Cataloguing of the Photo Archives

Objectives

The IFP disposes of an extremely rare collection of photographs dating back to 1956 and subsequently enhanced over the years. This assorted collection (the only one of its kind), consists of about 1,36,000 black and white photographs and 5500 color films and slides. Ranked as the richest in India, the collection focuses on South Indian religious art and iconography including temple views, stone and bronze statues, paintings, architectural motifs, pre-historic cave rock paintings, palaces, jewelry and old heritage buildings of Pondicherry.

These photographs, gathered from various States in India (i.e Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala) depict some of the archaeologically most famous monuments in India. The objective is to preserve the photos, digitize the photo archives as well as to make the database and the digital photos available on the website for research scholars.

Materials and methods

The photographs taken on 6x6 format black and white rolls, during field trips, depict temples situated in various locations within India. The 35mm color slides have been used to shoot paintings and bronze statues.

The digitization of the photo archives was begun in 1999 with the view to preserve the 50-year old negatives as well as to make them more readily accessible to viewers. The scanning of the negatives was undertaken with a maximum resolution of 1128 dpi aims in order to facilitate consultation of the photographs via the Net. The scanned photographs (negatives) will subsequently be integrated into the Visual Basic database in accordance with the related matter.

The photographs are classified into three main categories i.e according to "Sites" or their location; "Matter" or the subject matter and "Enlargement" or the enlargement of the photographs in conformity with the IFP negative number.

Funding

French Institute of Pondicherry

Team

• Dr. N.Murugesan, archivist, IFP
• K.Ramesh Kumar, photographer, IFP

Main Outputs

• Darasuram : architecture and iconography. [CD-ROM]

Edited by Karine Ladrech, IFP/EFEO, Collection Indologie nº 108, 2007.
Language: English. 350 Rs (13 €)

The temple of Airāvateśvara in Darasuram, dating from the second half of the twelfth century, is one of the major temples erected by the Cōḻa Dynasty. This CD-Rom provides a near exhaustive documentation on the architecture and iconography of the temples of Śiva and of the Goddess, completing that of the book of Françoise L’Hernault published by the EFEO in 1987. The rich photographic documentation spans fifty years (1956-2006), rendering modifications of the monuments observable. Also included in the CD-Rom are plans and drawings from the 1987 book. Each image is accompanied by a note as to: identification, location, and description, and a search engine gives access to images corresponding to criteria defined by the user.

Keywords : Darasuram, architecture, iconography, Cola

• Pondicherry past and present. Pondichéry hier et aujourd’hui

Jean Deloche, IFP/EFEO, Collection Indologie nº 107, 2007 [CD-ROM].
Language: English, French. 300 Rs (11 €)

In this bilingual (French/English) CD-ROM, we first show Pondicherry from its origins to 1824, the dazzling expansion of this modest textile centre which became, for a short period, the capital of a potential empire in the first half of the 18th century; then, we dwell on its slow death after its destruction by the British in 1761. This development is illustrated with the magnificent watercolour plans and maps preserved in French archives.

Next, we present Pondicherry from 1824 to the present day, a small colonial settlement now merged in the Indian Union; we point out the difficult stages of its rebirth, then, its slow expansion before becoming an Indian territory. This part is illustrated with old postcards and a mixture of recent and archival photographs.

Keywords: India, Pondicherry, urbanisation, colonial heritage

• Bhairava Sahasrapratimāvaliḥ. Iconographie de la forme terrible de Śiva en Inde du Sud / Iconography of the terrible form of Śiva in South India

Edition par K. Ladrech, avec la collaboration de N. Dejenne, K. Ramesh Kumar, IFP/EFEO, 2005, [CD-ROM] (CI n° 95)
Language: French, English. 300 Rs (11 €)

This bilingual French/English database assembles one thousand images of Bhairava (principally sculptures) in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, thereby presenting a vast panorama of representations of the deity in South India. The photographic documentation, derived mainly from the photographic collection of the French Institute of Pondicherry, is accompanied by descriptive fiches (localization of images, iconographic description and other miscellaneous information). A search-engine enables the user to bring together all the various data and to select images based on specific search criteria. The CD-ROM also contains a presentation of the deity and maps indicating the location of the images.

Keywords: database, iconography, sculpture, South India, Śiva-Bhairava

Exhibitions

• " Heritage Buildings of Pondicherry" in collaboration with INTACH, Pondicherry - in 1999.
• "Aspects of Siva" exhibition in the French Embassy, New Delhi, 2001, in Pondicherry, 2002 and at Bangalore in 2003 in collaboration with Alliance Françaises of Pondicherry and Bangalore. A small booklet on the "Aspects of Siva" was prepared for the exhibition.