Occidental Encounters and Impressions

The visual and literary chronicles of British Residents and Surveyors comprise a reservoir of information on the historical, social and economic milieus of various territorial regions within the Indian subcontinent. Further, they contain copious documentation on the art and architectural heritage of these regions. Straddling the realms of antiquarianism and archaeology, the concomitant processes of survey and documentation evolved during the seventeenth century and acquired a panoptic character by the nineteenth century. They were essentially products of the interface between the diametrically opposed occidental and oriental cultures and were furthered by the expedients of colonialism.This article is divided into three parts. The first part delves into the relationship between antiquarianism and archaeology. The second part elucidates upon the practices of surveying and documentation in India. The third part elaborates upon the career of Lt. Frederick Charles Maisey and his explorations in central India with special reference to his mid-nineteenth century illustrations of Chanderi’s architectural edifices and structural members. Chanderi, a town of historical importance in Madhya Pradesh, is interspersed with tombs, step-wells, mosques and free-standing gateways of Indo-Islamic affiliation, ascribable largely to the fifteenth century. Some of these edifices are in a bad state of preservation and Maisey’s illustrations have been instrumental in reconstructing their effaced architectonic and decorative details. The illustrations under purview have also contributed towards a holistic understanding of the architectural style at Chanderi, an area which is fairly uncharted.