Upinder. Kings, Brāhmaṇas, and Temples in Orissa: An Epigraphic Study AD 300-1147. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1994.
Starza, Olgierd Maria Ludwik. The Jagannatha Temple at Puri: Its Architecture, Art and Cult. Studies in South Asian Culture. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1993. 
Stoler Miller, Barbara. Love Song of the Dark Lord: Jayadeva’s Gitagovinda. UNESCO Collection of Representative Works. New York: Columbia University Press, 1977.

Azadeh Shokouhi, Sanskrit cataloguer

Acknowledgment: Special thanks to Dr Arani Ilankuberan, the Head of South Asia collections, and to Pasquale Manzo, Lead Curator South Asia Collections and Curator of the Sanskrit collections, for their comments and suggestions.

This guest blog is by Shalini Amerasinghe Ganendra, Adjunct Professor at UNIMAS, Institute of Borneo Studies, Malaysia, and Associate Academic, History of Art, University of Oxford.

The use of photography in anthropology has a complex history, particularly when it comes to representing indigenous communities through early ethnographic research. When viewing collections such as the early 20th-century images of Sri Lanka’s Vedda community captured by Charles and Brenda Seligman, it is crucial to evaluate them not just for their historical significance but also through the ethical and legal frameworks that apply today.

The British Museum holds around 2,200 artefacts donated by the Seligmans mainly from Oceania, China and Africa, as well as a similar number of photographs, including over 400 glass negatives and prints documenting the Seligmans’ 1908 field research in Sri Lanka. Although the glass slides are yet to be fully catalogued, many of their photographs were reproduced in their seminal publication, The Veddas, two copies of which are held in the British Library (Seligmann 1911; note the different spelling of the surname). The publication’s images were produced in an era devoid of any standardised ethical guidance, whether in the taking or in the publication of such images.


‘The Vedda country, view from Bendiyagalge rocks’. Photograph from C.G. and B.Z. Seligmann, The Veddas (1911). British Library, T 11173, facing title page.

This article delves into the ethical implications and legal considerations surrounding these early photographs and reflects on the biases embedded in them. It also calls for and outlines potential frameworks for ‘fair and responsible’ representation of these images in contemporary settings, emphasizing the need for sensitivity in handling such cultural artifacts (Amerasinghe Ganendra 2023).


‘Sita Wanniya of Henebedda’, photographs from C.G. and B.Z. Seligmann, The Veddas (1911). British Library, T 11173, Plate V (p. 50) and Plate VI (p. 52).

Colonial Context and the Use of Photography
To understand the context in which the Seligman photographs were taken, it is essential to first explore the nature of British colonial presence in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and how photography was used as a tool of empire. British colonial policy in Ceylon, as in many other colonies, was grounded in the pursuit of power, profit, and prestige. Photography, emerging in the mid-19th century, became intertwined with colonial interests, portraying Indigenous people through a lens that emphasized their ‘exotic’ and ‘primitive’ qualities.

Ceylon, like India, saw a flourishing of commercial photographers in the 19th century, including names like Frederick Fiebig, Samuel Bourne, and Joseph Lawton, among others. Their work, often grouped under broad categories such as ‘ethnographic studies’ or ‘native types,’ served as visual documentation that reinforced stereotypes of indigenous peoples as culturally backward or inferior. These photographic genres, steeped in the prevailing racial hierarchies of the time, also reinforced the Vedda community’s “enduring marker” as an isolated, primitive group on the fringes of Sri Lankan society.

The Seligmans’ photographic project must be situated within this broader colonial tradition, where the visual documentation of ‘native’ populations was both a scholarly endeavour and an act of classification that supported colonial governance. Despite their groundbreaking contributions to the field of anthropology, the Seligmans were inevitably influenced by these biases, which framed the Veddas as a distinct and dying race worthy of preservation through scientific study.

The colonial portrayal of the Veddas did not begin with the Seligmans. The earliest English-language account of the community came from Robert Knox in 1681, whose description, despite being hearsay, remained an authoritative reference for over two centuries (Knox 1981b). Later colonial administrators and scholars, such as Rudolph Virchow and the Swiss naturalists Fritz and Paul Sarasin, echoed these notions of the Veddas as ‘intellectually inferior’ and ‘socially primitive’ (Virchow 1886; Kulatilake 2020).


‘A Vadda or Wild Man’. Robert Knox, An historical relation of the island Ceylon, 1681 (reprint; Colombo: Gunasena, 1981). British Library, YA.1988.b.25, p.100

These ideas were so pervasive that they coloured the work of subsequent anthropologists, including the Seligmans. This ‘Seligman bias,’ named here to reflect their role in reinforcing these perspectives, encapsulates the tendency to view the Veddas through a lens of isolation and stagnation, despite evidence of their dynamic interactions with other Sri Lankan groups. For example, the Seligmans repeatedly emphasized the Veddas’ physical and cultural distinctiveness from the Sinhalese, using selective observations to support this view, even when alternative explanations, such as the impact of nutrition on stature, were more plausible.

Legal and Ethical Constructs: Then and Now
When the Seligmans conducted their research, there were no ethical guidelines to dictate how indigenous subjects should be photographed or represented. Their project predated the formation of institutional ethics codes by decades, leaving researchers to rely on their own judgment, which was often skewed by contemporary scientific and cultural prejudices.

It was not until the mid-20th century that formal ethical constructs began to emerge, prompted by the horrors of World War II and the establishment of the United Nations, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.  The subsequent United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2007 codified principles of dignity and respect that extended to the cultural and intellectual property of indigenous communities. In more recent decades, guidelines such as the Code of Ethics for Research in the Social and Behavioural Sciences and the Global Code of Conduct for Research in Resource-Poor Settings have emphasized fairness, respect, and the need for collaboration with research subjects. These protocols require active engagement with the communities being represented, ensuring that their voices shape the narrative around their own histories.

Given the advances in both legal and ethical standards, how should we approach the Seligman Collection today? The main challenge lies in navigating the tension between preserving the historical significance of these photographs and addressing the biases they embody. Here are some considerations for presenting the Collection in a ‘fair and responsible’ manner:

1. Provide Historical and Ethical Context
Each photograph should be accompanied by a contextual preface that outlines the historical period in which it was taken and the lack of ethical guidelines at the time. This narrative should also highlight the possibility of unconscious bias in the Seligmans’ approach, inviting viewers to critically engage with the images.
2. Collaborate with the Vedda Community
The contemporary Vedda community should be involved in any effort to reframe or present these images. This collaboration could take the form of joint exhibitions, interpretive commentary, and decisions about which images are appropriate for public display. This approach not only aligns with modern ethical standards but also restores agency to the community that has historically been objectified.
3. Protect Sensitive and Sacred Content
Images that depict private or sacred aspects of Vedda life should be handled with extreme care. Unless the Vedda community explicitly consents, these photographs should not be publicly displayed. For example, images of women’s activities or rituals should be reserved for scholarly research only, with strict access protocols in place.
4. Rethink Representation
It is crucial to challenge the narratives that have long been associated with the Seligman images, namely that the Veddas are an isolated, primitive group. Instead, a more nuanced presentation should emphasise their resilience, adaptability, and historical interactions with other communities. This reframing can help dismantle the stereotypes that have contributed to their marginalization and erasure from the national narrative.

Moving Forward: Balancing Historical Value and Ethical Responsibility
The Seligman Collection holds immense historical value, providing rare visual documentation of a community at a particular point in time. Yet, as with any collection produced under colonial conditions, its legacy is fraught with ethical concerns. Addressing these concerns involves more than just reinterpreting the images; it requires a fundamental shift in how we approach early anthropological photography.

By embedding ethical considerations into the way these images are presented and interpreted, we not only honour the subjects of the photographs but also ensure that historical research contributes to a deeper, more respectful understanding of indigenous cultures, historically and into the present. This approach is not just a matter of correcting the biases of the past but of actively shaping a future in which indigenous voices are central to the telling of their own stories.

In conclusion, while the Seligman Collection emerged from a flawed historical context, it offers a unique opportunity to re-evaluate early ethnographic photography and its role in shaping public perceptions of Indigenous peoples. By embracing a framework of ‘fair and responsible’, we can re-present these images from relics of colonial anthropology into powerful tools for education, empathy, and engagement.

Shalini Amerasinghe Ganendra

This article is an abbreviated form of a presentation at the workshop at the National Portrait Gallery, London, “The British Empire in the Art Gallery: Practises, Discourses and Publics”, September 27, 2024. 

Further Reading:
Amerasinghe Ganendra, S. (2023). Veins of Influence: Colonial Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in Early Photographs and Collections. Colombo: Neptune.
Hight, Eleanor M. and Gary D. Sampson (2002). Colonialist Photography, Imag(in)ing Race and Place. London: Routledge.
Knox, Robert. (1981) An Historical Relation of the island Ceylon. Colombo: Gunasena.[Reprint of the 1681 ed.]
Kulatilake, S. (2020) ‘The Sarasins’ Collection of Historical Sri Lankan Crania’, Anthropological Science, 128(3), pp. 119–128.
Seligmann, C.G. and Brenda Z. (1911). The Veddas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stambler, B. (2019) ‘Context and Content: Colonial Photographs from Kandy, Ceylon’, in Cross-Cultural Exchange and the Colonial Imaginary: Global Encounters via Southeast Asia. NUS Press, pp. 217–238. 
Virchow, R. (1886) ‘The Veddás of Ceylon, and Their Relation to the Neighbouring Tribes’, The Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland, 9(33), pp. 349–495.

The Gitagovinda is a dramatic lyrical poem written in Sanskrit by Jayadeva and is devoted to the Hindu god Krishna. It is a source of religious inspiration for followers of Vaishnavism, the form of Hinduism focused on the worship of Vishnu and his avatars, including Krishna.

The British Library holds numerous manuscript versions of the Gitagovinda in different scripts and with illustrations in various artistic styles . In this blog post, aspects of the Gitagovinda will be illustrated through two palm leaf manuscripts produced in the 18th century. In both manuscripts the Sanskrit text is written in the Oriya script, with etched drawings in the Odisha style. The first copy, Or. 13502, which was acquired in 1973, has monochrome illustrations in black ink. The second manuscript, IO San 3508, is part of the historic India Office Collection of Sanskrit manuscripts. It contains drawings etched in black ink which are then coloured, quite a rare occurrence for material of this kind. However, the copy is imperfect with some inaccuracies, and with some verses missing.

Sarasvati, the goddess of speech and Jayadeva, the poet. Gitagovinda, Sanskrit in Oriya script, with black ink illustrations, 18th century. Or. 13502, f. 2v

Originating in eastern India in the 12th century, the Gitagovinda soon spread across the whole of the Indian subcontinent. There are temple inscriptions of this poem in Gujarat in western India, dating from the 13th century, as the poem was probably brought to Gujarat by Vaishnava pilgrims. The earliest evidence of the existence of the poem in Nepal is through a palm leaf manuscript in Newari script dated ca. 1447 CE. The songs of the Gitagovinda form an important part of devotional music and literature traditions in eastern and southern India. By the 16th century, the Gitagovinda was well known across northern India and recognised for its poetic intensity and religious expression.

Avatars of Vishnu. Gitagovinda, Sanskrit in Oriya script, with coloured illustrations, 18th century. IO San 3508, f. 3v

Jayadeva was a 12th century poet-saint who shares his name with Krishna, the divine hero of his poem. At the beginning of the Gitagovinda, Jayadeva invokes Vishnu in all his ten manifestations, including Krishna, and in the context of the poem, the poet’s own name, Jayadeva, becomes an epithet of Krishna, hence acquiring sacred meaning. When his name is repeated at the end of each song, the listener is reminded of the poet’s special relation to Krishna:
“If remembering Hari enriches your heart
If his arts of seduction arouse you
Listen to Jayadeva’s speech
In these sweet soft lyrical songs.” (The First Song, Stoler Miller 1977: 69)

Krishna playing the Bansuri among cowherdesses, Gitagovinda, Sanskrit in Oriya script, with black ink illustrations, 18th century. Or. 13502, f. 11v

Legends about Jayadeva’s life say that he was born into a Brahmin family in the village of Kenduli Sasan, near the city of Puri in the Orissa (now Odisha) region of eastern India. As an accomplished student of Sanskrit and a skilled poet, he left school at an early age to become an ascetic and devote himself to God. However, his ascetic life ended when a Brahmin of Puri insisted that Jagannatha, “Lord of the World”, had ordered the marriage of Jayadeva with the daughter of a Brahmin named Padmavati, a dancer in the temple. The husband and wife shared their devotion for Jagannatha; and it is said that while Jayadeva composed, his wife Padmavati danced, and that was how the Gitagovinda was created (Stoler Miller 1977: 3). Early commentators of the Gitagovinda, however, do not identify Padmavati as Jayadeva’s wife. They argue that Padmavati or Padma are the names of Krishna’s divine consort, and that therefore, the “marriage” of Jayadeva and Padmavati in the legend should be interpreted as an allusion to Jayadeva’s initiation into the Vaishnava devotional tradition (Stoler Miller 1977: 5):
“Jayadeva, wandering king of bards
Who sings at Padmavati lotus feet
Was obsessed in his heart
By rhythms of the goddess of speech,
And he made his lyrical poem
From tales of passionate play
When Krishna loved Sri.” (The First Song, Stoler Miller 1977: 69)

Radha and Krishna, Gitagovinda, Sanskrit in Oriya script, with coloured illustrations, 18th century. IO San 3508, f. 13r

The Gitagovinda is considered a significant poem in the devotional literature of the Bhakti (Sanskrit: devotion) movement. The Bhakti movement originated in South India between the 7th and the 10th centuries and soon spread to North India. It emphasises the mutual intense love and emotional attachment between a devotee and a personal God. Bhakti poets followed the earlier Tamil secular traditions of erotic poetry, as well as royal traditions. As Doniger puts it: “They applied to the god what would usually be said of an absent lover or of a king”. In the same way, the Gitagovinda revolves around the love between Krishna and the cowherdess Radha, expressing the desire that the separated lovers have for one another. As we read in the ninth song:
“Divine physician of her heart,
The love-sick girl can only be healed
With elixir from your body.
Free Radha from her torment, Krishna –
Or you are crueller
Than Indra’s dread thunderbolt.” (The Ninth Song, Stoler Miller 1977: 89)

Krishna dancing with cowherdesses, Gitagovinda, Sanskrit in Oriya script, with coloured illustrations, 18th century. IO San 3508, f. 1r

Jayadeva uses intense earthly passion to express the complexities of divine and human love. He depicts the passion between the two lovers by creating an aesthetic atmosphere of eroticism that inspires Krishna’s devotees.
“Your eyes are lazy with wine, like Madalasa.
Your face glows like the moonlight nymph Indumati.
Your gait pleases every creature, like Manorama.
Your thighs are plantains in motion, like Rambha.
Your passion is the mystic rite of Kalavati.
Your brows form the sensual line of Citralekha.
Frail Radha, as you walk on earth,
You bear the young beauty of heavenly nymphs.” (The Nineteenth Song, Stoler Miller 1977: 114)

Radha’s friend taking her to Krishna, Gitagovinda, Sanskrit in Oriya script, with black ink illustrations, 18th century. Or. 13502, f. 49v, 50r

Many commentators have interpreted the eroticism in the poem as allegorical, with the love between Radha and Krishna symbolising the love of the human soul for God. Several Vaishnavite philosophers like Nimbarka, Vallabhacharya, and Caitanya believe that the concept of Krishna and Radha is a dualism which refers to Bhagavan (God) and Bhakta (devotee).

But not all commentators appreciated the erotic nature of the poem. For instance, Jagannatha Pandita, the 17th-century poet and literary critic condemns this aspect of the Gitagovinda, stating that vivid description of gods’ union in love is inappropriate, that Jayadeva had transgressed this unanimously accepted tradition like an intoxicated elephant, “and this bad example does not deserve to be followed by other writers” (Chatterjee 1992: 131-132; Achuthan 1998: 167).

Radha and her friend, Gitagovinda, Sanskrit in Oriya script, with coloured illustrations, 18th century. IO San 3508, f. 15r

The Gitagovinda has been translated into modern Indian as well as European languages. Goethe, referring to the German translation of the poem wrote: “What struck me as remarkable are the extremely varied motives by which an extremely simple subject is made endless” (Stoller Miller 1977: x).

A second blog post will explore the role of the Gitagovinda in the rituals at the Jaganatha temple at Puri in Odisha.

Further reading:

Acyutan, Māvēlikkara. Jagannātha Paṇḍita on Alaṅkāras. Trivandrum: Swantham Books, 1998.
‘Bhakti | Hinduism, Devotion & Rituals | Britannica’, 7 October 2024.
Jagannātha Paṇḍitarāja, Chinmayi Chatterjee, and Nāgeśabhaṭṭa. Rasagaṅgādhara of Paṇḍitarāja Jagannātha. Bibliotheca Indica. Calcutta: Asiatic Society, 1992.
‘Purana | Hindu Mythology, Legends & Texts | Britannica’, 10 September 2024. .
Stoler Miller, Barbara. Love Song of the Dark Lord: Jayadeva’s Gitagovinda. UNESCO Collection of Representative Works. New York: Columbia University Press, 1977.

Azadeh Shokouhi, Sanskrit cataloguer

Acknowledgment: Special thanks to Dr Arani Ilankuberan, Head of South Asia collections, and Pasquale Manzo, Lead Curator, South Asian collections and Curator of the Sanskrit collections, for their comments and suggestions.

Rustam, the most important hero of Firdawsi’s twelfth century epic the Shāhnāmah has always inspired writers, poets and artists. Nevertheless, many aspects of his life remain disputable. In this blog, I will discuss different views around Rustam's war attire.


Combat of Rustam and Burzū. Isfahan (Iran), 1590-1600 (British Library, IO Islamic 3254, f.182v).
Public domain

In the images of Rustam in the manuscripts of Firdawsi’s Shāhnāmah, Rustam usually wears a helmet made from the head of a tiger or sometimes a leopard, together with brown striped war attire. This interpretation is based on the phrase babr-i bayān, the name given to Rustam’s war clothing in the Shāhnāmah where it is described as fire-proof, water-proof, weapon-proof, dark-coloured and made out of leopard skin.

Some verses in the Shāhnāmah indicate a magical nature for the babr-i bayān. These verses, however, are later additions and contradict other descriptions of the clothing. Elsewhere, Firdawsi describes it as normal attire under which Rustam sometimes wears chain mail, and most of the time two pieces of armour. The babr-i bayān does not even make Rustam invulnerable — as demonstrated by the life-threatening injuries he suffered in his fight with Isfandiyar.

The Sīmurgh heals Rustam after his fight with Isfandiyar. India, 1719 (British Library, Add. Ms 18804, f.71r)
Public domain

The word ‘babr’ is used to refer both to the animal ‘tiger’, and to Rustam’s dress, leading to the general assumption that ‘babr-i bayān’ means clothes made of tiger skin. Hence the decision by most illustrators of the Shahnāmah to depict Rustam in brown striped clothing resembling tiger skin.

Bizhan rescued by Rustam. Samarkand (Uzbekistan), 1600 (British Library IO Islamic 301, f. 142r)
Public domain

In addition to his tiger skin jacket, Rustam usually wears a leopard-headed helmet. However the leopard/panther skin was not used exclusively for depicting Rustam as is shown by the image below of the White Demon who is typically portrayed as leopard-skinned.


Rustam kills the White Demon. Isfahan (Iran), 1630-1640 (British Library, IO Islamic 1256, f.79r)
Public domain

In some traditions, not directly derived from the Shāhnāmah, after Rustam had killed the White Demon, he crafted a helmet from his severed head. This had the effect of making him seem even more terrifying.


Rustam sees the dungeon. Iran, 1604 (British Library, IO Islamic 966, f.64v)
Public domain

Most scholars, like the illustrators, agree that ‘babr’ is an animal but, unlike the illustrators, there is no consensus among them about what animal the word refers to. One group associates ‘babr-i bayān’ with animals such as otters, beavers, and even dragons. In narratives such as the Farāmarznāmah and Gurani epic stories, ‘babr-i bayān’ is a dragon which is killed by Rustam and its skin is used as war clothing. The interpretation linking ‘babr-i bayān’ with beavers or otters relates to the garment of Anahita, the goddess of water in the Avesta. According to the Zoroastrian Avestan hymn Ābān Yasht, Anahita wears a garment made from the shining skin of three hundred ‘bauuri/bawri’ - believed to mean beaver or otter in Avestan. Some scholars, notably Mahmud Omidsalar believe that ‘bauuri/bawri’ evolved to ‘babrag’ in Middle Persian, then to ‘babr’ in New Persian, a second meaning, alongside ‘tiger’, which has since been forgotten. Other scholars, however, prefer the straightforward meaning ‘tiger’ while noting that the tigerskin is not unique to Rustam but is worn by other characters in the Shāhnāmah and throughout world mythology.

As with ‘babr’, different roots and interpretations have been proposed for ‘bayān’. Khaleghi-Motlagh suggests that Bayān is a place in India while Māhyār Navābi proposes that it is the New Persian form of the Old Persian genitive plural ‘bagānām’ and Middle Persian ‘bayān’ meaning ‘of the gods.’ These, and other etymologies suggested at various times can be followed up in the reference sources cited below.

Last words

Considering Firdawsi’s description of the babr-i bayān in the Shāhnāmah and descriptions of Rustam’s clothes in other sources alongside the clothes of heroes, gods, and goddesses in world mythology, it seems clear that it is a tiger’s skin and its colour, as seen in many manuscripts, is red-brown. Elsewhere, the word ‘bawr/būr’ has been used in the Shāhnāmah as an adjective for red-brown horses. Rakhsh, Rustam’s horse, is also described as bawr/būr.


Rustam captures his horse Rakhsh. Isfahan (Iran), 1604 (British Library, IO Islamic 966, f. 54v)
Public domain

It seems that in depicting Rustam's war attire, the artists of the Shāhnāmah were inspired by other narratives including folkloric stories, as well as Firdawsi's descriptions. This can be seen in illustrations in which Rustam wears a helmet made of a leopard or demon's head while he does not have such a helmet according to the text of the Shāhnāmah. Dressed in this war attire Rustam appears even more powerful and frightening.

Alireza Sedighi, Curator, Persian Collections, British Library
With thanks to my colleagues William Monk, Michael Erdman and Ursula Sims-Williams
CCBY

Further reading

Sajjād Āydinlū, “Rūykardī digar bih Babr-i Bayān dar Shāhnāmah”, Nāmah-i Pārsī 4.4 (1378/1998).
Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh, “Babr-e bayān”, in Encyclopaedia Iranica online, 1988, updated 2011.
Mahmoud Omidsalar. “The beast Babr-e Bayān: Contributions to Iranian folklore and etymology”, Studia Iranica 13.1(1984), 129–42.
Mukhtariyan, Bahar، “Babr-i bayān va jāmah-ʼi  bavrī-yi Ānāhīt”, Justār’hā-yi Adabī 186 (1393/2014).

For over three centuries scholars have been intrigued with the life and poetry of the Mughal princess, Zebunnisa (1639-1702), the eldest daughter of Aurangzeb (r. 1658-1707). True to her name which means ‘Ornament of Women’, she was learned, and an active patron of poets and scholars. She collected books and corresponded with prominent Sufis of the time.[1]  That she would have composed verses in Persian would have been natural since many elite women in Persianate societies did so, but the attribution to her of a substantial body of poetry in the form of a dīvān, comprising about five hundred ghazals and some other poems, actually dates to a few decades after her death and later. In keeping with the spirit of the spurious and suggestive portrait below that was meant to represent Zebunnisa, along with poems attributed to her, over time her biography was spiced up with the inclusion of scurrilous stories of romantic escapades.[2]

A Bejeweled Maiden with a Parakeet (Metropolitan Museum of Art 2011.585)
Public domain

The corpus of poems known to be composed by Zebunnisa is known as the Dīvān-i Makhfī (makhfī means 'the hidden one'). This was thought to be an appropriate penname (takhallus), a common convention in premodern Persian and Persianate poetry, for a Mughal princess. It is true that female poets particularly used pennames such as makhfī, nihānī, and ‘ismat, and often there were multiple poets who wrote under the same name. Among Mughal women, Salima Begum (granddaughter of Humayun by his daughter Gulrukh Begum), Salima Sultan Begum (Akbar’s wife), Nur Jahan (Jahangir’s wife), and Zebunnisa are all said to have chosen the penname Makhfī, but there are only a few lines attributed to the first two. To complicate matters, there were also at least two male poets who also wrote as Makhfī: one was Makhfi Rashti, who flourished in Safavid Iran in the sixteenth century, and the other was Makhfi Khurasani, an Iranian émigré in Mughal India in the seventeenth century.[3]  A close examination of the poems would suggest that some or many of them were by the second of these two male Makhfis and not by Zebunnisa. This, however, is a complicated philological problem that cannot be solved here.

Writing a few decades after she lived, Mughal men of letters of the mid-eighteenth century such as Azad Bilgrami in his biographical dictionary, Yad-i bayz̤ā (IOL Islamic 3966, ff. 112-263), and Lachhmi Narayan Shafiq in his Gul-i ra‘nā (IO Islamic 3692 and 3693 and Or. 2044), only mentioned a few verses by Zebunnisa Begum.


Entry on Zebunnisa, Lachhmi Narayan Shafiq, Gul-i ra‘nā (British Library Or. 2044, ff. 79v-80r)
Public domain

Interestingly, it is in early nineteenth century Iran that a Qajar prince, Mahmud Mirza, who in his Nuql-i majlis, first mentions seeing a copy of Zebunnisa's dīvān that someone had brought to Iran from India. By the nineteenth century, anecdotes about her witty exchanges and dalliances with male poets appeared in works such as Muhammad Riza Abu’l-Qasim Tabataba’s miscellany, Naghmah-yi ‘andalīb (British Library Or. 1811), as well as in published anthologies of Persian and Urdu poetry composed by women. By the end of the century, several short biographies of her became popular which provided romanticized narratives of her as a learned but lonely princess who ended her life as a prisoner due to her father’s cruelty. As far as her poetry was concerned, serious scholars such as Shibli Numani and Abdul Muqtadir did not accept the attribution of the Dīvān-i Makhfī to Zebunnisa.

The British Library Or. 311, an eighteenth-century Mughal copy, is the oldest manuscript of the Dīvān-i Makhfī. The text of this manuscript forms the basis of the most recent edition of the poems.[4]

Dīvān-i Makhfī, 18th century (British Library Or. 311, ff. 19v–20)
Public domain

This manuscript includes these autobiographical verses from a ghazal:

garche man Layla-asasam dil chu Majnun dar nava-st
sar ba-sahra mizadam likan haya zanjir-i pa-st …
dukhtar-i shahim likan ru ba-faqr avarda’im
zeb o zinat sukhtim o nam-i ma Zebunnisa-st

Although I am Layla-like, my heart is plaintive Majnun-like,
I traverse the desert, but my feet are in chains of modesty.
I am a king’s daughter, but I am beset with poverty,
I discarded all ornaments—my name is Ornament of Women!

These verses do seem to be in Zebunnisa’s authentic voice.

The first printed edition of the Dīvān-i Makhfī appeared as a lithograph in 1268/1852 in Kanpur:


Dīvān-i Makhfī. Kanpur, 1268/1852 (British Library VT138(g))
Public domain

The book was popular and was reprinted frequently in Kanpur, Lucknow and Lahore, most famously by the Naval Kishor Press in 1293/1876, in whose edition the author of the book is described as Makhfi Rashti, the Iranian émigré poet, an attribution that disappeared in subsequent editions.

Two small volumes of English translations of Zebunnisa’s poems appeared, astonishingly, in the same year, 1913. One of them was in the series, “Wisdom of the East”, translated by Magan Lal and Jessie Duncan Westbrook.


The Diwan of  Zeb-un-Nissa, translated by Magan Lal and Jessie Duncan Westbrook. New York, 1913
Photograph from the author’s library

In the introduction, Westbrook provides some enigmatic information about the Dīvān-i Makhfī’s transmission history that is not corroborated by  other sources: “In 1724, thirty-five years after her death, what could be found of her scattered writings were collected … [The book] contained four hundred and twenty-one ghazals and several rubais. In 1730 other ghazals were added.” A contemporary reviewer wrote in appreciation of the translations: “The book is particularly valuable at the moment when a great movement is drawing the women of the nations into closer touch and fuller understanding.”[5]  Another reviewer emphasized the mystical quality of the poems: “Miss Westbrook supplies an interesting biographical sketch and some useful remarks on the poetry. She is mistaken, however, in saying that the poems have a special Indian flavor of their own, derived from ‘the Akbar tradition of the unification of religions.’  The doctrine that, notwithstanding the difference of rites and objects of worship, all religions are essentially one occurs repeatedly in Sūfī literature of a much earlier period.”[6]  Given the ambiguity with regard to the object of devotion inherent in the premodern Persian ghazal, it is not surprising that the poems were read in a predetermined mystical way.

The second book, The Tears of Zebunnisa, was published in the same year and had translations by Paul Whalley, a retired Indian civil servant who also translated some quatrains of Omar Khayyam.


The Tears of Zebunnisa, translated by Paul Whalley. London, 1913 (British Library 757.aa.9)
Public domain

In a poetic invocation, Whalley addresses the Mughal princess, who “belonged to the mystical school of which the most eminent exponents were Fariduddin Attar and Jalaluddin Rumi”:

INVOCATION
Rise from the far dim East and the mouldered pomp of the Moguls,
Daughter of Aurangzeb, priestess and martyr of Love!
Dawn as a lone bright star in the infinite gloom of the heavens,
Throbbing with love and shedding around thee the music of night.
Sweet as the voice of the bulbul that whispers its woes to the twilight
Come to us out of the ages the echoes of songs thou hast sung.

Like other translators of his time Whalley also preferred a romantic pseudo-mystical reading of Persian poetry. In addition to forty-nine translated poems, he also included five “imitations” and seven “examples of Persian metres”, showing his deep engagement with Persian poetry. His translation of the entire Dīvān-i Makhfī, whose unpublished manuscript is a typescript held by the British Library (IO Islamic 4587), was an immense project that included his fascination with the metres of Persian poetry. Below is his rendering of Zebunnisa’s autobiographical poem discussed above:

Typescript copy of Paul Whalley's translation (British Library IO Islamic 4587, f. 94)
Public domain

Whalley’s translations were literal and furnished with extensive notes. He also prepared a detailed concordance of metaphors and allusions to people and places in the Dīvān-i Makhfī. He considered Zebunnisa to be an important poet of the Persian tradition because of  “her sex and rank and social environment” as well as “the intrinsic beauty” of her poems.

Even if Zebunnisa did not compose all the poems in the Dīvān-i Makhfī, her persona as a poet has been crucial to bolstering the existence of a female textual tradition that is ephemeral at best until the twentieth century. In an interesting parallel with her poetry, the site of her final resting place has also been a matter of uncertainty. Although in the mid-nineteenth century Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan recorded in his Ās̱ār al-sanādīd that a railway line was built over her grave near the Kabuli Gate in Old Delhi, there is also a small memorial tomb in Lahore, tucked away in a bustling commercial part of the city near Chauburji, that has been connected to her name. It seems as if Zebunnisa is fated to remain a mystery in more ways than one.

Zebunnisa's supposed tomb in Lahore.
Photograph by the author

Sunil Sharma, Professor of Persianate and Comparative Literature, Boston University

Notes

[1] Muzaffar Alam, The Mughals and the Sufis (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2021), 301-3.
[2] See my article, “Forbidden Love, Persianate Style: Re-reading Tales of Iranian Poets and Mughal Patrons,” Iranian Studies 42 (2009): 765-79.
[3] Ahmad Gulchin-Ma‘ani, Kārvān-i Hind (Mashhad: Astan-i Quds-i Razavi, 1369/1990), 1263-64.
[4] Divan-i Zebunnisa, ed. Mahindokht Seddiqiyan and Sayyed Abu Taleb Mir ‘Abedini (Tehran: Amir Kabir, 1381/2002).
[5] The Indian Magazine and Review (January 1915), 62.
[6] The Athenaeum (August 9, 1913), 131.

At the end of April 2024, Burkhard Quessel retired from the British Library, 27 years after his appointment as Curator for Tibetan collections in 1997. 

During a visit to the British Library on 19 May 2017 by the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje (left), Burkhard Quessel (second from left) shows His Holiness a Tibetan manuscript. Second from the right is Kristian Jensen, Head of Collections, while on the right is Chime Rinpoche, a predecessor of Burkhard as Curator for Tibetan at the British Library. Photograph by the British Library (from Karmapa Facebook).  

As well as developing and improving access to the Tibetan collections, one of Burkhard’s major contributions was his work on the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), in order to create consistent standards and guidelines for the description of manuscripts and archival records. He spearheaded the introduction of TEI for the cataloguing of content in Tibetan and other Asian languages at the British Library, and supported colleagues and teams using TEI, most notably for the Hebrew Manuscripts Digitisation Project and the International Dunhuang Progamme, and enabled the Library to contribute metadata on Persian manuscripts to Fihrist. Burkhard’s contribution was critical in setting up access strategies for the Sanskrit collection and for Tibetan materials in the Stein and related collections, as well as for the cataloguing of Tibetan materials in the Endangered Archives Programme, such as the printed Sutra shown below. 

འཕགས་པ་ཏོག་གཟུངས་བཞུགས་སོ།. Sutra, in Tibetan, xylograph in red and black ink; before 1857. Collection of Noyon Hutuktu Danzan Ravjaa Museum, Mongolia. EAP031/1/14.  

Another example of Burkhard’s collegial and collaborative work was his involvement in the Jainpedia project led by the Institute of Jainology in the early 2000s, which resulted in the digitisation of a substantial number of the Library’s Jain manuscripts, the publication of the Catalogue of the Jain manuscripts of the British Library (3 vols., 2006), and a display in the Treasures Gallery. Burkhard also played a major role in the online publishing of A Descriptive Catalogue of the Hodgson Collection in the British Library, London, which was launched in 2011. Most recent achievements include Burkhard's contribution to the AHRC-funded project Transforming Technologies and Buddhist Book Culture, a multi-disciplinary collaboration with the Mongolian Inner Asia Studies Unit (MIASU) at Cambridge University, and the follow-up project Tibetan Book Evolution and Technology (2013-2015) funded by an Inter-European Marie Curie Fellowship.

Writing exercise in Tibetan, ca. 17th-19th c. Acquired by Aurel Stein 1913-1916 from the Etsin-gol delta, south of Soko-Nor. British Library, IOL Tib M 223

Burkhard was one of the curators who helped to shape a major exhibition on Buddhism which took place at the British Library from 25 October 2019 to 23 February 2020. As the curator responsible for Tibetan materials, he selected over a dozen objects of Tibetan origin from the Library's collection, carried out research and compiled exhibition labels. With his expertise and in-depth knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism he contributed to the development of a storyline for the exhibition and ensured that objects were handled and displayed with due respect. Shown below is a photograph of one of the exhibition cases with a Tibetan Thangka painting of Padmasambhava, founder of Samye monastery, mounted on the wall, with the caption written for the exhibition by Burkhard.

'Padmasambhava, the ‘Lotus-Born’, is one of the most popular teacher figures in Tibet. He was a master famous for his occult powers. When local demonic forces obstructed the foundation of the first Tibetan monastery in Samye in the 8th century, the king invited him from India to put the demons and deities of Tibet into the service of Buddhism. He is seated on a lotus at the centre of this painting with his two principal consorts on the left and right. Samye is still an active monastery and pilgrimage site in Tibet today. 

Burkhard knew the Tibetan collections in the British Library intimately, including where to find Tibetan manuscript material hidden in many different parts of the library. Presented below is Burkhard’s description of one such treasure, an account of Tibet by the Panchen Lama of 1775:

‘In 1774 George Bogle (1746-1781) was sent on a diplomatic mission to Tibet by the British Governor-General of India, Warren Hastings. During the five months he spent in Tashilhunpo at the court of the 3rd Panchen dPal Idan ye shes (1738-1780), he formed a strong relationship with the Panchen Lama or ‘Tashi Lama’ as he was referred to by the British.

Bogle records that during an audience with the Panchen Lama in January 1775, the Lama ‘told me that he would order his people to write down ever particular regarding the laws and customs of the country that I wished to know. I thanked him and told him that I would first give him an account of Europe which from the great curiosity and novelty of the subject would be agreeable to him’ (Mss Eur 226/49). Bogle’s account of Europe for the Tashi Lama was translated into Tibetan and presented to the Panchen on a later occasion.

A copy of the English draft is contained in Mss Eur 226/65 and was published in A. Lamb, Bhutan and Tibet, The Travels of George Bogle and Alexander Hamilton 1774-1777 (Hertingfordbury, 2002). Bogle’s journal mentions that the Lama also kept his promise and provided him with a similar written account on Tibet which is illustrated here. The section shown deals with the early royal history of Tibet.’

[Burkhard Quessel, ‘Account of Tibet by the Panchen Lama’, in: A Cabinet of Oriental Curiosities: an album for Graham Shaw from his colleagues, ed. Annabel Teh Gallop. London: British Library, 2006; no. 19.]

The early royal history of Tibet, from an account of Tibet by the Panchen Lama, written in Tibetan cursive script, presented to George Bogle, 1775. British Library, MSS Eur 226/66.

Burkhard Quessel, receiving a farewell gift from his colleagues on his retirement, 26 April 2024.

Contributed by colleagues in Asian and African Collections and Endangered Archives Programme

This blog post is written by Susan Harris, our Cataloguer of Photographs, working on the British Library’s Unlocking Hidden Collections project. This initiative aims to process, research and catalogue the Library’s hidden collections, making them more accessible to researchers and the public.

In May 2023, the descendants of amateur photographer Joseph Gaye (1852-1926) donated a collection of photographic material of his views of the Kathmandu Valley and India taken between 1888 and 1899 to the British Library. Joseph's descendant Mary-Margaret Gaye and her husband Doug Halverson spent many years researching Joseph's career in South Asia and identification of his views. We are most grateful to Mary-Margaret and Doug for making this collection available for researchers documenting the transformation of Kathmandu before the earthquake of 1934. Their publication is listed in the bibliography below.

Joseph Gaye was born in Northfleet, Kent, in 1852. At 18, he enlisted with the 4th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade and went to India as a rifleman in 1873. Gaye left the army after completing his 12-year enlistment term in 1882 to lead several Indian military bands. In 1888, he, with his wife, Mary Elizabeth Short, moved to Kathmandu, Nepal, where he served as bandmaster to the Royal Nepalese Army under Maharaja Bir Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana. In 1892, he became a bandmaster in turn to three viceroys of India (Marquess of Lansdowne, Earl of Elgin, and Lord Curzon of Kedleston) before returning to England in 1899. In 1905, Gaye and his four sons moved to Canada, where he died in 1926 in Lemberg, Canada. From 1888 to 1899, he produced photographs of Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley, Burma and India; these were among his possessions, along with a large studio camera, at the time of his death.

The Joseph Gaye collection is an exciting addition to the British Library, containing 91 glass negatives, five cellulose negatives and 32 albumen prints, primarily of the Kathmandu Valley, with a few from India. The subjects vary from architecture and landscapes to street scenes and people, including portraits of his family. Gaye’s photographs provided a unique insight at a time when few foreigners were allowed into Nepal.

Here are a few highlights from the collection of Nepal’s architectural monuments, some that remain today and others that have disappeared due to natural disasters or urban development:

A crowd of curious onlookers gathered before a building on the southwest corner of the Hanuman Dhoka Darbar complex in Kathmandu Durbar Square (fig.1). The building, from 1847, was the original Gaddhi Baithak, a palace used for coronations and for meeting foreign heads of state. It was in the Newar style with influences from the Mughal architecture of northern India. A western façade, as seen in the photograph, was probably added later. Prime Minister Chandra Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana (1863-1929) of Nepal,  replaced it in 1908 with the neo-classical building that exists today.

Fig.1. A crowd in front of the western facade of the original Gaddhi Baithak, Basantapur Durbar Square, Kathmandu. Taken by Joseph Gaye, 1888-1892. Albumen Print, 155 x 105 mm. British Library, Photo 1424/3(17).

Patan Durbar Square, in the city of Lalitpur, is one of the three Durbar Squares in the Kathmandu Valley; it has been through two significant earthquakes in 1934 and 2015. Gaye capture the square before these earthquakes, looking south, towards a crowd of observers and a line of temples and statues (fig.2). John Alexander Dunn, an Officer of the Geological Survey of India (GSI), also took a photograph (fig.3) of the square, looking north, after the 1934 earthquake. The only recognizable landmarks still standing are the statue of Garuda, the Krishna Mandir and the Vishwanath Temple with the elephants in front.

Fig.2. View of the Patan Durbar Square, Lalitpur, looking south. From the left: Krisnhna Mandir Temple (Chayasim Deval), the Taleju Bell, the Harishankar Temple, King Yoga Narendra Malla’s Column, Narasimha Temple, Vishnu Temple, Char Narayan Temple, Garuda statue, the Krishna Mandir and the Vishvanath Temple. Taken by Joseph Gaye, 1888-1892. Albumen Print, 155 x 105 mm. British Library, Photo 1424/3(8).

Fig.3. Darbar Square, Patan, Nepal [after the 1934 earthquake]. Taken by J.A. Dunn, January 1934. Albumen Print, 83 x 111 mm. British Library, Photo 899/2(4).

Gaye captured a winding pathway on the eastern flank, leading up to Swayambhu, an ancient religious site of temples and shrines at the top of a hill in the Kathmandu Valley (fig.4). The photograph shows a pair of Buddha statues marking the beginning of the path, with small chaityas, or shrines, dotted along the route. A photograph (EAP838/1/1/5/154) taken approximately 30 years later from the Chitrakar collection by Dirgha Man and Ganesh Man Chitraker shows a stairway with refurbished Buddhas and chaityas at the entrance that has replaced the pathway. 

Fig.4. Steps up to Temples [Swayambhu Stupa, Kathmandu Valley]. Taken by Joseph Gaye, 1888-1892. Dry Plate Negative. British Library, Photo 1424/1(67).

Further reading:

British Library’s The Endangered Archives Programme

Gaye, Mary Margaret and Halverson, Doug, The Photography of Joseph Gaye: Nepal, India and Burma 1888-1899, (privately printed) Canada: Mary Margaret Gaye and Doug Halverson, 2023

Onta, Pratyoush. ‘A Suggestive History of the First Century of Photographic Consumption in Kathmandu’, Studies in Nepali History and Society, Vol. 3, No. 1 (June 1998), pp.181-212

Slusser, Mary Shepherd, Nepal Mandala: A Cultural Study of the Kathmandu Valley, Volume 1 Text, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982

Weise, Kai, ‘An outlook of Gaddhi Baithak’, The Himalayan Times, 2 April 2016 

By Susan M. Harris