Museums
Patna Museum
The Patna Museum is within walking distance from the Indira Gandhi Planetarium in
Patna.The museum, though faded and run down, has a splendid collectionof sculptures
Among its most famous pieces is a polished sandstone female attendant or yakshi, holding a
flying-whisk. It was found at Deedarganj and dates back to the 3rd century.
Also kept here are some Jain images from the Kushana period and a collection of Buddhist
Bodhisattvas from the Gandhara region in the northwest Pakistan, belonging to the 2nd and
3rd centuries AD.Natural history exhibits feature several stuffed animals, including a few freaks
and a gigantic fossilised tree, thought to be 200 million years old.
The museum also houses Chinese art. The museum contains a First World War cannon and
metal and stone sculpture of Maurya and Gupta periods. |
Nalanda Museum
Ninety km south of Patna lies Nalanda, the historic Buddhist site. Here is located the
Nalanda Archaeological Museum. The museum, established in 1915, exhibits archaeological
discoveries like sculptures, terra cotta, bronzes as well as architectural friezes, panels, pillars and
other fragments.
The museum has a magnificent collection of Pala and Mauryan statues, bronzes and man.
uscripts. The displayed antiquities portray the spiritual and meditative principles of Buddhism,
especially as it must have existed at Nalanda. |
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