Established in the year 1920 A.D., Bharat Kala Bhavan museum is an art and 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.