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Tree Bridge: Bijbehara Bridge, 1870


Came across this image over at ebay. It was getting sold without much detail besides a date. Took sometime to identify the place. But in the end , its distinctive look, trees growing on the bridge, made it easy.
Bijbehara bridge,
1870
Photographer: Unknown. (Probably Bourne)
[Update: Photographer: Francis Frith. An album dating around 1850s to 1870s. via: Victoria and Albert Museum.]

About the Bijbihara Bridge, Pandit Anand Koul in his book ‘Geography of The Jammu and Kashmir State’ (1925)’ given the date of erection of the bridge as 1631 and name of builder as Mughal Prince Dara Shikoh. In additional remarks he states that the bridge was originally a little higher up.

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Biscoe Assemblage, 1934

“Principal Biscoe and his family with senior staff of the school, 1934. Biscoe is seated in the front row, second from left.”
From P. N. Dhar’s autobiographical book, “Indira Gandhi, the “Emergency”, and Indian Democracy. (2009)
Image shared by Rudresh Kaul.
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Kashmir by Modern Painters

Kashmir by B. Prabha (1933 – 2001) 
via: bonhams
Kashmiri Woman by B. Prabha.
via: bonhams

 From ‘Kashmir Series’ by B. Prabha.
via:Sotheby’s
Kashmir by N.S. Bendre (1910-1992)
source: saffronart.com
‘Kashmiri Woodcutter’ by Abdur Rahman Chughtai (Pakistan, 1897–1975)
via: bonhams
Srinagar by Biren De (1926-2011)
Source: techsoftlabs.com
Previously: Srinagar Post Card by Biren De 
‘In the snows of Kashmir’ by G.R. Santosh (1929-1997).
Source: sothebys.com
Kashmir Valley by Syed Haider Raza (India, b.1922)  FOOTNOTES Provenance- Private UK-based collection. Acquired directly from the artist in Bombay in 1951. 

via: bonhams.

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mud, stone, brick and timber house, 1989





Traditional mud, stone, brick and timber houses in Srinagar, Kashmir, 1989.
photo © Randolph Langenbach.


Via: 


T H E     J O U R N A L     O F     T H E  
A S S O C I A T I O N   F O R   
P R E S E R V A T I O N     T E C H N O L O G Y
© APTI, 1989
Bricks, Mortar, and Earthquakes,
Historic Preservation vs. Earthquake Safety
by
Randolph Langenbach 


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Update 8th July, 2017:

Inder Kaw: […]this is very much our house and my father Pt. Hari Krishen Kaw standing at the entrance door after he returned from California in 1988. He is holding a cane and right leg slighted due to his surgery here in San Jose after an accident. In 1990 I met a Cal Berkeley Professor Randolph Langenbach (Also my facebook friend now) in Late Kulbhushan Gupta,s house in Oakland on a Christmas Party. After introduction and pleasantries, he inquired where I originally hailed from. Upon hearing Srinagar, he informed me about his spending two years there as Consultant on environment to Jammu and Kashmir Government and that his speciality was earthquake proof housing. He thought Kasmirian and El-Salvadorian housing were the best earthquake proof housings in the world. He explained something to do with Daji-Deewari, Viram (The long staff) and ductility etc. Upon parting he asked for my address so he would send me his research paper on the subject, he published.Three days later, a tight vanilla envelope arrived by mail and upon pulling the journal slowly from the envelope, the first thing what appeared on the glossy cover of the journal was “American preservation technology journal”, further thrust pulling the magazine out revealed the whole glossy cover page with journal name and this particular picture on the front page. […]


And BTW the house in question has been demolished by people who bought from us and a brand new structure erected taller than 4 stories house we lived in, informs my nephew Avinash Kachroo.


Avinash Kachroo The particular building of the group which formed the original household and works of Pt. Sahajram Kaw’s sons pictured here ceased to stand when I visited the very spot from where the picture was taken, in 2015 – effecting whatever little closure I needed on Kashmir (having born and raised out of Kashmir). The front building long dispossessed still stood, though extremely dilapidated.


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