Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India

encyclopedia

MUSEUMS AND ART GALLERIES

ART

A museum is a building used for storing and exhibiting objects

of historical, scientific or cultural interest. Museums existed in

India from earliest times when temples and king's palaces dis-

played works of art, sculpture, paintings, carvings (wood, ivory,

marble etc). Th

e Ramayana

and

Mahabharata

mention Chitrasalas

and Viswakarma Mandirs. Museums evoke people's interest,

supply information, organise exhibitions, have libraries, research

departments and otfer other facilities. The museums can be cate-

gorised into : a) Archaeological ; b) Educational and Science; c)

Industrial and Technological; d) At site of historical or other impor-

tant places; e) Children's museums; f) Notable temple museums; g)

Personal museums; h) Zoological, Botanical, Geological, Health

Sciences

and

Natural

Science

The

following

are

some

the

important

museums

Archaeological Museum, Khajuraho

: The collection consists

of a couple of thousand sculptures and carved stones from Khaju-

raho and the neighbourhood, obtained in the course of clearance of

monuments. The sculptures represent Brahmanical, Buddhist and

Jain faiths. The group of temples at Khajuraho in the Indo-Aryan

styles of architecture, with thousands of sculptures on the walls of

temples occupy a most important place in the artistic history of

northern India.

Archaeological Museum, Nagarjunakonda

Though founded

in 1949, it has grown into a unique museum of its kind, being shifted

from the low depths of the valley, now submerged under water, to a

hilltop amid a recreated environment as in the valley, with the

bathing ghats reaching down to the water's edge. It contains the

priceless relics of sculptural wealth mostly of the Ikshavakus and a

wide miscellany of objects from the oldest days of the stone age to

the late medieval period.

Birla Planetarium, Calcutta

: On view at the Birla Planetarium

are exhibits on astronomy, astrophysics and celestial mechanics.

Salarjung

Museum,

Hyderabad

The

Salarjung

Museum

emerged from the fantastic collection of Nawab Mir Yousuf Ali

Khan Salarjung III, owner of the largest collection in the world. The

salient feature of this internationally famous museum is collections

pertaining to each country are arranged in one or more rooms;

Eastern section includes exquisite collections from China, Japan,

Burma, Egypt, Persia and India. Green celadon of the Ming and

Sung periods, lacquered furniture and bronzes and old ivory carv-

ings, inlaid screens and carved furniture from Niko and glazed

painted pottery from Satsuma highlight Japanese section. Paintings

from Persia preserved in their forceful subtlety and carpets from

Bokhara, Shiraz and Tabriz, Oriental manuscript section containing

the Holy Quran calligraphed by Yaqoot-al-Mostasani and bearing

the seals of Jehangir, Shahjahan and Aurangzeb. Other interesting

sections of the museum are the Indian textiles, bronzes, miniature

paintings, Jade room and a representative Western section the

collections of which include porcelain, Wedgewood pottery and cut

glass items from England, France and Germany. A representative

collection of European paintings, and sculpture including originals of

Lansdeer, Laighton, Canaletto and Chardian; and of marble statues,

the veiled Rebecca by Benzoni, wooden sculpture by an anonymous

Indian sculptor depicting good and evil from Geothe's Faust, and

numerous other items ranging from wall clocks to walking sticks.

Salarjung library has an extensive collection of oriental manuscripts

in Urdu, Arabic and Persian, over 30,000 English volumes cover a

wide range of subjects including museology, art, history, natural

history and aesthetics.

Birla Industrial and Technological Museum, Calcutta :

India’s first public science museum is the Birla Industrial and Tech-

nological Museum, also a constituent unit of the National Council of

Science Museums, under the aegis of the Ministry of Human Re-

sources Development. Initiated by Dr. B.C. Roy who foresaw the

role of such an institution in a developing country, space wa

provided by the pioneer industrialist G.D. Birla who donated his

rambling residence and the museum opened to the public in 1959.

Today the museum displays scientific models, hands-on inter

active exhibits on specific phenomena and models of various indus-

tries. On the ground floor, the Atom Gallery explains what atoms

are, what they are made of, their various properties and their use to

mankind. The Motive Power Gallery systematically presents the

development of power from the earliest times onwards while the

Transport Gallery traces the evolution of the transport system,

culminating with man's momentous footsteps on the moon.

The galleries on the first flopr contain exhibits relating to the

principles of mechanics, sound, optics and modern electronics.

There is a display of the mining of ore to the finished copper and

steel. The Petroleum Gallery portrays aspects like the origin of oil,

surveying, drilling, purification and the uses of petroleum.

On the second floor is the How Things Work Gallery which aims

at inculcating a spirit of enquiry by exhibiting machines and mecha-

nisms encountered in daily life. There are galleries on electricity,

communications, television and electronics. The mock-up Coal

Mine acquaints visitors with an underground mining situation. The

museum also has a small 'animalorium' with live snakes, reptiles,

rabbits, an aviary and aquariums.

Visvesvaraya

Industrial

and

Technological

Museum,

Bangalore

: One of the few museums of its kind in India, the

Visvesvaraya Technological Musem has within its portals various

scientific disciplines. Exhibits are placed behind glass panels, with

buttons which are pressed for the experiments to begin.

The Electrotechnic Gallery has various electrotechnic experi-

ments and the history of the development of telephone technology.

There is also a wall display of lpng distance telephone operations

along with all its essential components. The Timber, paper and

metals Gallery has a life size model of a man and woman tending a

plant. There is a fascinating wall model of the map of India which is

a console with various buttons. Over this are the names of twelve