Established in the year 1920 A.D., Bharat Kala Bhavan museum is an archeological
museum located within the campus of Banaras Hindu University (B.H.U).
B.H.U is the largest residential university in India which was established
in 1916 by Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya. The university is the center for
the study of Indian art, culture, music and Sanskrit. A huge statue of
Panditji can be seen at the entrance of the university.
The vast collection of the museum includes various archaeological materials,
old manuscripts, paintings, ancient Hindu and Buddhist sculptures, plaster
cast sculptures, bronze images, terracotta, beads, seals, metal crafts,
ivory, jades and jewellery, etc. These artifacts are displayed in the
various namely Mahamana Malaviya gallery, Nicholas Roerich gallery, Chhavi
(Painting Gallery), sculpture gallery, Nidhi (Treasures) gallery, sculpture
gallery, archaeological gallery, decorative art gallery and Banaras through
ages gallery.
The sculpture gallery in the museums exhibits clay objects, stone and
bronze, cast metal objects and ancient terracotta items varies from ritual
icons to toys to utilitarian objects date back to Indus Valley Civilization,
Mauryan, Sunga and Gupta periods. The painting gallery is beautifully
adorned with miniature paintings from the courts of Mughals, the Hindu
Princess of Punjab Hills, pahari painting, paintings of contemporary artists
etc. There is also a rich collections of valuable textiles which consists
of Benaras silks and brocades, embroidered shawls from Kashmir and rare
chamba, rumals.
The main hall of the museum has a figure of a man standing on one leg
and one hand on his hip and lifting a mass of stone above his head, with
one hand. The figure is said to be of Lord Krishna lifting Govardana.
There are also many rare images that testify to the existence of Krishna
cult in Kashi in the 15th and 16th century Gupta period. The museum is
opens to the visitors from 11. am to 4.30 p.m and is closed on Sundays
and university holidays.
Another attraction here is the magnificent Vishwanath temple (New Vishwanath
Temple) located at within the campus premises, built by Birlas in 1966.
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