Portrait Photos of Rulers of The Indian Princely States. //c. 1900s

Raja Deen Dayal was the first Indian photographer to earn international renown for his pioneering work in the field of photography in the Subcontinent.

Deen Dayal is also known for having been a premier court photographer for some of the leading Princely states in the country at the time. Among his known patrons was Maharaja Tukoji Rao it of Indore . But his better-known appointment was as the official court photographer for the Nizam of Hyderabad.

In 1894, the Nizam of Hyderabad, the sixth ruler of a powerful Islamic dynasty in central India, conferred upon the photographer Deal Dayal the title of Raja Bahadur Mussavir Jung (“Bold Warrior of Photography”). Since then, the prolific nineteenth-century Indian photographer has been known as Raja Deen Dayal, Recognition gained, Dayal was regularly called to photograph numerous international exhibitions taking place around South Asia, and he continual to photograph official visits of British royalty and dignitaries, many of which were sold later as albums.

Deen Dayal had studios in Indore (1875), Secunderabad (1889) and Bombay (1897).