Category: Museum in Bihar

Gaya Museum Alias Bodhgaya Museum

Location: Situated in the heart of the town of Gandhi Maidan, Gaya.Gaya Museum- Gaya, 206 km from Patna, is an ancient Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimage site. On view are ancient sculptures, bronzes and terracotta. There is a section on numismatics, the decorative arts, paintings, manuscripts, arms and armoury, geology and natural history.

Gaya, 206 Km from Patna is an ancient Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimage site.It is believed that Vishnu’s sacred footprint is preserved in the vishnupad temple. On view are ancient sculptures ,bronzes and terracotta. There is a section on numismatics, the decorative arts, paintings ,manuscripts ,arms and armoury, geology and natural history. The children’s section includes a dolls house. 

Importance: The museum has been declared as Gaya Museum-cum-Magadh Cultural Centre with a view to collect, display and make available all the relevant information regarding living cultural heritage of the region under one roof.
The museum preserves about 2000 antiquities of varied nature. The rich collection of stone sculptures especially of Pala period is rare and outstanding. Besides, the Museum also possesses a good collection of coins of different periods (punch marked to medieval period coins), manuscripts, terracotta figurines ranging right from Mauryan to the Gupta period, Pala bronzes and other art objects. Among the important antiquities mention may be made of Visnu, danching Ganesha, Tara, Surya in stone, replica of Mahabodhi temple in bronze and Aa-ne-Akabari. The special attractions here are monuments of Pala period (750-1120 BC).
Besides these, there are coins of ancient times till Mughal era, old manuscripts, monuments from Mauryan to Gupta period, stone and bronze statues at the Gaya Musuem.
The museum was established in 1952 by a local lawyer Baldev Prasad, and was later acquired by the Bihar government and opened for public viewing on February 14, 1970. 

The museum was established in the year 1956. The museum consists of two galleries and an open courtyard as well as two verandahs displaying the antiquities. The museum exhibits bronze and stone sculptures of Buddhist and Brahmanical faith of pala period, scenes related to Buddhist pantheon, Surya, Zodiac signs on railings of Sunga age, etc.

The first gallery exhibits sculptures including standing Yakshi figure having elaborate coiffure, crowned Buddha in Bhumisparsamudra, Maiterya, images of Buddha in different attitude, standing image of Manjusri, terracotta plaque depicting Buddha in Bhumisparshmudra, railing pillar depicting Surya, panel showing Sahasra Buddha, copper antimony rod, miniature pot, etc.

In second gallery are exhibited sculptures associated with Buddhist and Brahmanical faith. Among them mention may be made of panel showing Sapta matrika, Dikpalas, Dasavatara of Lord Vishnu.

The courtyard of the museum contains railing pillars, cross bars and coping stones which were shifted from Mahabodhi temple premises to the museum.

In outer verandah of the museum one colossal image of standing Buddha in abhayamudra and the varaha incarnation of Lord Vishnu is on display in the inner verandah.

Summary
District – Gaya
Commissionery – Magadh
Headquarter – Gaya
Sub-Division – Gaya Sadar, Sherghati, Tekari
Population – 26, 64,803 (27 Lacs)
Area – 4,941 Sq. Km
Sea Level – 113 Meter
Temperature –
Summer: 46°C – 18°C
Winter: 20°C– 4°C
Best Season – November – February
Road Route – 112 Km from Patna
Rail Route – Main Railway Station – Patna, Gaya
Nearest Railway Station – Gaya (16 Km),
(458 km from Kolkata; 220 km from Varanasi; 589 km from Puri)
Air Route – Main Airport – Patna
Nearest Airport – Gaya

Know about Patna Museum – Bihar

Patna Museum is the state museum of the Indian state of Bihar. Built in 1917 during the British Raj to house the historical artefacts found in the vicinity of Patna,it is in the style of Mughal and Rajput architecture and is known locally as the Jadu Ghar.
Patna Museum

Location of Patna
in Bihar, India

Open: 10.30 am- 4.30 pm
Days: Tues- Sun 

Items on display in the multipurpose museum include archaeological objects, coins, art objects, paintings, instruments, textiles, paintings, thankas, bronze images, and sculptures and terra cotta images by Hindu and Buddhist artists.[1] It has a rare collection of British-period paintings depicting day-to-day life, as well as a fine collection related to the first President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad.

The fossil of a tree said to be more than 200 million years old is on display, as is a casket — unearthed in 1958 by archaeologist A. S. Altekar at the Relic Stupa of Vaishali — said to contain the sacred ashes (relics) of Gautama Buddha. The world-famous Didarganj Yakshi statue, discovered on a Ganges riverbank in 1917, is the museum’s most prized collection.

Beginning November 2009, a project was started to build a replacement museum in Patna to enable the display of larger collections of up to 20,000 objects.

This excellent museum contains metal and stone sculptures dating to the Mauryan and Gupta periods, terracotta figures and archaeological finds from sites in Bihar such as Nalanda. It is a destination that is worth your luxury or cheap flights to India because of its rich history and cultural treasures. The Patna Museum also houses the world’s longest fossilized tree -16m long and 200 million years old. There is a fine collection of Chinese paintings and thangkas.

Patna Museum was established in the year 1917. The aim behind the establishment of the museum was to impart a scientific vision to understand the evolution of history, culture and art tradition of the land. Patna archaeological museum boasts a huge collection of artifacts found during the excavations of ancient sites in Bihar.

Patna museum has a large collection of sculptures of the Gandhara and the Mathura style art. These sculptures belong to the Kushana period. The Gandhar style sculptures, also known as ‘Greeco-Buddhist Art’ are made of blue-schist of Swat valley and the collection includes figures of Buddha. Other than Lord Buddha, several statutes of Bodhisattvas have also been kept in the Patna Museum. Patna Museum preserves holy relic casket of Lord Buddha containing his ashes.

Patna Museum houses many historic items found during excavations in different parts of Bihar. Some belong to the pre-historic phase and some are from early centuries of first millennium. Post-excavation, archeologists found many things including some historic objects, stone sculptures, bronzes, terracotta, paintings – miniature and thanka paintings and coins, which all are important to know the history and development of Bihar.

The museum at Patna has some pre-historic objects of great interest including of Palaeoliths, microliths and neoliths. These objects were found from different parts of India. Certain objects like Paleolithic tools found at Bariar (M.P.) and Lalitpur (U.P.), Attirampakkam (Tamilnadu) have also been kept in display in the museum.

The museum also displays sculptures from the Kushana period, which include the famous trio from Devangarh in the Nawada district. Three deities Ekanamsa, Balarama and Vasudeva have been separately depicted here which is unconventional and not found anywhere else. Other than these, the museum also has three images of Avalokitesvra, Maitreya and Buddha in bhumisparsh posture. These images were excavated from Vishnupur of Gaya districts. There are some door frames with the figures of Ganges and Yamuna depicted on the sides of them.


Patna Museum
Gautam Buddha
Gautam Buddha