Dear Local Guides Community,
Happy International Museum Day!
I recently visited the National Museum in New Delhi. Sharing insights on my experience on this treasure trove of historical artefacts as part of the International Museum Day Challenge initiated by our very dear @TravellerG sir and Celebrate International Museum Day with Me - Challenge : Museums with Local Guides initiated by @Rahul001
Origin :
The initiation of collecting historical artefacts across India was done in 1947 and sent to an exhibition in London. After the exhibition, they were formally inaugrated in Rashtrapati Bhavan in on 15th Aug 1949. They were then shifted to the current location in 1960. Now, the museum has a collection of more than 250000 artefacts spanning almost 5000 years of history.
Sharing details of all the different sections of this museum would make this post very long, hence for brevity I am restricting to only a few artefacts and their history.
The above idol belongs to Surya Dev (Sun God) which was excavated from the Konark Sun Temple in Odisha. One feature worth noticing is the boots worn by the deity, which was inspired from the Zoroastrian Culture which was prevalent in those days.
Harappan Civilization : How Partition decides the fate of artefacts
The above pictures are one of the famous remaining artefacts belonging to the Indus Valley Civilization in Harappa. The picture on the left is of a dancing girl made of bronze and has beautifully sculpted bangles and necklace. The one on the right are fragmants of a large jewelery set. There was another very famous statue of a priest king which had similar carvings and the priest wore a long colorful robe. The major portion of Harappa’s excavated site is located in Pakistan. After partition, it was decided by the respective Governments that the priest king would be kept in the Lahore Museum and the dancing girl statue would be kept in the National Museum. Similarly, the large jewelery set was torn apart by archaeologists from both the countries.
Skeletal Remains of a 4000 year old Woman
Another fascinating artefact is a rare skeleton remain found from the Harappan site. It belonged to a woman. Considering the fact that she was found wearing bangles, we can surmise that she might have been married. Clay pottery and other such objects had been buried alongside her which suggests that the Harappan culture might have belived in the afterlife. The skeletan’s tooth DNA has revealed that they used to eat Okra (Bhindi), Turmeric (Haldi) and Rice.
Sinauli Rath - Latest Addition to the Museum
Sinauli is situated in Western Uttar Pradesh, where a significant excavation led to the discovery of a cart in 2018. This disk wheel, or cart made of stone and wood, belongs to the Bronze Age (2000 - 1800 BCE).
Nearest Metro Station : Central Secretariat on the Yellow and Violet Line of Delhi Metro.
Hungry? Grab a bite at the food court located inside the Museum Itself. I tried the ever popular Rajma rice and it was tasty.
Accessibility : All the exhibits on all the floors are wheelchair accessible, lift facility is available to transit from one floor to another. Wheelchair accessible gender neutral washrooms are also available inside the washroom.
I will cover more such interesting artefacts and their related history in the upcoming posts. I hope you all enjoyed learning about our rich history.
#MuseumswithLocalGuides
Regards,
wish you all the best
