We cannot be sure where our story begins, since it is likely that the earliest Indian devotional prints have not survived.

During the early 1800’s several book publishers set up small presses in the North Calcutta neighborhood of Battala.  By the mid 1800’s Battala was a center for Bengali presses, and for the woodblock engravers whose engravings illustrated Battala books.  By the 1840’s several Battala engravers began to make large prints of Hindu gods and goddesses.  We know that one of these prints, in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, was brought to England in 1847.  These may be India’s earliest devotional prints.

In the South Calcutta neighborhood of Kalighat, a new temple, dedicated to the goddess Kali, was completed in 1809.  As the Kalighat Kali temple became a major pilgrimage site, local artists made watercolors of Hindu gods and goddesses to sell near the temple.  By the 1850’s many Kalighat paintings were painted over lithographed outlines.  These outlines, meant to provide a guide for the painter, were printed in lines so thin and faint that they largely disappeared in the process of painting.

Becharam Das Dutta, an exceptional artist, took a different approach by giving primary importance to his lithographed drawings, and secondary importance to their coloring.  Though these works, from the late 1850’s and early 1860’s, have always been classified as Kalighat paintings, they are, at the same time, India’s earliest hand-colored lithographs (one can be seen on this website).

Lithography eventually became the main technique used to produce Hindu devotional images.  Early lithographs, of the 1870’s, were printed in black, and highlights in one or two colors were added by hand.  Hand-coloring became very sophisticated by the early 1880’s, and color lithographs, printed from a succession of litho stones, each inked in a different color, appeared by the late 1880’s.

Few early Indian devotional prints have survived, due to acidic paper, India’s extreme humidity, and a general lack of care.  We have assembled an important collection of the earliest examples.  We are happy to have had the opportunity to also put together substantial collections of early Hindu god and goddess prints for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.  Prints from our collection have also been acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, British Museum, and many other public collections.

In an effort to bring greater awareness to this genre of Indian art, we are very happy to have worked with author Richard Davis on the book Gods in Print, with the International Print Center and the Davis Museum, at Wellesley, on the exhibition Seeing God in Prints, and with filmmaker Rachel Fedde, whose award-winning documentary Five Faces of Shiva explores the history of Indian’s Hindu god and goddess prints.

Most important, we hope these prints will bring the same joy to you that they have brought to us.