Kashmir Through Old Photographs

A collection of old photographs showing everyday activities and public places in Srinagar and rural Kashmir from around 1900 to the 1960s. The pictures include the Nala Mar canal passing under a stone bridge near Saraf Kadal around 1900; the Mission Hospital at Drugjan near Dalgate around 1910 with its European-style buildings and mountain backdrop; Kashmiri Pandit women washing utensils at a village spring water point in South Kashmir in the late 1950s; busy movement on Amira Kadal bridge in the 1960s with pedestrians, tongas, handcarts, and bicycles; workers inside the Srinagar silk factory operating looms and reeling equipment in 1904; and girls during an outdoor roll call at the CMS Girls School in Fateh Kadal in the 1920s. Simple views of old Kashmir. This rare photograph from around 1900 shows the Nala Mar canal passing beneath a stone bridge near Saraf Kadal in Srinagar, capturing an important element of the city’s historic water management system. Nala Mar once served as a ...

A collection of old photographs showing daily routines and shared spaces in Kashmir from 1864 to the 1980s. The pictures include an early view of Nasim Bagh on Dal Lake in Srinagar in 1864 with mature chinar trees and a natural lakeshore; a floating shikara shop selling cosmetic items on Nageen Lake in the 1950s; women carrying water pitchers on their heads along a village road in 1980; schoolchildren being ferried across the River Jhelum in a crowded shikara in 1975; horse-drawn tangas lined up at Tanga Adda near Lal Chowk in Srinagar in 1951; and a street in Pampore in 1984 with pedestrians, a cycle rickshaw, cars, and shops. Simple views of old Kashmir. This 1864 photograph presents a rare early view of Nasim Bagh, the historic Mughal garden located on the banks of Dal Lake in Srinagar. Established during the reign of Mughal emperor Akbar in the late sixteenth century, Nasim Bagh is recognized as the earliest Mughal garden in the Kashmir Valley. The image captures a wide, open l...

A collection of old photographs and a watercolor showing everyday life related to education, literature, and urban development in Kashmir from the 1880s to the 1960s. The pictures include girls at the CMS Mission School in Fateh Kadal, Srinagar during the 1920s seated on balconies of a traditional wooden building; a quiet early view of the Gulmarg bazaar area with unpaved roads and simple wooden structures among pine forests; women carrying baskets of traditional earthenware utensils on their heads along a rural path in the 1960s; a spacious M A Road near the Golf Club in Srinagar in the 1940s with minimal traffic and Shankaracharya Hill in the background; an 1880s watercolor of the Nala Mar canal in Srinagar with calm waters and surrounding buildings; and a man reading a book in one of Srinagar’s Mughal gardens in 1948. Simple views of old Kashmir. This photograph from the 1920s shows the CMS Girls Mission School at Fateh Kadal in Srinagar during its early years of operation. Know...