[5] Having inherited the title as the head of the Majitha family, he traveled to England in 1896, and again in 1897 to attend the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

[4] After his marriage to the Hungarian opera singer, Marie Antoinette Gottesman-Baktay, the subjects of his photographic works were largely his family – his wife and two daughters, and his own self portraits.

[9] He produced hundreds of photographs of his family which were intentionally staged mise-en-scène, a format that he pioneered, with his home as the backdrop.

[4][12] Gil experimented with various toning methods and left behind over 3,000 prints and negatives, including over 80 self-portraits, chronicling life across Europe and India in the early part of the twentieth century.

The manuscript was published by the Bibliothèque nationale de France in 1930 in Paris, where he had then relocated his family for his daughters to study in the city.

[13] Gil was considered a reclusive, but he maintained detailed diaries and records of letters, some of which have him writing about his written manuscripts of philosophical scriptures including the Mandukya Upanishad, both for his self-study and for his friends readings.

[2] In addition to photography and philosophy, Gil had varied interests including astronomy, carpentry, calligraphy, and yoga.

[4] An article in The New York Times many years after his death, called him "an eccentric polymath with a fondness for (and a startling resemblance to) Tolstoy".

[20] Gil met Marie Antoinette Gottesman-Baktay, a Hungarian Opera singer in 1911, when she was visiting Punjab accompanying Princess Bamba Sutherland.