Photographer Sawai Ram Singh II
Sawai Maharaja Sir Ram Singh II Bahadur was a king of Jaipur state in India. he was born to the ruler Jai Singh III and Chandrawati on 30th September 1835. Maharaja Ram Singh II ascended the throne when he was still a young boy.
Ram Singh was passionate about art and photography; he captured (and developed) numerous photographs of women, junior functionaries (like tailors) and nobles of his court. While the rural police consisted of chowkidars (night watchmen) and sepoys, the general police was directly under the control of the respective minister. The road connected the western and the eastern parts of his kingdom and his capital Jaipur was located at the road's midway. It has been since considered as a pioneer effort at portraying Rajput women behind the purdah. During this period, Ram Singh established four new departments - education, police, medical, and survey and settlement. Interestingly, the names of the photographed women were not mentioned and whether the Maharanis (his wives, he had eight of them!) allowed themselves to be photographed is unknown.
See Also:
- Indian Landscapes -- Depiction of Indian landscapes by European artists of 18th and 19th century.
