In pictures: Rare 19th Century pictures of India

Raja Deen Dayal (1844-1905) was a legendary Indian photographer. In 1894, he was appointed court photographer to the royal family of Hyderabad. In this picture taken in 1899, the King of Hyderabad Nizam Mahbub Ali Khan and his party pose with tiger skins.

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Deen Dayal and his photographers took more than 30,000 photographs of architecture, landscapes and people. This is Deen Dayal's picture of guests at a fancy dress ball taken in Hyderabad in February 1890.

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Deen Dayal's work is preserved in India and is the subject of a new book, Raja Deen Dayal: Artist-Photographer of 19th-Century India by Deepali Dewan and Deborah Hutton and published by Mapin and Alkazi Collection of Photography. This is a portrait of Nizam Mahbub Ali Khan of Hyderabad, taken sometime in 1887-88.

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The opulent drawing room of the Bashir Bagh palace in Hyderabad, 1888. Many of Deen Dayal's pictures are on view now in an exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

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The back of a cabinet card photograph taken by Deen Dayal in his studio in the Indian city of Indore, January 1894. The cabinet card got its name from its suitability for display in parlours - especially in cabinets - and was a popular medium for family portraits.

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The "thousand pillar temple" at Hanamkonda in southern Andhra Pradesh state, 1887-1888.

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Deen Dayal's portrait of Nawab Asman Jah Bahadur, prime minister of Hyderabad state, October 1890.

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The famous Water Palace in Deeg in the northern state of Rajasthan, 1884.

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A portrait of Maharaja Kishen Pershad, a prime minister of Hyderabad state.

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The entrance to a famous fort in the northern Indian city of Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh state, taken in 1878.

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Deen Dayal's picture of the tomb of the daughter of Mughal Emperor Akbar near the northern city of Agra, taken in 1886-87.

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