Photographic print & Lithograph - Kotgarh/Narkanda

From the archives of British Library :


Photographer: Bourne, Samuel Medium: Photographic print Date: 1860

View of the dak bungalow overlooking the smaller village houses at Narkunda, from the Elgin Collection: 'Spring Tours 1894-98'. This is a late print of a Samuel Bourne photograph, Bourne's original negative number (1426) has been scratched out and replaced by a later reference. Narkanda is a small village situated high in the Himalayan Mountains. The bungalow in this view provided accommodation for travellers on the old Hindustan-Tibet caravan route. Narkanda has awe-inspiring views of the snowy peaks as it is located on the ridge of the last watershed before the Himalayan range. Below Narkanda, to the north is the Sutlej Valley and beyond it is the snowy massif. The ridge on which Narkanda stands is the watershed between the Sutlej on the north and the Giri river. The sleepy town of Narkanda sits astride the watershed between the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal.


Photographer: Bourne, Samuel Medium: Photographic print Date: 1863

Photograph of a view on the road to Narkanda, Himalayas from the 'Strachey Collection of Indian Views', taken by Samuel Bourne in 1863. Samuel Bourne, the bank clerk and amateur photographer arrived in India in 1863 during the early years of commercial photography. Photographs taken during three expeditions to Kashmir and the Himalayas between 1863 and 1866 demonstrate his ability to combine technical skill and artistic vision. These views display a compositional elegance which appealed to Victorian notions of the ‘picturesque’; strategically framed landscapes of rugged mountain scenery, forests, rivers, lakes and rural dwellings. What gives Narkanda its awe-inspiring view of the snowy peaks is the fact that it is located on the ridge of the last watershed before the Himalayan range. Below Narkanda, to the north is the Sutlej Valley and beyond it is the snowy massif. The ridge on which Narkanda stands is the watershed between the Sutlej on the north and the Giri river. The sleepy town of Narkanda sits astride the watershed between the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal.


Artist: Scott, Mrs WLL Medium: Lithograph Date: 1852

This lithograph was made from plate 14 of 'Views in the Himalayas' by Mrs WLL Scott. It was sketched from the verandah of the staging bungalow at Kotgarh in the Himalayas, at sunset. In the middle distance is the village of Kumarsain, and on a high hill behind is the Ramgarh Fort of Kulu. Providing background are the Kangra mountains and the snow ranges of the High Himalayas.

Mrs Scott wrote of the light in the mountains, which changed hourly and transformed the appearance of the region radically. She confessed to finding it difficult to convey the beauty of these changes on paper.

Artist: Scott, Mrs WLL Medium: Lithograph Date: 1852

This lithograph is taken from plate 13 of 'Views in the Himalayas' by Mrs WLL Scott. In 1850 Scott sketched this view at sunset at the staging bungalow in Kotargh. She wrote that the mission here was run by a German sent by the Chuch Missionary Society. There had been initial mutterings about him "taking his hire when his labours were so unfruitful, but he has lately had such good cause to be satisfied and thankful, that he has requested of the Society a fellow-labourer to assist him." The river Sutlej runs between the hills in the two nearest ranges.

In the early 20th century, an American missionary imported apple seeds to Kotgarh and today Himachal Pradesh is a renowned apple-growing region of India, with Kotgarh at the heart of its orchards.