Goa State Museum, also known as the State Archaeology Museum, Panaji, is a museum in

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

, India. Established in 1977, it contains departments including Ancient History and Archaeology, Art and Craft, and Geology. The museum, as of 2008, had about 8,000 artifacts on display, including stone sculptures, wooden objects, carvings, bronzes, paintings, manuscripts, rare coins, and anthropological objects. Currently, the Museum is located at the Adil Shah's Palace (Old Secretariat) in

Panaji Panaji (; also known as Panjim) is the capital of the Indian state of Goa and the headquarters of North Goa district. Previously, it was the territorial capital of the former Portuguese India. It lies on the banks of the Mandovi river estuary ...

. The Museum's erstwhile premises at the EDC Complex in Patto,

shall be demolished to make way for a new Museum building. The museum was earlier located at the EDC Complex in Patto,

; before that, it was housed at St. Inez,

. Currently, the Museum is located at the Adil Shah's Palace (Old Secretariat) in

. The Museum's erstwhile premises at the EDC Complex in Patto,

shall be demolished to make way for a new Museum building.

History

The museum was created as an Archaeology Museum unit of the Department of Archives in Goa in 1973, opening a small museum in a rented building on 29 September 1977. After building a new museum complex, it was formally inaugurated by the

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...

on 18 June 1996. The museum's exhibits provide information about the ancient historical and cultural traditions of Goa, which are displayed thematically, to showcase different aspects of the history and culture of Goa.

Galleries

The Goa State Museum has fourteen galleries, arranged thematically, which are the: Sculpture Gallery, Christian Art Gallery, Printing History Gallery, Banerji Art Gallery, Religious Expression Gallery, Cultural Anthropology, Contemporary Art Gallery, Numismatics Gallery, Goa's Freedom Struggle Gallery, Menezes Braganza Gallery, Furniture Gallery, Natural Heritage of Goa Gallery, Environment & Development Gallery, and Geology Gallery. The museum has about 8,000 artifacts representing all regions of India, as well as 645 objects borrowed from the Institute Menezes Braganza Art Gallery and the

Kala Academy Kala Academy (Academy of the Arts) is a prominent cultural centre run by the Government of Goa, in Goa, India. Situated at Campal, Panjim, it is registered as a society, and was started in February 1970. The building was designed by Charles Co ...

Art

The Sculpture Gallery predominantly exhibits artifacts of

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

and

Jain Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...

sculptures, including bronzes, from the 4th to the 8th centuries. The ancient sculptures are of

Kubera Kubera ( sa, कुबेर, translit=Kuberā) also known as Kuvera, Kuber and Kuberan, is the god of wealth, and the god-king of the semi-divine yakshas in Hinduism. He is regarded as Guardians of the directions, the regent of the north (' ...

Yakshi ''Yakshinis'' or ''yakshis'' (यक्षिणी sa, yakṣiṇī or ''yakṣī''; pi, yakkhiṇī or ''yakkhī'') are a class of female nature spirits in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain religious mythologies that are different from devas and ...

Uma Parvati ( sa, पार्वती, ), Uma ( sa, उमा, ) or Gauri ( sa, गौरी, ) is the Hindu goddess of power, energy, nourishment, harmony, love, beauty, devotion, and motherhood. She is a physical representation of Mahadevi in ...

and

Mahishasuramardini Durga ( sa, दुर्गा, ) is a major Hindu goddess, worshipped as a principal aspect of the mother goddess Mahadevi. She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars. Durga's legend centres around comb ...

from

Netravali Netravali is a census town in Sanguem taluka, South Goa district in the state of Goa, India. Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary *Located in Sanguem Taluka in Eastern Goa. *Area : 211.05 km2 *Major attractions : black panther, giant squirrel, ...

. There are two undated stone sculptures of the Southern-

Silahara The Shilahara Kingdom (IAST: Śilāhāra; also Sinhara, Shailahara, Shrilara, and Silara) was a royal dynasty that established itself in northern and southern Konkan in 8th century CE, present-day Mumbai and Southern Maharashtra (Kolhapur) du ...

period, one of two warriors from Kundai called Kantadev which was earlier located in front of the Navadurga temple, and another of

Surya Surya (; sa, सूर्य, ) is the sun as well as the solar deity in Hinduism. He is traditionally one of the major five deities in the Smarta tradition, all of whom are considered as equivalent deities in the Panchayatana puja and a m ...

which was earlier part of the circumbulatory (''pradakshinapath'') of the Shri Chandreshwar Bhutnath Temple. There are also bronze sculptures which are copies of European artists including

Claude Claude may refer to: __NOTOC__ People and fictional characters * Claude (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Claude (surname), a list of people * Claude Lorrain (c. 1600–1682), French landscape painter, draughtsman and etcher ...

and Dalon. The gallery has an inscription dated to 1049 on a copper plate of

Vira Varma {{Use Indian English, date=July 2018 Vira Varma was the second ranking prince of Kottayam and last Raja of Kurumbranad. He is more famous as the uncle of his better known nephew Pazhassi Raja. Vira Varma and his nephew Kerala Varma (Pazhassi Raja ...

, the Kadamba king.

In the Christian Art Gallery, there are many types of wooden sculptures of saints, and devotional paintings and some wooden furniture of the colonial period. There are also exhibits of Jain busts, three large raised works of art in relief, busts of

Luís de Camões Luís Vaz de Camões (; sometimes rendered in English as Camoens or Camoëns, ; c. 1524 or 1525 – 10 June 1580) is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespear ...

Afonso de Albuquerque Afonso de Albuquerque, 1st Duke of Goa (; – 16 December 1515) was a Portuguese general, admiral, and statesman. He served as viceroy of Portuguese India from 1509 to 1515, during which he expanded Portuguese influence across the Indian Ocean ...

, and Dom

João de Castro Dom João de Castro (27 February 1500 – 6 June 1548) was a Portuguese nobleman, scientist, writer, and the fourth viceroy of Portuguese India. He was called ''Castro Forte'' ("Stronghold" or "Strong Castle") by the poet Luís de Camões. De Cas ...

, which was earlier on the walls of the Municipal Gardens. The Banerji Art Gallery has number of exhibits gifted to the museum by S. K. Banerji, a former

Governor of Goa The governor of Goa is a nominal head and representative of the president of India in the state of Goa. The governor is appointed by the president for a term of five years. P. S. Sreedharan Pillai became governor on 7 July 2021. Powers and func ...

and hence the gallery is named after him. Some of the exhibits are

terracota Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta i ...

antiquities of

Indus Valley civilization The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form 2600 BCE to 1900&n ...

, seals of

Janapadas The Janapadas () (c. 1500–600 BCE) were the realms, republics (ganapada) and kingdoms (saamarajya) of the Vedic period on the Indian subcontinent. The Vedic period reaches from the late Bronze Age into the Iron Age: from about 1500 BCE to th ...

plastic art Plastic arts are art forms which involve physical manipulation of a plastic medium by Molding (process), molding or modeling such as sculpture or ceramic art, ceramics. Less often the term may be used broadly for all the visual arts (such as pa ...

of the

Gandhara Gandhāra is the name of an ancient region located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely in present-day north-west Pakistan and parts of south-east Afghanistan. The region centered around the Peshawar Vall ...

school of art, bronze images from

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...

, wooden images of

South East Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

, and

Dhokra Dhokra (also spelt ''Dokra'') is non–ferrous metal casting using the lost-wax casting technique. This sort of metal casting has been used in India for over 4,000 years and is still used. One of the earliest known lost wax artefacts is the ...

non–ferrous metal casting of art works. There are also miniature paintings of

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

of the Jaipur School, Marwar school, Mewar school and so forth,

Mughal paintings Mughal painting is a style of painting on paper confined to miniatures either as book illustrations or as single works to be kept in albums (muraqqa), from the territory of the Mughal Empire in South Asia. It emerged from Persian miniature paint ...

Nathdwara Nathdwara is a town near Rajsamand city in the Rajsamand district of the state of Rajasthan, India. It is located in the Aravalli hills, on the banks of the Banas River and is 48 kilometres north-east of Udaipur. Shrinathji, is a swarup of l ...

patachitra Patachitra or Pattachitra is a general term for traditional, cloth-based scroll painting, based in the eastern Indian states of Odisha, West Bengal and parts of Bangladesh. Patachitra artform is known for its intricate details as well as mythol ...

s from Orissa, and paintings of contemporary artists. An exhibit within the Contemporary Art Gallery includes a pair of an antique rotary lottery machines. These were known as Provedoria lottery machines manufactured in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

. A few pictures also display the procedure for operating these machines. They have thousands of wooden balls, and the first lottery draw is stated to have been held in 1947. There are many miniature paintings from different regions of India. The gallery has paintings and sculptures of Goan and Indian artists such as R. Chimulkar, F. N. Souza, S. H. Raza, M. F. Hussain, K. H. Ara and many more which have been borrowed from the Kala Academy and Institute of Menezes Braganza. A flag which marks Portuguese victory over the Dutch is also on display. Menezes Braganza Gallery contains contemporary Goan and Indian art, as well as portrait pictures of Portuguese Governors of Goa and Prime Ministers.

Science

Viragal or hero stones, which belonged to the King Biravarma period, are exhibited in the Cultural Anthropology Gallery. These stones represent the naval battle fought between the army of rulers of Gopalapattanam and

Honavar Honnavar is a town in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, India. History Honnavar is a port town in Coastal Karnataka known for its beautiful landscapes and rich history. The port hosted foreign traders from the Arab world, as well as later ...

and are commemorative stones erected to the memory of naval soldiers who died during the naval battle of the local chieftain Biravarma who is believed to have ruled over Goa. The stones indicate advanced technological skills that was in practice in building naval craft for battle. One such viragal depicts a ship with an "axial rudder" with seven rowers. In another viragal, there are nine oar holes and a "stern-post rudder" which was a further technological improvement over the axial rudder. These exhibits indicate that the Chalukyan kings like

Kirtivarman I Kirttivarman I (IAST: Kīrtti-varman; r. c. 566-592) was a ruler of the Chalukya dynasty of Vatapi (present-day Badami) in India. He ruled parts of present-day Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Kirttivarman was the son of his pre ...

(566–597) ruled over Goan territory. The exhibits also consist of ancient period utility vessels, many types of games, weights and measures, a replica of a sugarcane crusher, crane and farm implements as well as clay models of different vocations. The Environment & Development Gallery has cultural exhibits from many villages of Goa. The Geology Gallery has a fossil bone dated 10,000 BC.

Others

Top of the Chariot Used During Portuguese Era

The Religious Expression Gallery has a highly impressive sculpture of

Lord Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within t ...

dated to the

Gupta period The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed from the early 4th century CE to late 6th century CE. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period is considered as the Gol ...

. Other exhibits display a variety of multi-cultural religious colloquium of Goa's past. A replica of "Tarang", a traditional musical instruments, vessels used in religious rites, manuscripts in palm-leaf and paper of many religious scriptures and some photographs of many religious rites and festivals. The Numismatics Gallery has a display of Portuguese-era coins. The Furniture Gallery contains an intricately carved table and high-backed chairs which was part of the

Portuguese Inquisition The Portuguese Inquisition (Portuguese: ''Inquisição Portuguesa''), officially known as the General Council of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Portugal, was formally established in Portugal in 1536 at the request of its king, John III. ...

held in Goa of the 16th century. The legs of the table have carved lions and an eagle in one half and four figures of human beings in the other half. Furniture exhibits include a chair of the Portuguese Governor General, a sofa set with inlay work in ivory, ivory images of small size,

chest of drawers A chest of drawers, also called (especially in North American English) a dresser or a bureau, is a type of cabinet (a piece of furniture) that has multiple parallel, horizontal drawers generally stacked one above another. In American English a ...

and some western style furniture. In this gallery the prominent exhibit is of an intricately carved wooden chariot of the 18th century used in festivals.

Gallery

File:Printing Press Goa State Museum .jpg, Old Printing Press File:Old Plates Goa.jpg, Plates used for printing on newspapers and books File:Artifact 1.jpg, File:Artifacts in Goa State Museum .jpg , Sculpture Gallery File:Rare Portuguese Era Notes.jpg, Rare Portuguese Era Notes File:Artifacts on Display at Goa State Museum.jpg, Artifacts on display File:A sculpture on display at the Goa State Museum.jpg, A figurine File:Artifact from Portuguese Era.jpg, Artifact from Portuguese Era

References

Bibliography

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External links

Official website
{{authority control Museums in Goa Art museums and galleries in India Archaeological museums in India State museums in India Museums established in 1996 1996 establishments in Goa Education in Panaji Buildings and structures in Panaji 1977 establishments in Goa, Daman and Diu