Photograph 1(Kolkata 1885)

1885-The best descriptions of Swamiji around this time have been given by his master, Sri Ramakrishna. On a certain occasion the Master said to the disciples present, pointing to Narendranath, Behold! Here is Naren. See! See! Oh what power of insight he has! It is like the shore less sea of radiant knowledge! The Mother, Mahamaya Herself, cannot approach within less than ten feet of him! She is barred by the very glory which She has imparted to him!

Photograph 2 (Kolkata 1886)

Sri Ramakrishna once said of Swamiji: He is a burning, roaring fire consuming all impurities to ashes. COSSIPORE GARDEN HOUSE, 1886 Photograph 3

Judging from Swamijis appearance, this photo seems to have been taken around the same time as the two following photographs, 4 and 5. Shortly before Sri Ramakrishna gave up his body at Cossipore, Swamiji had an exalted spiritual experience there. Seeing him Sri Ramakrishna said: Now then, the Mother has shown you everything. Just as a treasure is locked up in a box, so will this realization you have just had be locked up and the key shall remain with me. You have work to do. When you have finished my work, the treasure box will be unlocked again; and you will know everything then, as you did just now.

COSSIPORE GARDEN HOUSE, AUGUST 16, 1886 Photograph 4

1. Atul 2. Amrita 3. Vaikuntha Sannyal 4. Bhavanath Chatterjee 5. Baburam (Swami Premananda) 6. Narendra (Swami Vivekananda) 7. Ram Chandra Datta 8. Gopal Ghosh (Swami Advaitananda) 9. Sharat (Swami Saradananda) 10. Balaram Bose 11. Latu (Swami Adbhutananda) 12. Shashi (Swami Ramakrishnananda) 13. Rakhal (Swami Brahmananda) 14. Nityagopal 15. Yogindra (Swami Yogananda) 16. Devendra Nath Mazumdar 17. Tarak (Swami Shivananda) 18. Young Gopal 19. Nitya Niranjan (Swami Niranjanananda) 20. Narayan 21. Manilal Mallick 22. Fakir 23. Surendra 24. Bhupati 25. Harish 26. Girindra 27. Vinod 28. M. (Mahendra Nath Gupta) 29. Kali (Swami Abhedananda) 30. Navagopal Ghosh 31. Gangadhar (Swami Akhandananda) 32. Mahimacharan 33. Manomohan Mitra. The pictures [4 and 5] show the following: . . . There are at the four corners of the cot [cot not shown] upright members for supporting a mosquito curtain. The top and bottom uprights of the cots left side are tied with garlands. Part of the Cossipore garden house is shown behind. A pile of bedding (possibly bedding used by Ramakrishna, set out to sun) can be seen on the left. More than fifty people - devotees and friends -are seen in the

picture, ranged behind the cot. About half of these people have been identified. Balaram Basu is seen holding a staff with a symbol on the top of it. Chakrabarty identifies this as a symbol of the harmony of religions. In the symbol the trident of the Shaivites, the Om of the Advaitists, the kanthi (a hand holding a necklace of tulsi beads) of the Vaishnavas, the half?moon of the Muslims, and the cross of the Christians are seen. [This symbol seems to have been drawn on the top of one of the posts of the cot that Balaram Bose is holding on to.] The two photos are similar except that some of the devotees have changed their positions; and in one Narendra is wearing a chaddar over the upper part of his body, while in the other [# 4] he is bare from the waist up. . . . [After the Master entered mahasamadhi] the news had spread all over Calcutta and people came in large numbers to have a last look at the Masters form. It was hoped by some that the Master was not dead but only in an unusually deep samadhi. At about noon Dr. Mahendralal Sarkar, who had been attending Sri Ramakrishna, arrived. He examined the body and said that life had departed only half an hour before. Dr. Sarkars opinion was accepted as final. Swami Vidyatmananda of Gretz copied the following excerpt from Dr. Sarkars handwritten diary, which had been in the possession of the late Swami Advayananda, Advaita Ashrama: Monday, August 16, 1886: His disciples, some at least, were under the impression that he was in samadhi, not dead. I dispelled this impression. I asked them to have his photograph taken and gave them Rs. 10/ as my contribution. Afterwards about 5:00 p.m. when Sri Ramakrishna had been dressed in an ochre cloth and decorated with sandal paste and flowers, the photographs were taken. Swami Abhedananda gave the following account of the incident: Gradually the news of the Masters passing away spread and people began to flock to the Cossipore garden house. At 10:00 a.m. Dr. Mahendralal Sarkar came. He checked the Masters pulse and examined him carefully. Then he declared that the Master had breathed his last a half hour earlier. . . . Listening to the doctors report, we lost all hope. Arrangements were then made for cremation of the Masters divine body. Dr. Sarkar gave ten rupees so a photograph could be taken and then left with a heavy heart. At that time we all felt completely helpless. We felt that our entire source of strength and hope had gone. We thought: Now what shall we do? On whom shall we depend? And how shall we pass our days? . . . The Bengal Photographers Studio was called to take photographs of the Masters mahasamadhi. Sri Ramakrishnas body was placed on a cot which was decorated all over with flowers. Then the Masters body was adorned with sandal paste on his face and garlands around his neck. Ram Datta stood in front of the cot and asked Narendra to stand by his side. The rest of us stood silently behind on the staircase. The Bengal Photographers took two group photographs. COSSIPORE GARDEN HOUSE, AUGUST 16, 1886 Photograph 5

See photo information under photograph 4. BARANAGORE MATH, JANUARY 30, 1887

Photograph 6

A Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna was published by the San Francisco Vedanta Society in 1912 under Swami Trigunatitas direction. A quaint variation of this Baranagore Math photograph was printed in the 1912 edition of the Gospel. Perhaps Swami Trigunatita, not wanting to offend Western sensibilities, had this photo reproduced with the monks and devotees fully clothed. On a photo removed from one of the Gospels, Swami Trigunatita made the following identification in his own handwriting: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Our King -Swamiji Niranjanananda Saradananda Ramakrishnananda Abhedananda ( Hootka) Gopal* Sivananda 'M'-author Devan H. Mastafi our cook* Swami Trigunatita -the servant of all.

* in some publications (Hootka) Gopal has often been misidentified as Swami Brahmananda and the cook as Swami Premananda. In one of his articles on the Baranagore Math, Swami Prabhananda of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math, said, A group photo of the monks and a few householder devotees, taken on 30 January 1887 shows some of them wearing only a loin cloth and others wearing ochre cloth. The following incident has been recorded about this photograph. After the Masters death Devendra [Devendra Nath Mazumdar] visited from time to time the Baranagore monastery and the Kankurgachi Yogodyana. Once when Devendra was at the monastery with his uncle [H. Mastafi], Swami Vivekananda asked him to become a monk. Devendra replied that Sri Ramakrishna had told him to lead the life of a householder. Swamiji himself then dressed Devendra in the ochre cloth of a monk, and a group photo was taken at the monastery. Devendra felt such intense renunciation that day that he told his uncle he would not return home. Only after much persuasion did Devendra finally consent to go back with his uncle, but his dispassionate mood continued for a month. Devendra later acknowledged that it was because of Swamijis power that he had felt that way. JAIPUR, 1891 (probably)

Photograph 7 Photos 7 and 8 were probably taken on the same day in Jaipur, 1891. The Lifementions: At Jaipur the disciple [perhaps Lala Govinda Sahai whom Swamiji initiated in Rajputana in 1891] insisted on the swamis posing for a photograph. The swami, much against his wishes, finally consented. This was the first time that a photo of him as a wandering monk was taken. Another reference to photo # 7 having been taken in Jaipur appears in Swami Vivekananda: A Forgotten Chapter of His Life, by Beni Shankar Sharma: Furthermore, very few people know that the turban that the swami always wore . . . was worn at the suggestion of Ajit Singh [the Maharaja of Khetri]. Swami Vivekananda being a Bengali did not wear a turban, or any headgear, and in the first of his photographs, which was taken at Jaipur at the request of his Alwar friends in 1891, before he met the Maharaja of Khetri, we find him without his now inseparable turban. It was after his meeting with the Maharaja and his visit to Khetri that we find him with his characteristic turban. When Swami Vivekananda visited Khetri as Vividishananda for the first time, it was summer and the loo, or hot winds of Rajasthan, during this period are well?known. Besides, from Swamijis letters, we find that he was mortally afraid of the loo. When the Maharaja saw his discomfort, he advised him to wear a turban, just as he himself and all the people of the locality wore, to save himself from the loo, a suggestion which the swami readily accepted. The Maharaja in fact himself taught him how to wind the turban. In all the subsequent photos of Swamiji during his wandering days he is, in fact, pictured wearing a turban. These photos (# 7 and 8) have sometimes been identified as having been taken in various places other than Jaipur such as Trivandrum, Bangalore, or Mysore, 1892, and sometimes as Chennai, 1893. Photo 7 appears as the frontispiece in the 1901 edition of Inspired Talks published in Mylapore, Chennai, during Swami Ramakrishnanandas stay in Chennai. It bears the caption: From a photograph taken just before leaving Madras for the Parliament of Religions at Chicago, showing the swami in the orange robe and with the shaven head of the sannyasin. It is not known where this information originated. Some are of the opinion that the photo was taken in Chennai simply because it appeared in a book which was published during Swami Ramakrishnanandas time. It should be noted, however, that Swami Ramakrishnananda was not in Chennai in 1893 when Swamiji was there, but was sent there after Swamiji returned from the West the first time in 1897. Another reference to the possibility of this photo having been taken in Chennai can be found in the reminiscences of A. Srinivas Pai, who was a student in the Presidency College, Chennai, in 1893. He mentions: The bare?hea ded photographs in the book, Swami Vivekanandas Speeches and Writings, published by Messrs. G. A. Natesan & Co. give a good idea of the appearance of the swami. But no photograph or description can give a correct idea of the power of his eyes. They were wonderful. Like the Ancient Mariner in Coleridges famous poem he held you by the eye. This is one of the photographs that appears in that book. Clearly there are diverse interpretations as to where these photos (7 and 8) were taken. JAIPUR, 1891 (probably) Photograph 8

See photo information under photograph 7. BELGAUM, OCTOBER 1892 Photograph 9 Haripada Mitra was one of Swamiji's hosts while he was staying in Belgaum in 1892. In his reminiscences, he recalled his first impression of Swamiji when he was told: Here is a learned Bengali sannyasin who has come to meet you. I turned back and found a serene figure with his eyes flashing like lightning and a face clean shaven. His body was covered with an ochre robe, in [on] his feet he had strapped sandals of the Maharashtrian type; and on his head was an ochre turban. The figure was so impressive that it is still vivid in my memory. Haripada convinced Swamiji to accept both him and his wife as disciples. In his reminiscences, he remarked further: I had a desire to have his photograph. He would not agree. I persisted, and after a long drawn tussle, he gave his consent and a photograph was taken on the 28th. [This photo was taken prior to the twenty-eighth, since Swamiji is reported to have left Belgaum on the twenty-seventh.] As Swamiji had not agreed to be photographed on an earlier occasion, in spite of the earnest request of another gentleman, I had to send two copies of this one to him on request. Another source states: The small wooden stand that can be seen at the left corner is still preserved at the studio. The name of the studio was S. Mahadev & Son and the photograph was taken by one Govinda Shrinivas Welling (d. 1926). The studio still exists (Welling Camera Works, Welling House, B.C. 86, Belgaum Cantt. 590-001), but is no more in

business, having closed down in 1970. Another reference that certainly seems to apply to this photo is given in Sailendra Nath Dhars biography on

Swamiji. Around this time Mahendra Nath Datta, Swamijis brother, received a photograph in the mail from someone who preferred to remain anonymous, but who had obviously been directed by Swamiji to send it. Dhar says: The photo was of the swami dressed in a long coat reaching up to his knees and stuffed with cotton which made them happy specially because it showed that he had improved in health. This photograph is the only one taken during Swamijis wanderings that fits this unique description. While in Belgaum, Swamiji met one Dr. V. V. Shirgaonkar and expressed to him his wish to visit some seminaries in Goa so that he might study Christian theology from some old Latin manuscripts. Swamiji then proceeded to Margaon in Goa. Dr. Shirgaonkar contacted his friend Subrai Naik in Margaon, requesting him to assist Swamiji. Naik warmly welcomed Swamiji, helped him to visit one of the oldest Catholic seminaries, which was about four miles from Margaon, and also took him into his own home and accommodated him in a room adjoining the temple of Damodarji, his family deity. The room, together with whatever furniture Swamiji used, has been preserved to this day as a memorial to his visit. Before Swamijis departure Naik asked him for his photograph. The photograph presented to him by Swamiji has also been preserved by the descendants of Naik. The photograph that Swamiji gave Naik is most likely this one which was taken in Belgaum. TRIVANDRUM, DECEMBER 1892 Photograph 10 This photo was taken by Prince Martanda Varma of Travancore. K. Sundararama Iyer, the tutor of Prince Martanda Varma (the first prince of Travancore), remarked in his reminiscences: The Prince was struck, like all others who had come into contact with him, with the swamis striking figure and attractive features; and being an amateur photographer, asked the swami for a sitting and took a fine photograph which he skillfully developed into an impressive picture and later on sent as an interesting exhibit to the next Fine Arts Exhibition held in the Chennai Museum.