Collection of stone art on display at the Berhampur museum. Picture by Gopal Krishna Reddy

Berhampur, May 19: Berhampur Museum, established 32 years ago, continues to run from a rented house in Jayaprakash Nagar.

For the last one year, the museum has mostly remained locked because the place needed to be renovated and most people of Berhampur are ignorant of its existence.

“The renovation of Berhampur Museum is being undertaken by the office of the state museum superintendent, Bhubaneswar, and we are not aware of the development,” said Krishna Chandra Nisank, district culture officer of Ganjam. This despite the state culture department managing the museum through the Ganjam district culture officer.

In 1993, eight ancient swords were stolen from the museum when it was housed at a rented house at Goilundi, The swords are yet to be recovered. Prior to the recent renovation, some rare artefacts, including 20 patta chitra (traditional painting with natural colour on silk cotton), 10 appliqué works (wall hangings from Pipili) and one miniature chariot of Lord Jagannath, were damaged by white ants. A miniature Taj Mahal made of khadi pathara (chalk stone) was damaged while being transported during the shifting of the museum.

Now the museum, which remains locked almost always, runs with peon Rankanidhi Nayak and night guard Bidyadhar Jena. Nayak, who has been with the museum from its inception in 1979 hopes that it would be renovated one day and people would come to visit it.

“The renovation of the Berhampur Museum is expected to be completed within a month and thereafter it would attract more visitors. The screening of picture slides of the artefacts in cinemas, advertisements on television, newspapers and arrow marks to the museum from the main road can attract more visitors,” Nayak said.

The museum, which does not have its own place, has had eight addresses till now. It ran from a rented house at Jarada Bungalow street before being shifted to Jayaprakash Nagar.

Local residents feel that the state government should take steps to construct a permanent building for the museum.

“In 2004, the foundation stone was laid for Biju Patnaik Sanskruti Bhavan at Hillpatna near the Ganesh Temple by chief minister Naveen Patnaik. It was promised that the ground floor of its three-storied building would be given to the museum. But this ‘bhavan’ has not yet materialised,” said a local resident.The museum has a number of artefacts from southern Orissa.

It started out with a few swords, statues, appliqué works, preserved and stuffed animals. At present, it houses some ancient statues recovered from parts of southern Orissa, preserved dead animals, brass utensils, a stuffed cheetah and two cheetah heads. One head each of a jackle and a wolf were donated by Paralakhemundi royal family in 1979.

The ancient statues found from parts of southern Orissa include a limestone one of Lord Shiva in “tandava” dance posture with some script on, an ox in ‘muguni’ stone, statues of Ganesh, Nandi, meditating Buddha, Dwarapala, Birabhadra (headless) and Kumandal in ‘kunda’ stone.

“As Ganjam is known for its ancient culture, the museum should showcase the culture of southern Orissa,” said district culture officer Krishna Chandra Nisank.