{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O430700"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O430700/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011ER0547/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011ER0547/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2011ER0547","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O430700/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O430700","accessionNumber":"08102(IS)","objectType":"Drawing","titles":[{"title":"Colonnade in the Ramalingeshvara Temple, Rameshwaram","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Lieutenants Thomas Askwith Jenkins of the 33rd Madras Native Infantry and William Walter Whelpdale of the 19th Madras Native Infantry were stationed together at Pambam between 1838 and Whelpdale's death in 1842, giving us a firm date range for this painting. Ravanat Naik's identity is unknown, but he was probably working with them as a draughtsman on the Pamban Passage clearance; he may have been a Naik / Naigue, a rank equivalent to Corporal in the Madras Sappers, under Jenkins' command. Jenkins was supervising the Pamban Passage project, clearing a new shipping channel between the coast of Madras and Sri Lanka. Their headquarters was only a few miles across the same island as the Temple, and a short boat trip up river from the Madras coast to the other sites at Madurai.\n\nAlong with seven other watercolours by the same team, and five by Justinian Gantz, this was presented to the Court of the Honourable East India Company on 16th January 1845 by a Captain Lock. They were displayed in the India Museum until, in 1878, five were transferred to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The other watercolours are held in the British Library's India Office records (WD 557-9). \n\nSince the beginning of the nineteenth century, English soldiers and civil servants had been collecting information and images of the historic sites in India. In 1800-5, Colonel Mackenzie had drawings of the temple, and the 'choultry' of Tirumala Nayak at Madurai made for him by an Indian draughtsman.  The present drawings are significant in illustrating the process by which Indian artists were recruited to help with military projects and archeological records.  They also demonstrate the draughtsmanship which was an essential skill for military men, especially ones engaged in engineering projects. It is interesting to note that the early photographer Captain Lyon made a photograph of exactly the same view using reflectors to light up the dark colonnade.\n\nThe Ramaslingeshvara Temple at Rameshwaram is one of the most important sites in Hindu religion; it marks the place where the Hindu god Rama built a bridge to Sri Lanka to rescue his wife Sita from Ravana. Dedicated to Shiva, the temple was an ancient foundation, but the existing structure was mostly built in the 17th and 18th-century.","physicalDescription":"An architectural watercolour, mainly sepia, of  a colonnade in the Rameshwaram Temple","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Lt. T. A. Jenkins","id":"AUTH319225"},"association":{"text":"painted by","id":"x28695"},"note":"'Lieutenant Jenkins' was formerly identified as W. G. P. Jenkins. He is now known to be Lieutenant Thomas Askwith Jenkins of the 33rd Madras Native Infantry, who was posted to Pambam with Lt. Whelpdale between 1840 and Whelpdale's death in 1842. A new aquisition at the British Library is a painting which appears to be a copy of this one; its inscription gives Jenkins initials as T. A.\r\n\r\nJenkins was born in 1809 into a Welsh gentry family with close links to the East India Company and Madras. It is likely that he served in the merchant marine the EIC ship 'General Kyd;' he was later stated to have been at sea for two years, and trained in marine and land surveying. He was a qualified interpreter, able to read and write in Persian and Telogu as well as classical and european languages. \r\n\r\nHe was posted to Pamban Island in 1838, taking charge of the Pamban Passage clearance, a project to clear a new shipping channel between the coast of Madras and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). This was to allow ships to pass through sheltered waters, even during the monsoon season. It was seen as important to trade, and to marine safety. He took charge of a detachment of about 60 Madras Sappers and Miners and 150 convict labourers, and managed the project with an impressive safety record, despite the daily use of dynamite. Pamban was only a few miles from the Temple at Rameshwaram, and Madurai, the location of the other paintings in this group, was a short boat trip up river from the Madras coast.\r\n\r\nJenkins went on to manage the project which delivered the Madras Railway in 1857, and to then act as Agent managing railway operations. He retired to Cheltenham, and died in 1877.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n"},{"name":{"text":"Lt. William Walter Whelpdale","id":"A36637"},"association":{"text":"painted by","id":"x28695"},"note":"Lieutenant William Walter Whelpdale of the 19th Madras Native Infantry was born in Battersea in 1815; his mother's family had a history of service for the East India Company in Madras. He received a classical and mathematical education, studied at Universite royale de France, Academie d'Orleans and then the East India Company Military Seminary at Addiscombe House. \r\n\r\nWhile at Addiscombe he would have studied civil and military drawing; these disciplines, along with surveying, accounted for 22% of the study time, and the same percentage in the final exams that determined careers. Addiscombe was primarily set up to train Engineers and Artillery officers, who needed such skills on a daily basis to create maps and survey fortifications. Even infantry officers such as Whelpdale had to be able to draw in order to report observations back to headquarters; not until photographic equipment was simple and portable enough to go on routine patrols were such skills irrelevant.\r\n\r\nWhelpdale worked at Pamban, taking charge of the project in Jenkins' absence, until his death there in 1842 of liver disease."},{"name":{"text":"Ravanat Naik","id":"A36638"},"association":{"text":"painted by","id":"x28695"},"note":"Ravanat Naik's background is currently unknown. Given his association with Jenkins and Whelpdale, and travelling with them between Pamban and Madurai, it is likely that he was also involved in the Pamban Passage project as a draughtsman.\r\n\r\nAlternatively to his working as a civilian draughtsman, he might have been a military draughtsman, a Naik or Naigue - a junior Non-Commissioned Officer equivalent to a Corporal - in the Madras Sappers. \r\n\r\nThe Madras Sappers and Miners, now known as the Madras Engineering Group, has survived intact as a regiment to the present day, where it is one of the three regiments that make up the Indian Army's Engineer Corps."}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"watercolour","id":"x33202"},{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"drawing (image-making)","id":"AAT54196"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Watercolour, mainly sepia, on paper","categories":[{"text":"Indian Company Paintings","id":"THES49045"},{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"},{"text":"India Museum","id":"THES286062"}],"styles":[{"text":"Company","id":"AAT18959"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"SSEA","id":"THES48598"},"images":["2011ER0547"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"004","id":"THES403693"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Drawing","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Tamil Nadu","id":"x29843"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"Ramalingeshvara Temple, Rameshwaram  is on Pamban Island, situated between the coast of Madras and Sri Lanka. It is part of Ramanathapuram district, in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. "}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1840-1842","earliest":"1840-01-01","latest":"1842-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"32","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"45","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Inscribed: Colonnade in the Pagoda of Ramisseram 220 yds long.  Drawn by Lieuts Jenkins and Whelpdale and Ravanat Naig","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""}],"objectHistory":"Transferred from the India Museum, 1879. It would appear that with this transfer, the V&amp;A's five Jenkins, Whelpdale and Naik drawings became separated from the three which are now in the British Library's India Office Library and Records (WD 557-9).  Together with five drawings by Justinian Gantz (WD 552-6), they were presented to the East India Company by Captain Lock on 16 January 1845. \n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Architectural; Drawings; watercolour, Colonnade in the Ramalingeshvara Temple, Rameshwaram,  Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu, 1840-1842. ","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Archer, Mildred. <u> Company Paintings Indian Paintings of the British period</u> \r\nVictoria and Albert Museum Indian Series London: Victoria and Albert Museum, Maplin Publishing, 1992, 41 p. ISBN 0944142303\r\n"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[{"text":"East India Company","id":"AUTH317092"}],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["08102(IS)"],"accessionNumberNum":"08102","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-10-02","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-25","availableToBook":true}}