Museum in Orissa

Orissa, one of the busiest states as far as tourism is concerned, attracts huge number of tourists from India and abroad, owing to the several specimens of rich architecture in temples and stupas, the beautiful beaches and the gripping landscape of dense green forests, valleys and rivers. With a history of several ages, kingdoms and dynasties behind it, the state brags of some of the traces of earliest Indian civilizations. In order to have a closer look at the remains, relics and remembrances of the past, drop in at the Museums in Orissa.

While traveling to the wonderful state of Orissa, visits to the Museums in Orissa will help you have a peek into the specialties of the state's bygone eras. The Orissa State Museum, originated in the hands of Prof. N.C Banerjee and Prof. Ghanshyam Dash of Ravenshaw College. As early as 1932, both had started collecting and amassing rare and exclusive items pertaining to the state's past. Initially housed in the college premises, it later was transformed into Provincial Museum of Orissa in 1938. Areas of archaeology, epigraphy, armory, numismatics, painting, mining and geology, anthropology and manuscripts are covered in the Orissa State Museum.

The Archaeological Museum, Konark is another of the Museums in Orissa. Built in 1968, the museum houses pieces and parts of sculpture from the Sun Temple. The fragments and sections showcased here reflect the socio religious and economic scenario of the 13th century.

Orissa State Museum, Bhubaneshwar

The Orissa State Museum began as a subsidiary of Ravenshaw College's Department of Histoiy. However, over the years it has become one of the premier institutions of the state with a wide range of antiquities representing the region's rich cultural heritage. The galleries cover archaeology, epigraphy, numismatics, armoury, mining and geology, painting, anthropology and manuscripts.

The manuscript gallery here is significant as it contains some rare palm leaf manuscripts. The 50,000 manuscripts, some of which are beautifully illustrated, cover subjects as diverse as religion, philosophy, astronomy,astrology, poetry, science, medicine, mathematics, warfare and the crafts. The oldest manuscript dates to the 15th century though evidence reveals that this art existed as far back as the 6th century AD.

Palm leaves were dried and the Oriya script was incised into the leaf with a stylus.The manuscripts are incredibly rich in exquisite penmanship and are a repository of artistic expressions of that time. The costumes, jewellery, hairstyle and facial features are very similar to the Orissa temple sculpture. The scenery depicted is highly stylised and symbolic. The earliest palm leaf manuscript i the Abhinava Gita Govinda b-Chandra Das Dibakar Mishra by Sridhar Sharma, dated 1496.

A 1690 illustrated manuscript of Gita Govinda written by the 12th century poetjayadeva has 80 folios It displays the advanced writing technology of its time in its drawings on both sides of palm leaves, in rich primary colours undiminished bv time.

Archeological Museum, Konark

The site museum was established ai Konark in 1968, On view are pieces sculpture retrieved from the Sun Te The fragments, some small, some large follow the architectural and artistic patterns of the temple and depict aspects of the religious, social and economic of the people of Orissa during the 13th century.