Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

ART

MUSEUMS AND ART GALLERIES

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 1 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

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 of 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