Indian Museum Visit
“A museum is a place where nothing was lost, just rediscovered…”
― Nanette L. Avery
We the students of semester three Seth Anandram Jaipuria College visited the Indian museum,
Kolkata on 22.6.2021 as part of our very interesting Skill Enhancement Course under the CBCS
system. We greatly enjoyed this visit as the Indian museum houses rare artefacts and works of art
as well as scientific specimens and archaeological remains. We wish to thank our teachers for
this very enjoyable yet educational visit.
Founded in 1814 at the cradle of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (at the present building of the
Asiatic Society, 1 Park Street, Kolkata), Indian Museum is the earliest and the largest
multipurpose Museum not only in the Indian subcontinent but also in the Asia-Pacific region of
the world. It was also referred to as the Imperial Museum at Calcutta in colonial-era texts. It is
the ninth oldest museum in the world and the oldest and largest museum in India. The founder
curator was Nathaniel Wallich, a Danish botanist. Initially the museum was incepted as "an
institution for the reception of all articles that might be sent to illustrate oriental manners and
history" but over a period of time the museum widened its scope and avenue. The building of the
museum is of white colour and the structure overall is very imposing. Currently, the Indian
museum is an autonomous organization under Ministry of Culture, Government of India.
The museum has three floors. Each floor covers an area of around 930 square meters. Also, in
between the museum, there is a small park. The Indian museum has six sections comprising
thirty five galleries. Four galleries are dedicated to natural history, namely the botanical, insect,
mammal and bird galleries. It also contains prehistoric artefacts such as the huge skeleton of
a dinosaur. Among all these numerous galleries I was particularly impressed by the collection in
5 galleries which interested me as a student of history. These were (1) Bharhut Gallery (2)
Gandhara Gallery (3) Archeology Gallery (4) Coin Gallery and the (5) Egypt Gallery
The Bharhut gallery shows the architectural remains from a place called Bharhut in the Satna
district, Madhya Pradesh. This belongs to the Sunga period, which was excavated by Sir
Alexander Cunningham in 1873. Carved out of red sandstone, the display reliefs depict Jataka
tales, Stories of the life of Lord Buddha, Plant, Animal (real and fantastic) and Geometrical
motifs and Demi gods and goddesses like Yakshas and Yakshinis, Devatas. As we navigated
through the pictures of the different artefacts in the Bharhut gallery our teachers briefly informed
us regarding the history of the museum and the different artefacts in the gallery.
The second gallery that we visited was the Gandhara Gallery. This gallery showcases the
sculptures that encompass the story of the life of Lord Buddha along with his images. The
gallery also displays Boddhisattva images of the Gandhara School of Art which flourished in the
2nd century CE and represents the influence of Greco-Roman culture and excavated from places
like Mardan and Loriyan Tangal in the Afghanistan region. We had studied regarding the
Gandhara School of Art in our paper on ancient Indian history but visiting this gallery brought
alive what we had studied only in the text books.
The third gallery explored by us was the L. Archaeology Gallery. It is a gallery that is dedicated
to show the sculptural evolution in India and contains sculptures from Kushana, Gupta,
Pala-Sena, Chandella, Pallava, Hoysala, Vijaynagar and Chola periods. The gallery also includes
displays of some South – East Asian sculptures recovered from Java and Indonesia. I was
amazed to see these varied sculptures from ancient India.
The fourth gallery which we visited was the Coin Gallery. The Indian Museum has a unique
assemblage of coins, numbering more than fifty-two thousand. These coins come from different
regions of the Indian subcontinent and range in date from circa fifth to fourth century BC to
present date. I was particularly fascinated by ancient Indian coins and the coins of the Mughal
era that had writings in Persian inscribed on their edges.
Finally, we visited the Egyptian Gallery. This gallery presented an exceptional collection of
Egyptian antiquities. The gallery offered the visitor a glimpse of ancient Egyptian Civilization.
An Egyptian mummy, which was 4,000 years old, proved to be the main attraction of this gallery.
I was fascinated to see this Egyptian mummy. Our teachers elaborated on the concept of life
after death among the ancient Egyptians and concept of mummification among them.
Apart from these sections there are other units to help the museum viz. library, publication,
modelling, presentation, photography and conservation unit. The Indian Museum also organizes
permanent and temporary exhibitions as well as events and seminars.
Our visit to the Indian museum was an enriching experience. As the website to the museum
declared: ‘It's not a museum. It’s a place for Ideas.’ Museums in lndia have undoubtedly come a
long way, from the chitrasala (picture galleries) mentioned in ancient literary texts to more than
seven hundred specialized museums of different genres today. The Indian Museum in Kolkata is
one of national importance and a living emblem of our rich and varied heritage. Therefore I will
always cherish my visit to this museum and look forward to exploring it again.
