About Indian Museum in Kolkata 🇮🇳 10% to Steem-Travelers Community, Steemexclusive

In December 2014, I arrived in Kolkata, West Bengal on a train from Varanasi. After New Year celebration, after several days of walking, I decided to spend time indoors. I chose the Indian Museum first of all.

^{A fragment of Three Pillars with a coping stone showing yakshis trampling evil forces, 2nd c. C.E. - Uttar Pradesh, India}

It is one of the oldest museums in the world founded in 1814. I had read it had a wide range of ancient Indian artefacts.

^{Look closer on google.maps}

The Indian Museum turned to be a slightly poorly-equipped museum with a lack of gloss and light. No surprise because the whole city generally was in a state of neglect.

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This one resembles art of the XX century, doesn't it? But this is Yakshi statue of circa 1st century B.C.E. - Madhya Pradesh, India.

The art of filigree. Silver basket - Odisha, India, 19th century C.E.

One of the Egyptian items: Akhenaton's offerings to the solar disk, Dynasty XVII.

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What I liked the most was a collection of ancient statues of Buddha. I got used to images of Buddha in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, and Nepal I visited before India. But here in the Indian Museum, my idea of Buddha's image was shattered. I found statues there that rather looked like ancient Greek gods.

^{Buddha offering protection, circa 2nd century C.E.}

Now I know this is the direction of sculpture was born at the intersection of the Greek and Indian civilizations called Greco-Buddhism.

^{Standing Buddha, circa 2nd century C.E.}

This art and culture emerged when Alexander the Great, a famous king of Macedonia and conqueror, extended his rule to the East where the Mediterranean culture, as the result, met the teaching of Buddha. You can read what happened next on Wikipedia: Greco-Buddhism 😎

They also have surprisingly Asian-looking statues from Eastern and Central India.

^{Mahavira from Karanbel Tewar, Madhya Pradesh (Central India), 11th century C.E.}

They have Buddhas from other countries too. For example, from Java, Indonesia:

^{Buddha - Java, Indonesia, 10th-12th centuries C.E.}

If you are interested in art and history and suddenly find yourself near Calcutta, be sure to check out the Indian Museum. It lacked gloss (and, at some places, cleanliness) when I visited it but the collection was great.

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This is not a cross-post, all images have been taken by me, the article has been specially written for Steem-Travelers Community.