Uttaranchal» Museum

Bharat Kala Bhavan lies within the sprawling grounds of Banaras Hindu University. Its  outstanding collection of sculpture, painting and textiles began with the private collection of the enlightened Rai Krishnadasa. The sculpture collection includes terracotta and clay objects. Ancient terracotta  varing from ritual icons to toys to utilitarian objects date to the Indus Valley Civilisation, Mauryan, Sunga and Gupta periods. Among the stone sculptures are red sandstone reliefs from the 2nd century B.C, Buddhist stupa at Bharhut and rare image and statues from well known schools like Gandhara, which saw the synthesis of Greek and Indian styles and Mathura, a powerful art centre during the Kushana period. The large and impressive collection of textiles contain precious example of Banaras silk and brocades, embroidered shawls from Kashmir and the rare Chamba rumals, once used to wrap ceremonial gifts and offering were richly embroidered pieces with designs and stories from the life of Krishna   Address :- Bharat Kala Bhavan   Banaras Hindu University  Varanasi.    

A multipurpose museum with sculptures, bronzes, paintings, natural history and anthropological specimens, coins, textiles and decorative arts. Rare stone sculptures include the earliest image of Balarama and a panchmukhi shivalinga (both 2nd century B.C), and a statue of Saraswati, again reputed to be the earliest depiction (2nd century A.D).
Address :- State Museum  Banarasi Bagh in Lucknow.

Sarnath, where the Buddha delivered his first sermon more than 2500 years ago, has a site museum whose prize exhibit is the enormous lion capitals(2.31m). Now the emblem of Independence India, the capital once surmounted  an Ashokan pillar erected to mark the spotwhere the Budhha preached There are many other Buddha and budhisattava figures on view.  Among these the most outstanding Gupta periods with  hand   rised on Abhaya or protection.

The rich treasure of antiquarian values unearthed by Cunnigham, Growse, Fuhrer and others formed the nucleus of this museum. The museum was founded by the collector, F.S. Growse in 1874. The collections were shifted to the present building in 1930. Regional in character its scope was limited primarily to the archeological finds from the Mathura region. The vast collection includes stone sculptures, bas reliefs, architectural fragments, inscriptions of various faiths and creeds, coins, terracotta, inscribed bricks, pottery pieces, clay seals, bronze objects and paintings. The museum has the richest and by far the most important collection of the Mathura School of Sculptures of 3rd century B.C - 12th century A.D.

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