{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O130192"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O130192/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2007BL8883/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2007BL8883/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2007BL8883","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O130192/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O130192","accessionNumber":"IS.38:3-1889","objectType":"Photograph","titles":[{"title":"S. E. Angle of the Tirambur Pagoda","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"Linnaeus Tripe (1822–1902) documented much of south India as official photographer to the Madras government (1856–1860). This unusual view of the fortifications of the pagoda at Teramboor accentuates their ruinous state. In the original letterpress that accompanies the image, the history of the pagoda is highlighted. In 1755 English troops fought against Madurai, and so the Governor abandoned the city and took refuge in the Teramboor pagoda. After conquering Madurai, the troops then attacked the pagoda at Teramboor. Without weapons or ladders they burned down the gates of the pagoda and plundered it. Brass images of the temple deities  were stolen, to the anger of local people, who attacked the troops as they walked from Madurai to Trichinopoly.","physicalDescription":"This photograph shows the corner of a temple enclosure, showing two walls joined by a bastion with a vertical crack down the centre and a tree coming out of the top. There are trees to the right and mud and shrubs in the foreground.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Tripe, Linnaeus","id":"A6257"},"association":{"text":"photographer","id":"AAT25687"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[],"techniques":[{"text":"albumen process","id":"AAT133274"},{"text":"photography","id":"AAT54225"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Albumen print from waxed paper (calotype) negative","categories":[{"text":"Photographs","id":"THES48910"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SSEA","id":"THES48598"},"images":["2007BL8883"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES403838"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photograph","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Madurai","id":"x30889"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"January 1858-February 1858","earliest":"1858-01-01","latest":"1858-02-28"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""},{"date":{"text":"1860","earliest":"1860-01-01","latest":"1860-12-31"},"association":{"text":"published","id":"x35383"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Lady Denison","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"235","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"photographic print","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"355","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"photographic print","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"455","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"album page","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"573","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"album","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"This photograph was given by Lady Denison in 1889 during the keepership of Caspar Purdon Clarke, Keeper of the Indian Section of the V&A. It was written off in 1937, and rediscovered and re-evaluated in the 1990s. See Dewan p.408 for listings of other copies elsewhere.\r\nThis photograph was published as plate II of ten in the album <u>Photographs of Madura: Part I</u> 1858, by 'Captain L. Tripe, Government Photographer', published in 1860. It was taken as part of Tripe's remit as the government photographer, which he himself defined broadly, as recording, ‘before they disappear’ buildings, sculptures and inscriptions…' including the picturesque. This was a model for an extensive survey, including tuition of others and experimentation in his own practice. He was funded by the Madras government, but intended selling additional copies of some prints so that his practice could be self-funding.\r\n\r\nThis photograph was published with the following text (see letterpress for a fuller version):\r\n'This fortified Temple stands in an open plain about eight miles East of Madura; N. of the Vaigai river. Orme calls it Kovilgudi; and mentions a town which surrounded it, called Tirambur; This town has now almost disappeared; and the building represented is called the Tirambur Pagoda… The shrine is of no special celebrity; but the Temple bore a somewhat important part as a fortification in the middle of the last century, when the English, as partisans of Muhammed Ali, the Nawab of Arcot, were in arms against the French who has sided with Chanda Sahib, the Divan of a former Nawab, and who had up to his death in 1752 been the rival of Muhammed Ali, for the dignity of Nawab. In 1736 Chanda Sahib had appointed his brother governor of Madura and the surrounding districts; he was however killed in 1741 and Chanda Sahib himself taken prisoner to Satara. Subsequently to his release and his investiture by the French as Nawab of Arcot in 1750, one Alam Khan, who had formerly been in Chanda Sahib’s service, corrupted the garrison of Madura and held the city for Chanda Sahib. After his death…in 1752…we are informed that Madura was held by another partisan of Chanda Sahib’s family, who suffered the fortifications to fall into a state of disrepair; and maintained a garrison wholly insufficient for the defence of the place...’\r\nThe text continues to explain that in 1755 the English under Colonel Heron fought against Madura, and the Governor abandoned the city and took refuge in the Tirambur pagoda. Heron conquered Madura and then fled after attacking the Tirambur pagoda, leaving his troops to defend it. Without siege guns or ladders the troops burned down the gates of the pagoda and plundered it. Brass icons were stolen, to the anger of local people, who attacked Heron and his men as they walked from Madura to Trichinopoly.\n\nHistorical significance: Tripe's photographs of South India are an important body of work within Tripe's oeuvre, and are recognised as being some of the most aesthetically and technically competent images of India made in the 19th century.\r\nTripe entered his Madura series as part of total of 50 photographs from his 1857–8 tour of South India in the 1859 annual exhibition of the Madras Photographic Society. The jury dubbed his photographs ‘the best in the Exhibition’ but as Tripe could not be classed an amateur, he could not win the gold medal. Tripe declined the silver medal amicably, since he considered that as an official photographer he had an unfair advantage over the other entrants. \r\nTripe’s photographs were valued for their informational value and their technical quality. The adjudicating committee stated that Tripe’s photographs ‘illustrate admirably the architecture of the Hindoo Temples and Places of Southern India, and in particular the Madura and Tanjore series comprise in this respect all that is most worthy of record in those cities.’ (See Dewan, p.16). Forty-six of Tripe’s 50 exhibited images were made from paper (calotype) negatives, which the committee didn't feel were as successful as dry collodion-on-glass negatives, however, declaring that ‘the superiority of definition given by Collodion [-on-glass] is very visible when placed side by side with them.’ It is thought that Tripe prefered paper to glass negatives due to paper being easier and safer to work with.","historicalContext":"<b>The southern districts tour and Madras presidency photographs, 1857-58</b>\r\nThe Madras government appointed Tripe as photographer following the 1855 directive from the Court of Directors in London, who discouraged illustration in favour of 'photography as a means by which representations may be obtained of scenes and buildings, with the advantages of perfect accuracy, small expenditure of time, and moderate cash', and asked that photography be the main means of recording architecture and antiquities (Dewan, p.6).  \r\n\r\nAs official photographer to the Madras Government, Tripe set off from Bangalore on 14 December 1857 after delays due to waiting for modifications to his new English camera, and his recovery after falling from a horse. He ended his tour in Madras on 30 April 1858 after travelling via Srirangam, Tiruchchirappalli, Madurai, then Pudukkottai, Tanjore, and Tiruchchirappalli again (then called Seeringham, Trichinopoly, Madura, Poodoocottah and Tanjore). \r\n\r\nAll of these areas had been forcefully taken under British rule in the previous one hundred years, but Tripe looked for scenes or subjects with architectural or antiquarian interest rather than political significance. He had wanted to ensure his images were practical too: before he had set out he had asked the chief engineer for guidance on what would be most useful from an engineering perspective, and incorporated this input into his work.","briefDescription":"Photograph, 19th century; No. II 'S.E. Angle of the Tirambur Pagoda', from the photograph album by Capt. Linnaeus Tripe, 'Photographs of Madura: Part I'; South India, 1858","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Dewan, Janet. <u>The Photographs of Linnaeus Tripe: A Catalogue Raisonné.</u> Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2003, p.408."}],"production":"Edition number unknown.  The album of which this photograph is part is one of between 71 and 74 copies.\n\nAttribution note: The V&A has another copy of Tripe's <u>Photographic Views in Madura</u>, parts I to IV (bound) in the National Art Library, pressmark 104.N. The Royal Photographic Society holds the waxed paper negative.\nReason For Production: Commission","productionType":{"text":"Limited edition","id":"THES48862"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"Madurai","id":"x30889"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"trees","id":"AAT132410"},{"text":"pagoda","id":"AAT4829"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["IS.38:3-1889"],"accessionNumberNum":"38","accessionNumberPrefix":"IS","accessionYear":1889,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-08-21","recordCreationDate":"2006-12-15","availableToBook":true}}