Pandit Bapudeva Sastri, Professor of Astronomy, teaching a class at Queen's College, Varanasi (Benares)

Photograph of a class at Queen's College at Varanasi (Benares) in Uttar Pradesh from the Archaeological Survey of India Collections: India Office Series (Volume 46), taken by Brajo Gopal Bromochary in c. 1870. This image shows pupils seated, in front of the college, around Pandit Bapudeva Sastri, Professor of Astronomy, with an armillary sphere and a globe placed in front of the professor. Images like this one were regularly exhibited, at European Universal Exhibitions, alongside examples of scientific equipment used in the classroom. An inscription on the album page reads, "Taken by the photographer in the service of H. Highness the Maharaja of Benares...In the same college in another room, an M.A. class is taught by English professors. Two men have received this years and two last year the M.A. degree from the Calcutta University. After exhibition to be placed at the disposal of H. Exy. the Secy. of State for India."