Engraved by W. J. Cooke and Drawn by W. Purser.

London: London Printing and Publishing Co., 1858. Steel Engraving, Size: 260x200 mm.

Twenty kilometers north of Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh and on the banks of river Tapti is the Kings Fort popularly known as the Asirgarh Fort. This fortress commands a pass through the Satpura range connecting the valleys of Narbada and Tapti strategically located on the most important route from North India to Deccan. It was the key to the Deccan, he who controlled Asirgarh controlled the Deccan.

The region was called Khandesh, Burhanpur was its capital and Raja Ali Khan its Muslim ruler. Raja Ali Khan built the upper part of the fort and the Jama Masjid inside it. He built various other monuments in Burhanpur. Burhanpur derives its name from the well known Sufi Saint Burhan-ud-din in whose memory a grand mausoleum was raised eclipsing the imperial sepulcher of Aurangzeb in Rauza. It has a large quadrangular courtyard having open fronted buildings on all sides. The tomb of a holy person is called a ‘Dargah’. This dargah lies facing the main entrance built in white marble with metal plated doors having trees and flowers engraved on it. Numerous devotees throng to this dargah. The sarcophagus has a green velvet canopy over it (green is the sacred colour and may be used only for the descendents of the prophet or the pious who have made the pilgrimage to Mecca). The precincts of the building house the devout muslims who are in daily attendance at the tomb. Upon great occasions large drums are beaten by the faithful and the Sufi singers sing in praise of the saint.

Sketched by Capt. R. Elliot.

Hildburghausen: The Bibliograph Institute, 1850. Steel Engraving, Size: 180x270 mm.

The tomb of Mohammed Adil Shah, the most popular monarch of the Adil Shahi dynasty is popularly known as the Gol Gumbaz. The meaning of Gol Gumbaz is the round dome and it is the second largest dome ever built, being second only to Saint Peters basilica in Rome. Mohammed Shah was crowned at an early age of sixteen and he was fortunate to have inherited a large treasury, a flourishing country and a well appointed army.
The monarch was considered to be wise, just and had an amiable character. His taste for splendor and personal fame made him launch this massive project of constructing a monument surpassing all others in the vicinity. He assigned the renowned architect Yaqut to design the most outstanding building in Bijapur. The tomb is raised upon a terrace of granite two hundred yards square; below are many gloomy chambers, now almost choked up with rubbish, but the quadrangle in front of the main building is well kept and adorned with fountains.

Engraved by E. Finden and Drawn by W. Purser.

Steel Engraving, Size: 260x200 mm.

Bijapur is located in the modern-day state of Karnataka in the south of India. The city was established by Chalukyan dynasty of Kalyani between the 10th and 11th centuries and originally named Vijayapura or the ‘City of Victory’. From 1489 until 1686 it was the capital of the Adil Shahi sultanate, a period of great prosperity when many splendid mosques and tombs were constructed. The golden age of Bijapur ended with its conquest by the last great Mughal ruler Aurangzeb. After this time the town declined so that it now occupies less than half the area it once did however it still boasts over 50 mosques, 20 tombs and a number of palaces.

Engraved by W. Finden, Drawn by W. Purser and Sketched by Capt. R. Elliot.

London: Fisher, Son, and Jackson, 1832. Steel Engraving, Size: 180x270 mm.

Bijapur city is well known for the great architectures of histrorical importance built during the Adil Shahi dynasty. The city established in the 10th-11th centuries by the Chalukyas of Kalyani was referred as Vijayapura (City of victory). The city came under the influence of the Khilji Sultanate in Delhi by the late 13th century. In 1347, the area was conquered by the Bahmani Sultanate of Gulbarga. By this time, the city was being referred as Vijapur or Bijapur. Bijapur is rich in historical attractions, mainly related to Islamic architecture. Among the other historical attractions at Bijapur, some notable ones are the Anand Mahal, Jod Gumbaz, Jumma Mosque, Sat Manzil, and Jal Manzil. Sat Manzil (Seven-storied palace) is near the Citadel. Sat Manzil or the seven-storeyed tower near the Gagan Mahal is now mostly in ruins. Originally the structure was a watchtower overlooking the bastions, the moat girdling, and the ramparts of the citadel.

Engraved by permission of Capt. Grindlay, from his large Quarto Work coloured, Drawan by W. Purser and Sketched by T. Higham.

London: Fisher Son & Co., 1837. Steel Engraving, Size: 180x270 mm.

These tombs are situated about two kilometres from the Golconda Fort in the present state of Andhra Pradesh. "Amidst beautifully laid out gardens of Ibrahim Bagh there are seven tombs, erected in memory of the departed kings of Golconda. Almost every tomb has a mosque adjacent to it," wrote Grindlay. The grandest of these mosques was the one next to the mausoleum of Hayat Bakshi Begum, the daughter of Muhammad Quli Qutub Shah, which was built in 1666.

Engraved by W. Brandard and Drawn by W. Purser.

Steel Engraving, Size: 180x270 mm.

This place is situate about 20 miles from Agra, and was the favorite palace of the Mogul Emperors. The gateway represented in the plate is considered the most beautiful of its kind in any part of the world. Here a body of the Sepoy Mutineers were defeated by Colonel Cotton on the 28th October 1857.

Fatehpur Sikri is a city and a municipal board in Agra district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Built near the much older city of Sikri, the historical city of Bharat was first named Sikrigarh, was constructed by Sikriwal Rajput Raja's last Emperor Maharana Sangram Singh beginning in 1500. At the seventh attack by Akbar, Sikriwal Rajput left the Palace, and Sikrigarh was named Fatehpur Sikri. There was a temple of Sikriwal Rajputs Kuldevi in front of Lal Darwaja of Sikrigarh. After Akbar's victory, Sikrigarh served as the capital from 1571 to 1585.[1] He was named Salim to honour the saint and would later rule the empire as Emperor Jahangir. Here after the second birthday of Jahangir in 1571, Akbar then 28 years old, decided to shift his capital from Agra to the Sikri ridge, to honor Salim Chishti, and commenced the construction of a planned walled city which took the next fifteen years in planning and construction of a series royal palaces, harem, courts, a mosque, private quarters and other utility buildings. He named the city, Fatehabad, with Fateh, a word of Arabic origin in Persian, meaning "victory", it was later called Fatehpur Sikri. It is at Fatehpur Sikri that the legends of Akbar and his famed courtiers, the nine jewels or Navaratnas, were born . One of them, musician and singer Tansen is said to have performed on an island in the middle of the pool Anup Talao. Built during the 16th century, the Fatehpur Sikri is one of the best preserved collection of Mughal architecture in India.

Engraved by E. Redclyffe and Drawn by T. Allom.

London: James S. Virtue, 1845. Steel Engraving, Size: 180x270 mm.

Esplanade is an area in central Kolkata, earlier known as Calcutta, in the Indian state of West Bengal. This is not a conventional esplanade in the sense that the place is not exactly situated alongside a waterbody. However, the river Ganges, also known as the Ganga or the Hooghly, is located nearby. This esplanade is located in the heart of the city and is one of the busiest portions.
The Esplanade was the name given to the northern portion of jungle, which later formed the Maidan. In olden days, it stretched from Dhurmotollah (now Lenin Sarani) to Chandpal Ghat on the Hooghly River. In the days of Warren Hastings, it formed a favourite promenade for ‘elegant walking parties’. The five principal streets of Kolkata abutted on it, says Sophia Goldborne, who wrote in 1780. Both Daniell and William Baillie give a picture of Esplanade as it appeared in the closing years of the eighteenth century. The old Government House and the Council House are conspicuous objects in each drawing. Danielle presents an unfamiliar addition view in the shape of two elephants with a crowd of attendants. Bourne & Shepherd, photographic studio was established here in 1867 by British photographers, Samuel Bourne and Charles Shepherd, and still exist here.
The strengthening of British power, subsequent to their victory in the Battle of Plassey was followed by the construction of the new Fort William, in 1758. The European inhabitants of Kalikata gradually forsook the narrow limits of the old palisades and moved to around the Maidan.

London: The London Printing and Publishing Company Limited, 1858. Steel Engraving, Size: 180x270 mm.

Delhi officially the National Capital Territory  that includes the Indian capital New Delhi, stands on the Yamuna River in northern India. It is the second most populous metropolis in India after Mumbai.
The area around Delhi was probably inhabited before the second millennium BC, and there is evidence of continuous inhabitation since at least the 6th century BC. The city is believed to be the site of Indraprastha, the legendary capital of the Pandavas in the Indian epic Mahabharata. The earliest architectural relics date back to the Maurya period (c. 300 BC); in 1966, an inscription of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka (273-236 BC) was discovered near Srinivaspur. Remains of eight major cities have been discovered in Delhi. The first five cities were in the southern part of present-day Delhi. Anang Pal of the Tomara dynasty founded the city of Lal Kot in AD 736. The Chauhans conquered Lal Kot in 1180 and renamed it Qila Rai Pithora. The iron pillar of Delhi, is said to have been fashioned at the time of Chandragupta Vikramaditya (375–413) of the Gupta Empire.
The Chauhan king Prithviraj III was defeated in 1192 by the Afghan invader Muhammad Ghori who made a concerted effort to conquer northern India. By 1200, Hindu resistance had begun to crumble. Muslim dominance in India was to last for the next six centuries. On the death of Muhammad in 1206, the Turkic slave-general, Qutb-ud-din Aibak, broke away from the Ghurid Dynasty and became the first Sultan of Delhi. He began construction of the Qutb Minar and Quwwat-al-Islam (might of Islam) mosque, the earliest extant mosque in India. Qutb-ud-din faced widespread Hindu rebellions and it was his successor, Iltutmish (1211-36), who consolidated the Muslim conquest of northern India.

London: Printing and Publishing Company, 1859. Steel Engraving, Size: 180x270 mm.

This Palace was built by the Emperor Akbar in the middle of the sixteenth century.

London: The London Printing and Publishing Co. Ltd., 1860. Steel Engraving Size: 180x270 mm.