Kashmir Through Old Photographs

A collection of old photographs showing everyday life in Srinagar and around Dal Lake, mostly from the 1980s. The pictures include Srinagar streets with vendors and tangas, children playing in neighbourhoods, women on houseboats and shikaras, people watching TV through a window, and lakeside community scenes. Some earlier images from 1890s–1930s are also included: artisans decorating papier-mâché, families spinning thread, Jhelum River ghats, and traditional Kashmiri women. Simple glimpses of daily life in old Kashmir. A busy street scene in Srinagar photographed during the 1980s, showing pedestrians, local vendors, and a horse-drawn tanga operating alongside everyday market activity. The street reflects a period when traditional transport, walking, and small-scale commerce shaped urban movement more than motor vehicles. Shops line the narrow road, goods are sold at street level, and people of different ages share the same public space. Such streets functioned as both commercial cente...

A collection of old photographs showing everyday moments in Kashmir during the twentieth century. The pictures include young girls playing the traditional game ghar ghar in the 1960s using simple objects in rural and semi-urban areas; a typical Srinagar street scene in the 1970s with a small roadside setup and wooden furniture for informal commerce; Jamia Masjid in Srinagar viewed from the southwest in 1906 with surrounding residential buildings and open ground; students in the playground at Burn Hall School in Srinagar in May 1970; the Srinagar Club at Bund along the Jhelum River during heavy winter snowfall in 1911; and shops with street activity in the commercial area of Dal Gate in Srinagar in 1980. Simple views of old Kashmir. This color photograph from the 1960s captures young Kashmiri girls engaged in the traditional childhood game known locally as ghar ghar, a form of imaginative role play reflecting domestic life. Played using simple objects found in nature or around the h...

A collection of old photographs showing personal and community life in Kashmir from the 1920s to the 1970s. The pictures include educator Master Samsar Chand Kaul with his wife Lachhkuji in a quiet Srinagar outdoor setting in 1964; women vendors selling vegetables in Jamia Market near Nowhatta in the 1970s; a mother braiding her daughter’s hair in the traditional Wankah Pauren style; children standing together on rocky rural terrain in the 1950s; two men resting beside a river in 1920 wearing traditional pulhoor straw footwear; and Ustad Mohammad Abdullah Tibetbaqal performing classical Sufiana music on a string instrument. Simple views of old Kashmir. This rare 1964 photograph shows Master Samsar Chand Kaul, one of Kashmir’s most respected educators, seated alongside his wife Lachhkuji in a quiet outdoor setting in Srinagar. Born in 1883, Master Samsar Chand Kaul devoted more than six decades to teaching, primarily at the CMS School in Fateh Kadal and later at Central High School. ...