Rangoon Jail
D.A. Ahuja was a Punjabi photographer based in Rangoon [now Yangon] whose studio was said to have been open through the 1960s. He published a number of Rangoon jail postcards, not a typical subject for the medium.
D. A. Ahuja
D. A. Ahuja, a Punjabi photographer settled in Rangoon (Yangon) was the major postcard publisher in Burma (Myanmar). The firm published a distinctive series of colour postcards, both from its own work and likely from other photographers, including Beato and P. Klier, possibly without permission of those photographers (he was sued by the latter at least once for using images without permission). Nevertheless, Ahuja's postcards provide exceptionally broad and interesting views of this former colony, and covers select locations in British India. The firm is said to have lasted well into the 1960s.
Rangoon Jail - Prisoners waiting for breakfast
Ahuja's colorful halftones with inscribed titles are distinctive. His postcards covered not only Burma, but many of the Indian singers and others settled in this British colony loosely attached to the Raj, as well as Indian cities like Amritsar.
Calcutta - Grand Hotel - Chowringhee
"Vast indeed have been the changes that have occurred in Calcutta during the past few decades," writes Allister Macmillan in Seaports of India and Ceylon, "but none has been more remarkable than that represented by the Grand Hotel, which occupies an
The Sampan Pagoda - Shwegyeen
The significance of Buddhism in Burma [Myanmar] reflected in a landscape dotted with pagodas. Shwegyin is close to the Indian border on the western side of Myanmar.
Burmese Snake Charmers
While postcards of snake charmers were common in India, one of the more striking such views might be this one from Ahuja's studio in Rangoon, Burma. While one man touches a snake, the other uses not a flute but cymbals to manage the snakes.
Rukmoni - The Famous Madras Beauty - Rangoon
To be a named "beauty" on a postcard was quite an honor at the turn of the century. Rukmoni is shown here in a studio with colorized backdrop.
The Ruling Princes of India
A collage which would have been assembled from a variety of photographs, not a single sitting. In the bottom center with the black jacket is the Nawab of Hyderabad, the richest of them all.
Punjab Rose
An impressive studio shot that lays bare the artifice used to make these images work: the painted backdrop with visible border, the matching design shoes and carpet, the desk or piano the woman's arm is resting on, surrounded by an oval frame common
Rangoon Jail - Prisoners carrying out their breakfast
D. A. Ahuja published a number of postcards of Rangoon jail, including the scene just before this one, while they are waiting for their breakfasts. According to one account of the Burmese prison system, "The annual reports on the prison
Bengal Beauty
A classic late 19th century pose, with a three-legged Victorian table, books for the woman to rest her arm on, and painted studio backdrop.
