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A GREAT DESTINATION
ETERNAL
INDIA
encyclopedia
NATIONAL MUSEUMS
“From the old records of the society
we gather that the Indian Museum of
Calcutta which came into being by the
Act of 1866 thrived rapidly under Dr.
Wallich who was appointed Honorary
curator or Superintendent of the Orien-
tal Museum of the Asiatic Society,
which in its wake laid the solid founda-
tion of a new branch of knowledge in
India viz Museology. Thus the Asiatic
Society founded by Sir William Jones
opened up for the people of India a new
chapter in the science of man — that of
Museology”.
--
'The Asiatic Society'
by Moni Bagchee
There are 152 museums and art galleries in India. In 1956 there
were only 80. There are museums in almost every important city.
There are national museums under the Central Government at
Delhi, Calcutta and Hyderabad. There are some on-site museums
managed by the Archaeological Survey of India. Besides, almost
every state has at least one leading museum which highlights re-
gional or local artefacts. There are university museums, a few
municipal museums and some museums run by learned societies. A
recent trend is the growing number of museums of science, espe-
cially of technology and applied sciences.
The National Museum in New Delhi was opened in 1949. It has
a fine collection of antiquities from the pre-historic Indus Valley
Civilisation excavated at Harappa, Mohenjo Daro and a few other
sites in the Indus Valley. These include the bronze dancing girl of
Mohenjo Daro, small stone torsos from Harappa, small animals in
cast bronze and terracotta, wheeled carts and toys and exquisitely
carved seals. The museum contains sculptures of the early and
medieval periods pertaining to three religions of India - Hinduism,
Buddhism and Jainism. A room is devoted to Indian miniature
paintings with a collection of paintings of all the Indian schools.
The Indian Museum in Calcutta, the earliest and the largest
multipurpose museum in India, was opened in 1878 at its present
building by the transfer of the collection of the museum of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal. The museum was actually proposed by
Dr. Nathaniel Wallich, Danish botanist and founded at the Asiatic
Society of Bengal in 1814. The museum has six sections on
Archaeology, Art, Anthropology, Zoology, Economic Botany and
Geology.
The Archaeology section has a large and representative collec-
tion of antiquities illustrating the cultural history of India from pre-
historic times down to the Muslim period. The Bharhut and Gand-
hara galleries contain specimens of Indian art from the 2nd century
A.D. The coin section of the museum contains the largest collection
of Indian coins in the world and also a fine collection of gems and
jewellery. The art section has a very good section of Indian textiles,
carpets, wood, papier mache and lacquer work, objects in metal,
ivory and horn, stone and glass, and pottery. The painting gallery
contains Persian and Indian paintings and a collection of Tibetan
thankas
or scroll paintings done on cotton which are hung in temples
and monasteries.
The Anthropology section of the Indian museum has been or-
ganised with dioramas and artefacts illustrating the life and habits
of a few selected Indian tribes — the Onges of the little Andaman
Islands, the Chenchus of Andhra Pradesh, the Kanikkars and Uralis
of Kerala, the Bihors and Santals of Bihar, the Riangs of Tripura,
the Garos and Khasis of Meghalaya, the Angami Nagas of
Nagaland, the Adis of Arunachal Pradesh and Nicobarese of the
Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal. The Economic Botany
section displays 15,000 plant and plant products of India. In the
medicinal plant section more than 1400 exhibits have been alpha-
betically displayed.
The Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, has copies of the mas-
terpieces in the Ajanta caves with which the history of Indian
painting began centuries before the Christian era. The artists
painted Buddhist myth and legend with consummate skill. This
museum has also a collection of miniature paintings from the 11th
tp the 19th centuries.
The Government Museum in Madras on Pantheon Road started
functioning in 1854 when the collection of the Madras Literary
Society and the Royal Asiatic Society were moved there from Fort
St. George where a museum has been functioning since 1851. The
sculpture gallery contains Hindu, Buddhist and Jain sculptures from
the Tamil, Telugu and Kannada regions. The most important is the
collection of sculpture from the Buddhist site of Amravati belonging
to the first century B.C. In the gallery devoted to metal work are to
be found South Indian lamps, objects connected with household and
temple worship and images in bronze among which is the famous
Nataraja from Tiruvelangadu.
The Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum at the city palace,
Jaipur has the finest collection of old arms and armour in India
In the on-site archaeological museum at Saranath, four miles
north of Banaras, is preserved the famous Lion Capital of Asoka
which has been adopted in the crest of the Republic of India, the
statue of the preaching Buddha of the Gupta period besides other
fine Buddha images of the Mathura School.
The Nalanda Museum, an on-site museum, opened in 1917,
houses antiquities recovered from excavations at the site of the
famous ancient Buddhist University at Nalanda and comprises
bronze and stone images, terracotta figurines and plaques, pottery
and miscellaneous iron and bronze objects.