PROBASHI- A Cultural News Magazine Volume 2 Issue 2 | Page 50
Probashi- Invited Article
A strut folding variant had a f/6.8 72mm
achromatic meniscus lens. Incidentally, in
1924, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine
carried a Vest Pocket Kodak on their last
climbing trip to Mount Everest.
(2) Mukul Dey, Discovery of Neglected Hindu
Art of Bengal, for private circulation, published
from “Chitralekha”, Santiniketan, West Bengal,
September 13, 1949, p. 1.
(3) ibid. 2
Temple façade detail from village Adityapur, Birbhum. It depicts
attendants to Lord Raja Ram of Ayodhya. One attendant carrying a yak‐
tail flywhisk, while the other holding the royal umbrella on king’s head.
Also note the irregular shape of the terracotta tiles as per a pre‐decided
master‐plan.
Perusal of Dey’s photographs the Lalit Kala Akademi of New
published
Birbhum
reveal that as far as preparation Delhi
and craftsmanship of clay, designs Terracottas with text and
and firing goes, the terracotta photographs by Mukul Dey, so far
plaques on Chandranatha Shiva considered to be one of the best
Temple at Hetampur, the illustrated books on Bengal
Lakshmi‐Janardana Temple at terracotta art.
Ghurisa, the octagonal temple at
The historical merit of the work of
Illambazar Hat‐tala, the Lakshmi‐
Mukul Dey notwithstanding, what
Janardana Temple at Surul and
amazes us is the willingness of a
the central panel of the
man to sell his personal property
pancharatna‐type temple at
to invest in a venture which had
Bankati
Rath‐tala
stand
no financial return, the only
unparalleled in the districts of
motivation
being
the
Birbhum and Barddhaman. Also
commitment to pass on to the
mention may be made of the
future generations our cultural
prints of Rasa‐Mancha temple of
legacy. It is said that history is
Hetampur’s collection. This
neither written nor made without
temple has since disappeared,
love or hate. In this case it was
and Dey’s photographs are the
entirely labour of love. Something
only documentation of this
which has become such a rare
structure.
commodity in today’s world.
In 1959, exactly a decade later ENDNOTES:
from that self‐published slim
monograph
wherein
Dey (1) The Vest Pocket Kodak cameras were a
best‐selling folding series made by Eastman
reported his ‘Discovery of (Rochester), from 1912 to 1926. They were the
Neglected Hindu Art of Bengal’, first cameras to use the smaller 127 film reels.
(4) All the three volumes of this particular title
was a kind gift to Mukul Dey by Bedbala Devi,
the daughter of Mahimaniranjan Chakraborty
of Hetampur.
(5) C. I. Jacobson, ‘Developing: the negative
technique’, Focal Press, London 1946
(6) A number of Amidol packets were
discovered in Dey’s darkroom in the
Chitralekha compound. Amidol is a unique
developing agent as it works best in slightly
acidic conditions rather than alkaline. He also
used Glycine developer for prints with warm
tone.
(7) A variety of chemically developed silver
chloride or chlorobronide photo printing paper,
fast enough to be printed by gaslight, hence
the name “gaslight paper”.
(8) Kodak Vest Pocket model, No.127 roll film
was used in it.
(9) Mukul Dey primarily used Voigtlander
Bessa and, later on, a Rolleiflex twin‐lens‐reflex
model. Both accepting 120 size medium
format roll films.
(10) Wooden field camera of 4 x 5 format.
(11) See Mukul Dey, Discovery of Neglected
Hindu Art of Bengal, self‐published from
Chitralekha
for
private
circulation,
Santiniketan in September 1949, p. 6.
(12) See Angela Latham, Terracottas of the
Ruined Temples of Bengal, Art and Letters (The
Journal of the Royal India, Pakistan & Ceylon
Society), vol. XXV, No. 2, in 1951.
(13) See Mukul Dey, Discovery of Neglected
Hindu Art of Bengal, pp. 9 – 10.
An able successor to
Mukul Dey was David McCutchion
(1930‐72). David an English‐born
academic and a faculty at Kolkata’s
Jadavpur University, extensively
photo documented the terracotta
temples of Bengal and took more
than 20,000 images. Unfortunately
during one of his forays to rural
Bengal in search of the temples, he
contacted Polio and died. He was
41. His grave is at Bhawanipur
Cemetery, Kolkata.