I have visited many of these museums. They are all well maintained, visitor friendly and provide a wealth of knowledge on historical, recent and contemporary events. Many of them display artifacts brought in (bought or just brought, I am not sure) from all around the world. Some of these museums like the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) established in 1870, presents over 5000 years of art from all over the world (mainly from outside USA), displayed in glass cases with labels. These museums surely provide an opportunity to take in the history, in one place, from around the world.
Anyone wondering, why India, with more than 5000 years of archeological history, does not feature in the list?
One reason could be that there are more monumental townships, like Hampi, Pataliputra, Datia (a temple town in MP), Agra, Delhi, Pataliputra, Khajuraho in MP, Fatehpur Sikri and many more in India and we may not want to uproot any of them to be gathered in one place. Some of you may not have heard of Datia. Well, there are plenty of ‘Datias” in India. Places like the Tanjore area in Tamil Nadu, , many cities and towns in Rajasthan, the various forts of Shivaji in Maharashtra, the historical town of Mysore in Karnataka, the tribal belts in the North East, the Buddhist monasteries in the HImalayas, tell stories from the past, not from behind glass cases.
Tail piece: Not taking away the utility of these museums, if this study was about history and learning and not only about visitors and money, India would be vying for the top spot along with Egypt, I suppose. Somebody asked in one of the comments “What are the real issues India should address?”; this is one of them. The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, employs more than 2000. I suppose the ASI has to get its act together and get more professional.
I have visited many of these museums. They are all well maintained, visitor friendly and provide a wealth of knowledge on historical, recent and contemporary events. Many of them display artifacts brought in (bought or just brought, I am not sure) from all around the world. Some of these museums like the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) established in 1870, presents over 5000 years of art from all over the world (mainly from outside USA), displayed in glass cases with labels. These museums surely provide an opportunity to take in the history, in one place, from around the world.
Anyone wondering, why India, with more than 5000 years of archeological history, does not feature in the list?
One reason could be that there are more monumental townships, like Hampi, Pataliputra, Datia (a temple town in MP), Agra, Delhi, Pataliputra, Khajuraho in MP, Fatehpur Sikri and many more in India and we may not want to uproot any of them to be gathered in one place. Some of you may not have heard of Datia. Well, there are plenty of ‘Datias” in India. Places like the Tanjore area in Tamil Nadu, , many cities and towns in Rajasthan, the various forts of Shivaji in Maharashtra, the historical town of Mysore in Karnataka, the tribal belts in the North East, the Buddhist monasteries in the HImalayas, tell stories from the past, not from behind glass cases.
Tail piece: Not taking away the utility of these museums, if this study was about history and learning and not only about visitors and money, India would be vying for the top spot along with Egypt, I suppose. Somebody asked in one of the comments “What are the real issues India should address?”; this is one of them. The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, employs more than 2000. I suppose the ASI has to get its act together and get more professional.
Cool, but who asked? ??
Most artifacts in western and European museums have been usurped by colonisers from Asia and Africa.