Gautama Buddha, Mahavira, Kautilya, Ashoka. Today, as Patna, it has become home to a prized and state-of-the-art showcase of the one-time glories that pervaded what we know as Bihar. The Bihar Museum, thrown open to the public on Gandhi Jayanti, is a one-of-a-kind experience that commoner and connoisseur can alike delight in. The museum was actually twice ‘inaugurated’. Once, shortly before the Bihar Assembly polls of 2015. Chief minister Nitish Kumar, whose pet project it is, perhaps wasn’t sure at the time he would win and return to power, so he had the plaque in his name installed and cut the ribbon while the project was still under construction. Last month, he formally and finally opened it again. Building and installation work in some parts is still going on, but its scale and novel layout have already become popular. Nitish had commissioned the Rs 500-crore project to compensate for the not-so-spacious Patna Museum. The foundation stone of the Indo-Japanese collaborative project had been laid in 2013. Nagendra Kumar Singh takes you on a guided tour of the ‘experience museum’
TT Bureau
Published 05.11.17, 12:00 AM
As Pataliputra, it was the seat of great ancient empires — the Magadhan, the Mauryan — and the karmabhoomi of entities of durable and widespread emboss: Gautama Buddha, Mahavira, Kautilya, Ashoka. Today, as Patna,
it has become home to a prized and state-of-the-art showcase of the one-time glories that pervaded what we know as Bihar. The Bihar Museum, thrown open to the public on Gandhi Jayanti, is a one-of-a-kind experience that commoner and connoisseur can alike delight in. The museum was actually twice ‘inaugurated’. Once, shortly before the Bihar Assembly polls of 2015. Chief minister Nitish Kumar, whose pet project it is, perhaps wasn’t sure at the time he would win and return to power, so he had the plaque in his name installed and cut the ribbon while the project was still under construction. Last month, he formally and finally opened it again. Building and installation work in some parts is still going on, but its scale and novel layout have already become popular. Nitish
had commissioned the Rs 500-crore project to compensate for the not-so-spacious Patna Museum. The foundation stone of the Indo-Japanese collaborative project had been laid in 2013. Nagendra Kumar Singh takes you on a guided tour of the ‘experience museum’
The newly inaugurated Bihar Museum sits on a 13.5-acre plot on Bailey Road, one of Patna’s arterial avenues. It has a collection of contemporary artwork by artists from the state. Among them
is this installation by Sanjay Kumar, depicting a collection of 171 brass figurines of Buddhist monks, all gathered around a 6,000-kilo begging bowl of the Buddha
The Children’s Gallery, with its experiential learning zones — the Orientation Room, Wildlife Sanctuary, sections on Chandragupta Maurya and Sher Shah Suri, the Arts and Culture section and the Discovery Room — at once educates and tickles the imagination. It has a sculpture of the sparrow, the endangered state-bird. The flat screen monitors, printed graphics and animated animals add to the fun
The centrepiece of the museum is the Chauri-Bearer that was discovered exactly a hundred years ago. The statue, 5’2” tall, stands on a pedestal of Chunar sandstone finished to mirror-like polish. Chipped nose and missing left arm notwithstanding, there is no discounting her siren-charm. And the CM has dubbed it the Mona Lisa of the place. According to the records of the Patna Museum, from where it has been procured, one Ghulam Rasul found it embedded in the muddy riverside near Didarganj and dug it up thereafter. Other more romantic versions exist, but since there is no quarrel about where it was found, the buxom figurine is better known as the Didarganj Yakshi. The statue has been accepted as from the Mauryan era. It has travelled far in the past as part of India exhibits in foreign lands; for a time, it was kept at the National Museum in New Delhi
The museum motif recalls the peepal tree in Bodh Gaya under which Siddhartha meditated and became the Buddha or the Enlightened One
The museum structure is made out of environment-friendly materials — fly-ash bricks, fly-ash mixed concrete, rough granite, sandstone and terracotta bricks. As a nod to the rich metallurgical heritage of the region, the architects used corten steel — an alloy type known for its high resistance to atmospheric corrosion — for the building facade. It does not require painting and forms a stable rust-like appearance. And by sunlight, abundant in Patna, the exterior looks burnished. The museum also uses green measures such as solar panels, smart lighting and water conservation arrangements
The museum interiors — the total built-up area is 24,000 square metres and total gallery spaces add up to an area of 9,500 square metres — have been designed applying a Japanese concept. “Oku” is suggestive of the secret and the unattainable and is used to denote spatial relationships. In this two-storey structure, it translates into a network — eight blocks — of cloistered and open spaces, triggering in the visitor the twin experience of anticipation and contemplation
Among the different galleries of the museum are Historical Art, Visible Storage, Regional Art, Bihari Diaspora, Contemporary Art. Between them, they are teeming with a rare and precious mix of arts and artefacts such as terracotta figurines, Thangka paintings, 30,000 coins from the time of Pataliputra, a large number of Jain images and so on and so forth. One point that has been raised again and again — is all of this in the charge of the state government or an autonomous body or a private one? There is no clear answer yet, but whatever it is, it could have implications on the safety and security of the artefacts.
