PATNA: Museum provides an insight into the history, culture and art tradition of the land. As a repository of items, Patna Museum is truly the pride of Bihar, giving a glimpse of ancient glory.
The museum has thousands of exhibits of varied nature, including pre and proto objects, stone sculpture, bronze items, terracotta, miniature paintings, Thanka paintings, coins, miscellaneous art objects and so on. One cannot appreciate the Indian art history and cultural heritage of the land without going through the collections of Patna Museum.
This museum also has the privilege of preserving the holy relic casket of Lord Buddha containing his ashes and other related materials, found during the excavation of a stupa belonging to 6th century BC at Vaishali.
Prior to 1912, when Bihar was a part of the province of Bengal, the ancient objects from Bihar, which came to light during the later 19th and early part of 20th century, were sent to Indian Museum, Kolkata. Hence, the people of this region had hardly any opportunity to know their cultural heritage.
So, after its separation from Bengal, the necessity to establish a provincial museum was felt. The excavation of Kumhrar in 1913 gave impetus to the idea. And in 1915, it was decided to start the museum informally with the collection of antiquities at the commissioner's bungalow.
The state museum was formally set up in 1917 by Edward Gait, lieutenant governor of Bihar & Orissa. In the beginning, the museum's collection was housed in the ground floor of the northern annexe of the Patna High Court.
With a rapid increase in collection, this wing of the Patna High Court proved to be inadequate for the display of exhibits. So, during 1925-26, a piece of land measuring 700x500 square feet on the north of Allahabad Bank and west of Patna-Gaya Road was chosen as the site of the Patna Museum, according to a recently-published booklet on Patna museum. By the end of 1928, the building was completed and was handed over on March 6, 1929. The museum was declared open to public by the then governor Hugh Stephenson, on March 7, 1929.
Built in the Indo-Sarcenic style, the building is one of the finest examples of museum architecture in India. The Patna Museum is a multi-purpose museum. Its collection has been classified into 17 sections.
The pre-historic objects include paleoliths, microliths, neoliths discovered from different parts of Bihar and from foreign countries as well. The paleolithic tools from Bariar (Madhya Pradesh), Lalitpur (UP) and Attirampakkam (Tamil Nadu) are very important. Some very rare neoliths from Bihar and UP are also kept in the museum.
The Patna Museum possesses one of the biggest collections of copper hoards discovered from different parts of Bihar and Jharkhand. They represent the casting technique and high metallurgy skill, said an expert.
The museum preserves a few of the important finds from the Harappan sites, which include terracotta figurines, potteries, copper and bronze objects. Another prized collection is the famous female 'chauri bearer' figure of the Mauryan period (3rd century BC). Discovered at Didarganj, Patna City, the magnificent statue is known as Didarganj Yakshini. It is made of chunar sandstone and bears the typical Mauryan polish. The stone torso of a Jain Tirthankar, discovered at Lohanipur, Patna, is the earliest example of Jain art.
The lion head from Masarh in Bhojpur and the bull from Hajipur of Mauryan period are also worth mentioning. It also has a fairly good number of sculptures of the Gandhara and the Mathura art which are chronologically synchronized with the age of Kushanas.
The museum also preserves a number of sculptures of the Pala-Sena school of art dated between 8th & 12th century AD. It possesses the best collection of bronze images, better known as 'astadhatu' images, in India. These bronzes were discovered from Chausa (Buxar), Kurkihar (Gaya), Nalanda, Belwa (Saran) and Nagapattinam (Tamil Nadu). The 18 Jain bronzes from Chausa are one of the most important collections of this museum. Similarly, the 163 bronze items from Kurkihar represent one of the finest collections from any part of India. These include the figures of Buddha, Tara, Balarama and so on.
Patna Museum also has in its possession a fairly good number of paintings of Patna Qalam ( Patna School of Painting), which flourished in the city for about two centuries right from AD 1760 to the early decades of 20th century. The paintings are made on paper, mica and ivory.
It also has the privilege of having a collection of Tibetan scroll paintings on silk, which were presented by Pandit Rahul Sankrityayana. These Thanka paintings are dated from 17th to 19th century AD. Tibetan scroll paintings mainly depict Buddha and Boddhisatva.
The archaeological section of the Patna Museum has the finest specimens of Mauryan art comprising stone sculptures and terracotta figurines. These had been found in Patna and its surrounding areas. These Mauryan stone art pieces are important source materials for the study of Mauryan art, said an expert, Parshuram Pandey.
The museum will have a new look soon with the opening of a cafeteria and handicrafts shop on the pattern of Delhi's Cottage Emporium. "Patna Museum will soon sign a memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Cottage Emporium, a Government of India enterprise, for running a handicraft shop on the museum premises," said additional director, Patna Museum, J P N Singh.
Singh said the architectural design of the shop would be on the pattern of architecture of Patna museum. "The shop will have handicraft items from all over the country, besides replicas of museum antiquities including Didarganj Yakshini," Singh said. The Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation will run the museum cafeteria from next month," Singh said.
The museum will soon have a beautiful garden with lush green grass and herbal and medicinal plants. Principal secretary, art and culture, Anjani K Singh is taking personal interest in designing the sprawling lawn of the museum. "We have already spent Rs 4 lakh on planting the saplings of various plants in the museum. After the rainy season, we will redo the existing lawn of the museum," the additional director said.
Patna Museum will also have a lounge for visitors soon. The ongoing work of installing camera in galleries, biometric locks and lighting of the museum is still incomplete. The state building construction department has been assigned this task at an estimated cost of Rs 2.61 crore.
Patna Museum has an added attraction for the visitors __ the detailed information on the 100 years of Bihar. There is a separate gallery on Bihar's centenary year. An artist has also made replicas of the monuments of Bihar including Golghar, Nalanda ruins and Ashokan pillar. These replicas are unique because the artist has used pieces of bricks and other waste materials scattered on the premises of Patna Museum.
This wonder is facing a manpower crunch to manage its affairs well. With only 47 staff to manage the 17 art galleries, some of the galleries are kept closed. Some curators are holding dual and triple charges, said an official.
Currently there are four government offices running from Patna Museum premises __ K P Jayaswal Research Institute, Bihar Regional Record Survey office, Bihar Research Society and Manuscripts Mission. Bihar Research Society has now become the research and publication wing of the Patna Museum.
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