Eternal India Encyclopedia

ETERNAL INDIA encyclopedia

A GREAT DESTINATION

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.