PROBASHI- A Cultural News Magazine Volume 2 Issue 2 | Page 45
Probashi- Invited Article
Shooting from a Bullock Cart: First Photo Documentation of Bengal Terracotta
Temples
By Satyasri Ukil
The now famous Terracota temples of Bengal existed as non‐heralded structures despite their great artistic and historical
importance in non‐ descript and remote corners of Birbhum and Burdhwan districts of Bengal. It was about seventy years ago
(1946‐51) that Mukul Dey took a self‐sponsored project to photo‐document the terracotta temples. He sold his house in Calcutta
and with the money bought the photography equipment, and a processing unit, loaded the same on to a bullock cart and hit the
trail through treacherous jungle route. He kept a gun handy just in case robbers or wild animals’ descended upon him on
uncharted trails. He painstakingly documented temples in 25 villages taking more than 5000 prints which were processed onsite
in the processing lab on his bullock cart. No one till date had photo documented these temples at the scale and detail as Mukul
Dey. The only other recorded instance before Dey started his endeavour was that by Swiss photographer Martin Hurlimann, who
visited at least one rural location in Birbhum to photograph the terracotta temples in 1926‐27. Documenting these temples in
remote and inaccessible regions of Bengal was a difficult proposition and claimed at least one life. McCutchion who followed Dey
a decade later in early sixties doing his now famous extensive photo documentation of Bengal temples died at the age of 41
having contacted Polio on his sojourns to these temples in remote locations in Burdhman and Birbhum districts. In a way the
pioneering effort of Mukul Dey was taken to its conclusion by McCutchion.
Shri Satyasri Ukil, grandson of Mukul Dey brings out this unique effort of his grandfather in this exclusive article for Probashi. Shri
Ukil is a professional photographer and an avid traveller. He has set up the Mukul Dey archive at Shanti Niketan which holds the
works and collection of Mukul Dey‐ an outstanding effort to keep the legacy of an outstanding man alive.
The 1978 monsoon was details of this pioneering self‐sponsored project had lasted
particularly heavy in eastern photography project on which for about six years, the most
photo‐
India. Around Santiniketan, three Mukul Dey had worked for about productive
rivers—Ajoy,
Kopai
and six years from mid‐1940s till documentations being done in
the post‐monsoon months when
Mayurakshi a little further to about 1951‐52.
the light is comparatively clean
north—flooded, inundating large
Mukul Dey (1895—1989) was an
tracts of land and many villages.
and the atmosphere clear, which
early student of Rabindranath
There was incessant rain.
are almost essential to generate
Tagore’s school at Santiniketan
Homeless villagers in thousands
good photographic images.
from c. 1906 till 1912. Later on,
took shelter on turtle‐backed
Typically, he made all his trips ex‐
he trained as an artist, first under
topography of Santiniketan.
Santiniketan, mostly on his
Abanindranath Tagore and then
personal bullock‐cart.
General chaos was all around.
under various masters in Japan,
During
those
days
my
the USA and the UK. He returned Describing his early efforts in
grandparents, Mukul and Bina
these
to India from London in photo‐documenting
Dey, lived in their old house—
December, 1927 and was temples Mukul Dey writes with
“Chit