The Teppa-kulam
Tripe was a career military officer in India and, in the late 1850s, government photographer to the Madras Presidency. In just five years he made nearly one thousand views of India and Burma.
In this view of a teppakulam, or tank, in Madurai, South India, the mirror-like surface of the water reflects the stripes of the surrounding stone wall. In the accompanying text, Tripe explained that during an annual Hindu festival, likenesses of the god Sundareshwara and goddess Minakshi were rowed around in "a gaily decorated raft," and then brought inside the pavilion, whose intricately carved central tower rises from a mass of dense foliage.
In this view of a teppakulam, or tank, in Madurai, South India, the mirror-like surface of the water reflects the stripes of the surrounding stone wall. In the accompanying text, Tripe explained that during an annual Hindu festival, likenesses of the god Sundareshwara and goddess Minakshi were rowed around in "a gaily decorated raft," and then brought inside the pavilion, whose intricately carved central tower rises from a mass of dense foliage.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Teppa-kulam
- Artist: Linnaeus Tripe (British, Devonport (Plymouth Dock) 1822–1902 Devonport)
- Date: 1858
- Medium: Albumen silver print from waxed paper negative
- Dimensions: Image: 26 x 37.5 cm (10 1/4 x 14 3/4 in.)
Mount: 45.2 x 56.2 cm (17 13/16 x 22 1/8 in.) - Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Gilman Collection, Purchase, Cynthia Hazen Polsky Gift, 2005
- Object Number: 2005.100.381.1.4
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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