Produced some six months after the siege of Delhi had ended with an East India Company victory on the 21st of September in 1857, a lifeless Chandni Chowk emerges in this photo by Felice Beato – an Italian photographer, who had landed in Calcutta on the 13th of February in 1858, to capture the sights and landmarks of British India.
Counted among the earliest western photographers to document the land, Felice Beato was born in Venice in Italy in 1832 and had embarked upon his career as a photographer in Constantinople while working for his brother-in-law. He had documented the Crimean War in 1856 before the Indian Mutiny of 1857 had drawn him to capture the aftermath.
Beato, a commercial photographer.
As a commercial photographer who earned a living by selling prints, Beato had initially focused on photographing battle sites to cash in on the enormous public interest the Mutiny of 1857 had generated in Europe.
Later, however, he had shifted his focus to architectural landmarks and people albeit to once again profit from the demand of exotic eastern imagery.
This new venture, however, had taken him to the yesteryear cities of Kanpur, Lucknow and Delhi among other places, and allowed him to compile a large collection of now historic photographs.
Chandni Chowk.
The Chandni Chowk, that Beto had visited on this day was once the heart of the Gurkani capital of Shahjahanabad commonly known in present times as ‘Old Delhi’.
It was essentially the main street of Shahjahanabad and had run straight from the Lahori gate located to the east of the city to the royal compound of palaces and gardens in the west. The street had a water canal running through the middle that had ebbed with the cool waters of the Yamuna. It was also the commercial heart, flanked as it was on both sides by shops and homes.
While during the day Chandni Chowk had bustled with life and commercial activities, at night it was a lover’s destination. Amorous couples who had wished to keep their affairs away from prying eyes had met here in secret and disappeared into the confusing maze of alleyways between shops and houses to elude observers and spies.
The street was created in the 17th century and was the brainchild of the Gurkani princess Jahanara, the eldest daughter of the emperor Shahjahan. Jahanara was also the first lady of the Gurkani court during her father’s reign and that of her brother, the emperor Aurangzeb.
Why Chandni Chowk was named Chandni Chowk.
It is said that somewhere on this street with a water canal running through the middle, was an octagonal water pond that had mirrored the reflection of the moon at night, and from which had arisen its name Chandni Chowk or the Moonlit Square.
This Chandni Chowk of yesteryear, had also boasted of a silver market and which was so well known in the 18th century, that most British authors of the time associated the name with the silver market.
Authors such as George Bruce Malleson, in whose epic historical work on the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, one finds Malleson identifying Chandni Chowk not with the reflection of the moon in a water pond but for its silver market.
The Chandni Chowk Beato saw.
Although throughout most of its history this commercial street has bustled with life and activities, the Chandni Chowk, Beato had captured in this photo was a deserted one, for the massive depopulation Shahjahanabad had suffered during the Mutiny of 1857.
This depopulation had started to take place when the city had been, initially, occupied by the rebels and who had terrorized and extorted food and money from the citizens when thelast Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar,had been unable to pay their wages, and later for the plundering and massacre that had followed the reconquest of the city by the armies of the East India Company and their loyal allies.
Last years of Beato.
After documenting British India, Beato had moved farther east. In 1860 he had visited China to document the exploits of the Imperial British army and then on to Japan.
He is believed to have retired from active photography in 1877, almost 31 years before his death in 1908. He was then 76 years old and living in Burma, where he had set up a photography studio and a wood carving business.
In spite of Beato having also produced a large volume of non-military photographs, he is more widely regarded as a military photographer, primarily for his inclination towards documenting military subjects and his adventurous way of life.
His photographs continue to hold immense historical value and the architecture he captured in the 18th century can still be seen in bits and parts in the modern locale of old Delhi.
Including sections of the walls of Shahjahanabad, the city’s once-imposing gateways, and at Chandni Chowk itself – which, in spite of progressing into the twentieth century has somehow managed to still retain its old-world antiquity.
I F I This is an Independent Story that tries to unravel the history behind this featured Vintage Photo from 1857, and highlight the experiences of the photographer, Felice Beato. It has been created from facts curated from literary and historical sources. I
