Swami Vivekananda as Lala Govinda Sahai · 1890

The Life mentions: “At Jaipur the disciple [perhaps Lala Govinda Sahai whom Swamiji initiated in Rajputana in 1891] insisted on the swami’s 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.”10 Another reference to photo no. 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.