Description: | Photograph from the Curzon Collection: 'Presented with feelings of friendship and sincere admiration to Lord Curzon of Kedleston, Viceroy and Governor-General of India, by H.H. Rasulkhanji, Navab Junagadha. 1900', of the interior dome of the Swami Narayan Temple at Junagadh, Gujarat, taken by the Solankee Studio, Rajkot, in c.1900. Swami Narayan was an early 19th-century religious reformer later worshipped as an incarnation of the Hindu deity Vishnu. He migrated from Uttar Pradesh to Gadhada in Gujarat, where he became a learned Sanskrit scholar and ascetic. This view shows ornamental and figurative designs decorating the interior dome in concentric rings. The ceiling of the mandapa or hall preceding the sanctuary in a Hindu temple was typically decorated with elaborate compositions featuring flying figures, deities, and sacred narratives. |