This article analyzes the photographic illustrations of sculpture and architecture published in texts on Indian art history in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It examines them in terms of prevailing systems of belief concerning visuality, technology, knowledge and power. The author shows that these illustrations provide a window into the struggle and negotiation for power surrounding the production of Indian art history. Historiographically, they refine our understanding of the shift between the Orientalist and Nationalist narratives of Indian art history and the degree to which the two are imbricated.