In the 1870s, Raja Din Dayal began his career as a photographer in India, opening several studios in Indore, Mumbai and Hyderabad. He quickly gained recognition, served as the ruler of the principality of Hyderabad and was the photographer for the Viceroy of India in 1885. Dayalu's orders came from both the Maharajah and the British authorities.
The heritage of the Indian photographer has several thousand negatives. These are images of temples and palaces, fragments of everyday life of ordinary people, group photos, snapshots of official meetings. In 1880, thanks to collaboration with the diplomat Lepel Griffin, the series "Famous Monuments of Central India" was born, which includes 86 images of archaeological sites.
Dayal accompanied Prince Edward, the future King of Great Britain, and his wife, Princess Alexandra of Denmark, during their trip to India. In 1894, Dayal was invited to the palace of the Nizam of Hyderabad, where he captured luxurious interiors and made portraits of members of the royal family.
The largest studio of the photographer Lala Deen Dayal & Sons operated in Mumbai. Due to strict norms in society, Dayal opened branches that employed exclusively women photographing women for portrait shots. One such branch was run by an Englishwoman, Miss Kenny-Lavik.
Raja Dean Dayal is recognized as the first Indian photographer to achieve international fame. The largest collections of Dayal's work are held at the Indira Gandhi National Art Center (New Delhi) and the Peabody Museum in Essex (Massachusetts, USA).
