India, March 19 -- One gets a feeling of travelling back in time. The image is familiar, yet it is not, for it has been stripped of any appearance of modernity, including the chaos that becomes normal when there is an abundance of human population. An elephant cart pulling a load next to the footsteps of Delhi's Jama Masjid has the possibility of holding the viewer enthralled. Then there are the chariots of Mahabalipuram, no longer placed within the sanitised surroundings of today but rather appearing to be straight out of Mowgli's world akin to the old, abandoned palace inhabited by King Louie.

The 144 prints by Thomas and William Daniel, which featured in the six volumes of Oriental Scenery published between 1795 and 1808, occupy the t...