Government Museum, Chennai

The Government Museum or Madras Museum is a museum of human history and culture located in the neighbourhood of Egmore in Chennai, India. Started in 1851, it is the second oldest museum in India after the Indian Museum in Kolkata. It is particularly rich in archaeological and numismatic collections. It has the largest collection of Roman antiquities outside Europe. Among them, the colossal Museum Theatre is one of the most impressive.The National Art Gallery is also present in the museum premises. Built in Indo-Saracenic style, it houses rare works of artists like Raja Ravi Varma.

Location

The museum is located in what is known as the Pantheon complex, or "public assembly rooms." It is located on the Pantheon Road in Egmore. The road on which the museum is located too takes its name from the complex.

History

In August 1778, the governor of Madras granted 43 acres for an estate to a civil servant, who, subsequently in 1793, assigned the grounds to a committee of 24 which then regulated the public amusements in the city. In 1821, the committee sold the main house and central garden space to E. S. Moorat, an Armenian merchant who, in turn, sold it back to the government in 1830. The government first used the buildings and the grounds as the collector's "Cutcherry" and later for the "Central Museum." The museum was originally established in a building on College Road in Nungambakkam in the year 1851 and was shifted to the present site in 1854.

Egmore

Egmore (Tamil: எழும்பூர்) is a neighbourhood of Chennai, India. Situated on the northern banks of the Coovum River, Egmore is an important residential area as well as a commercial and transportation hub. The Egmore Railway Station was the main terminus of the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway and later, the metre gauge section of the Southern division of the Indian Railways. It continues to be an important railway junction. The Government Museum, Chennai is also situated in Egmore. Other important institutions based in Egmore include the Government Women and Children's Hospital, the Tamil Nadu State Archives and the Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department. The Wesley Church, Egmore is the oldest church of the region.

History

The earliest references to Egmore occur in the inscriptions of the Chola king Kulothunga I.Under the Chola Empire, Egmore was the headquarters of an administrative division or Nadu called Elumbur Nadu. An inscription of the Nellore Chola king Vijaya Kanda Gopal dated 2 September 1264 speaks of a village in Elumur-Tudarmuni Nadu in Pulal Kottam. A Vijayanagar period inscription of Sriranganatha Yadavaraya records an endowment to a monastery in Thiruvottriyur by a resident of Serruppedu (identified with the present day Chetpet) in Elumur-Tudarmuni Nadu.

Egmore (State Assembly Constituency)

Egmore (SC) is the legislative assembly, that includes the locality, Egmore, which is in Chennai. This seat is reserved for scheduled caste. Egmore assembly constituency was part of Chennai Central (Lok Sabha constituency). This district, has been a stronghold for the DMK, since the formation of the party, winning every election except the 1962 election, when Anbazhagan of DMK lost to Jothi Venkatachalam, by 1617 votes (2.66%).

Madras State

Tamil Nadu

References