Indian Museum

The Indian Museum on Jawaharlal Nehru Road in Kolkata, West Bengal, is the oldest and largest museum in India. It was founded in 1814 by the Asiatic Society of Bengal, on the initiative of the Danish botanist Nathaniel Wallich, and the present Italianate building with its long colonnaded facade was constructed in 1875 to a design by Walter Granville. The collection grew from the Society's holdings and was transferred to the government in the 1860s. It is organised in six sections covering art, archaeology, anthropology, geology, zoology and economic botany, with several dozen galleries on three floors around a central courtyard. The Bharhut Gallery houses the railings and gateway of the 2nd-century BCE Buddhist stupa from Bharhut in Madhya Pradesh, one of the finest early Buddhist sculptural ensembles. The Egyptian Gallery displays a mummy and coffin, and the Gandhara Gallery holds Greco-Buddhist sculpture. Other galleries present Indian bronzes, coins, textiles, paintings, a large collection of fossils, meteorites, skeletons of whales and elephants, and a well-known gallery of Indian tribal culture. The museum follows a thematic approach, with each department arranged by subject and material. The building has been restored in stages, with renovation of the galleries and a major conservation programme in recent years, which included repair of the roof and facade and the refreshing of display cases. The museum is managed by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of India. Its size means that the full collection is more than most visitors see in one day.