Government Museum, Chennai

Government Museum, Chennai
Introduction :
The Government Museum, Chennai, or the Madras Museum, is a museum of
human history and culture located in the Government Museum Complex 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 European and
Asian painting of renowned artists, including that of Raja Ravi Varma. It had 0.6
million visitors in 2018. It has the richest collections of bronze idols, 500 of them
dating to 1000 BCE, in Asia.
History :
The proposal for a Museum in Madras was mooted by the Madras Literary
Society in 1846 AD and Sir Henry Pottinger, the then Governor, obtained the
sanction of the Court of Directors of the East India Company in London.
In January 1851 AD, Dr. Edward Balfour, Medical Officer of the Governor's
Body guard was appointed as the First Officer in charge of the Government
Museum. The notification in the Fort St. George Gazetteer dated 29th April
1851 AD contained the first announcement regarding the opening of the Madras
Government Museum. The Government Museum otherwise called as the
Central Museum was started in the College of Fort St. George, in the premises
of the present Office of the Director of Public Instruction, on College Road. The
college had been established in 1812 AD and made a significant contribution to
the development of South Indian Languages. The Museum was started in the
first floor of the college with the 1100 geological specimens of the Madras
Literary Society. It steadily developed and expanded under the guidance and
supervision of a succession of Directors. As the building was in a dilapidated
condition, the Museum's Superintendent, Dr. Balfour advocated shifting it to
another building.
In December 1854 AD, it was shifted to a building named the Pantheon, also
known as the Public Rooms or Assembly Rooms, where the elite of the city
met.
The building was being utilised for banquets, balls and dramatic performances
from the last decade of the 18th Century. The estate of the Pantheon was the
property of Hall Plumer, civil servant and public works contractor who
subsequently, in 1793 AD, assigned the grounds to a Committee of 24, which
regulated the public amusements in the city at that time. In 1821 AD, the
Committee sold the main house and central garden space to E.S. Moorat, a
wealthy Armenian merchant, who in turn, sold it back to the Government in
1830 AD, for Rs.28,000. The property was originally 43 acres in extent and
stretched from Casa Major Road to the present Police Commissioner's Road,
and it was flanked by the Pantheon Road and Halls Road.
Zoological
The Zoological galleries of Government Museum, Chennai extend over eleven

halls, adjoining the Sculpture galleries of the Archaeological section. In the
ground floor galleries, exhibits pertaining to skeletons, dentitions, integumentary
structures, reptiles, birds, mammals and some foreign animals are on display,
while in the first floor galleries, invertebrates and fishes are on display.
Spectacular and outstanding exhibits in the Zoological galleries are as follows:

the largest and most reputed among the exhibits in the Zoological galleries is the
gigantic skeleton of the Great Indian Baleen Whale (Balaenoptera indica =
Balaenoptera musculus) suspended from the centre of the ceiling in the hall of
General Zoological galleries. This skeleton of whale, measuring over 60 feet in
length was washed ashore in Mangalore in 1874 AD. The other notable skeletal
exhibits in the museum are the huge skeleton of the Indian elephant and its skull
with tusks, the skeleton of tiger, panther, kangaroo, dugong and the skeletons of
man and horse.
During 1980, old sloping cases were replaced by modernised show cases in the
General Zoology Gallery. All the exhibits were reorganised with miniature
models of animals made of fibreglass materials so as to enable visitors to
understand easily. Although the scope of the collections is limited to South Indian
fauna, this museum has acquired a few birds and mammals from some foreign
countries. Among the exhibits in these galleries, the orangutan, the tapir, the
kangaroo, the duck billed platypus, the ostrich, the cassowary and the macaw
parrots are the most outstanding ones. Apart from the few exhibits of foreign
animals, the bulk of the museum collection consists of specimens of indigenous
animals, which will give complete picture of South Indian fauna. Among the
reptiles exhibited in the Reptile Gallery, a huge specimen of leathery turtle, a
tortoise from Seychelles, specimens of the Indian species of crocodiles, a large
number of South Indian species of poisonous and non-poisonous snakes and
South Indian species of lizards are important exhibits. In the Bird Gallery adjacent
to the Reptile Gallery, during 1960, the old show cases were replaced by
modernised show cases with concealed lighting. In this gallery complete series of
South Indian birds are arranged systematically in the natural sequence. The most
unique and valuable of bird’s collection are a pair of pink-headed ducks.
Archaeological
The Archaeological Section of the Museum is primarily concerned with the

acquisition, preservation and display of antiquities of the historic period of South
India. The antiquities consist of sculptures, architectural pieces, metal and stone
inscriptions which have a bearing on the past history and social life of the people
of this part of India. A significant collection of objects representing the industrial
arts such as wood carving, ivory work, metalware, inlay and embossed works for
which South India has been famous from very early times, is also dealt with by
the Section.
The objects mentioned above have been slowly accumulated and preserved in the
Museum since its inception. They were organized into the present form about
1938 AD due to the efforts of Dr.F.H.Gravely. Though prior to the formation of
the Section, sporadic research on certain groups of antiquities have revealed the
importance of the objects and thus made the Museum well known yet only after
the formation of the Section more detailed studies of the antiquities of the
Museum were undertaken, and the results of the studies published in a series of
Museum Bulletins. Gradually, the scope of research work of the Section, initiated
by Dr.Gravely, was expanded so as to include other allied subjects such as temple
architecture. The activities of the Section, thus, increased and as a consequence,
it grew rapidly in size.
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Government Museum, Chennai

The Zoological galleries of Government Museum, Chennai extend over eleven

Spectacular and outstanding exhibits in the Zoological galleries are as follows:

The Archaeological Section of the Museum is primarily concerned with the

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