Patna Museum : Things to Know Before Visiting

Patna Museum also known as Jadu Ghar is the state Museum of Bihar, India and is located in Patna. Patna Museum was started on 3rd April 1917 during the British rule to showcase and have a place to store all the historical artefacts found in the vicinity of Patna.

It has a wonderful collection of multipurpose archaeological objects which includes coins, art objects, paintings, instruments, textiles, paintings, thankas, bronze images and sculptures and terra cotta images by Hindu and Buddhist artists. You can relive Indian history and greatness in the past owing to the museum’s extensive collection.

Patna Museum – construction and architecture

The architecture of Patna Museum reflects the combination of Mughal and Rajput style of architecture. The Museum building is two stories tall with each floor containing galleries dedicated to display a certain type of artefacts. One can find multiple galleries related to different time periods or off certain importance like Natural History Gallery,  Orissa Stone Sculpture Gallery, Indian Store Art Tradition Gallery.

Patna Museum History 

Bihar was carved out of Bengal in the year 1912. From the very ancient time Patna has been in a place of national and historic importance . So the British authority decided to construct a museum in order to conserve and show the historical artefacts that were found in the state. In 1915, the commissioner’s residence Located In the A. N. Sinha Institute campus served as the location for the Patna Museum’s first office. The Patna Museum was designed by Rai Bahadur Vishnu Swaroop. It was opened as the first museum for Bihar and Orissa province by the then governor of Bihar and Odisha Sir Hugh Lansdown Stephenson.

Reasons to visit Patna museum 

Patna Museum is one of the most famous and popular Museum in Bihar which houses more than 50,000 rare art objects . With an aim to establish a scientific reason to understand the evolution of history, culture and art tradition of Bihar, the Patna Archaeological Museum displays a huge collection of artefacts which were found during the excavation of ancient sites. It has a huge collection of paintings from the British time period which depicts the day to day life of people at that time and also it has a collection of the belongings to our first president of India Dr Rajendra Prasad. 

Patna Museum displays a great collection of many historical items found during the excavations in different parts of Bihar.  Some of these items belong to the Prehistoric phase and some of the items are from early centuries of 1st Millennium. 

The rare items that are displayed in this museum includes archaeological objects, coins, paintings,  instruments, bronze images and sculptures and Terracotta images by Hindu and Buddhist artists. It also displays a magnificent collection of Chinese Art, Jain images, Buddhist sculptures and Buddhist bodhisattvas. It also houses a World War I cannon.

Historical items from ancient India Era to 1764 has been transferred to Bihar museum and the post 1764 period historical items are kept at old Patna museum. 

Patna Museum – important collections

• Didarganj Yakshi – This enormous statue, dates back to the time of Ashoka, and has received its name from the fact that it was built in 1917 close to Didarganj on the banks of the Ganga river in Patna. The upper portion has been expertly constructed. It shows a woman with her left hand absent, holding a Chauri (Fly whisk) in her right hand. it has received praise in shows all over the world for the statue’s exquisite architectural design. However, this has now been shifted to Bihar Museum. 

• Buddha Relic Casket – This is very popular among the Buddhist tourists. The Holy Relic Casket was unearthed by archaeologists in 1958-59 in Vaishali and is made of soapstone. One can see the Relic Casket on the first floor of the building situated in Buddha Relic Gallery. You must buy a ticket to see the casket.

• Tree Fossil – A confined Fossil of a tree which is approximately 200 million years old and is 16 m in length. This is termed as the longest fossilized tree across the world. This tree was found by archaeologist near Asansol in West Bengal by the Eastern Railways in 1927 and then it was gifted to the Patna museum. It is located in the corridor of the Natural History Gallery.

• Patna Museum has a huge collection of sculptures of the Mathura and Gandhara style art belonging to the Kushana period. The Gandhara style of sculptures which are also known as Greco Buddhist Art are made of blueschist Swat Valley. And these collections includes portraits of Buddha. 

• Museum of Patna houses prehistoric objects of  Palaeoliths, Microliths and Neoliths which were found from different parts of the country. Some important mentions are Paleolithic tools found at Bariar (Madhya Pradesh) , Attirampakkam (Tamilnadu), and Lalitpur ( Uttar Pradesh). 

• The three deities Ekanamsa, Balarama, and Vasudeva, the famous trio from Devangarh in the Nawada district, have been separately depicted here which is very uncommon and not found anywhere else. 

• It also has the three images of Avalokitesvra, Maitreya and Buddha in Bhumisparsh posture which were excavated from Vishnupur of Gaya Districts. And there are some door frames with the figures of Ganga and Yamuna depicted on the sides of them. 

• Rahul Sankrityayan Has donated 10,000 gold and silver written manuscripts on handmade papers as well as Buddhist philosophy books that were formerly housed in libraries of historic Nalanda and Vikramshila Universities. These manuscripts were taken to Tibet around 700 years ago before the universities were destroyed. He brought these manuscripts with him. A project to construct a replacement museum in Patna was launched in November 2009 in order to accommodate the presentation of greater artefacts.

Patna Museum galleries

1. Natural History Gallery – This gallery can be found on the right side of the ground floor and contains a variety of preserved animals like Crocodiles, Tigers, Birds, Panthers and a large Bison standing in the middle of hall .

2. Stone Sculpture Gallery – This gallery is located on the left side of the ground floor. This hall displays some of the beautiful artefacts present in Patna museum and it opens to one more hall in which there are the statues of Lord Buddha kept in different postures belonging to Pala period (800-1200 AD) . It also houses exclusive specimens of Pala arts and artefacts from Gupta period.

3. Terracotta Gallery – This gallery is located in the Midway of the first floor and consists of beautiful Terracotta items from different period of Indian Empire like Kushan period, Mauryan period, Sunga period and Gupta period.

The other galleries which can be found on the first floor are Bronze Gallery, Rahul Sanskritayayana’s Gallery, Weapon Gallery, Painting Gallery, Patliputra Gallery and Rajendra Gallery.

How to reach Patna museum

Patna Museum is located at a distance of 5.8 km away from Jayprakash Narayan International Airport. You can easily reach there by booking a cab or taxi or even auto. 

And the nearest railway station to Patna Museum is Patna junction from where you can easily get all the modes of transport to reach Patna museum and even if you like you can take a  walk because it is just 1.8 km from Patna junction .

Nearby Famous Places

• Takhat Sri Harimandir Ji (Patna Sahib)
• Buddha Smriti Park
• Hanuman Mandir
• Maurya Lok Shopping Complex
• Bihar Craft Studio
• Ugratara Sthan Bhagwati Tara Temple
• Golghar
• Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park
• Gandhi Maidan

Patna Museum timings and entry fees 

Time to visit Patna Museum –  10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day except Monday

 Entry Fee – Rs. 15 for Indians and Rs. 250 for Foreigners

 If you want to take photos or videos you have to take tickets for that and the prices are :
 For a Mobile camera – Rs. 20
 For a Flash camera –  Rs. 100
 For a Video camera – Rs. 500
 For Commercial video recording – Rs. 5000

 There are also provisions to book guides for your convenience. The prices to book guides are :
 For one person – Rs. 25
 For 2-5 person –  Rs. 50
 For 6-10 persons –  Rs. 100

Patna museum address

Patna museum, Near Kotwali Thana, Budh Marg, Patna, Bihar, India, 800001

Also Read : Interesting Facts About Golghar – Places to Visit in Patna

Frequently Asked Questions

References:
Wikipedia
Bihar Tourism