Museums that encapsulate magic of Bengal and Calcutta

Calcutta:

A museum dedicated to the folk arts and crafts of Bengal, another housing a treasure trove of artefacts excavated till 2005 and a third that narrates the story of the ubiquitous tram. Three of Calcutta’s lesser-known attractions, all of them possible to visit in a day, were on Sunday part of a heritage tour taken by the German consul general Michael Feiner.

Metro tagged along to capture highlights of the visit to the Gurusaday Museum in Joka, the State Archaeological Museum in Behala and the tram museum in Esplanade.

Gurusaday Museum, Joka

This museum located near the Joka crossing on Diamond Harbour Road houses paintings, kantha embroidery and musical instruments, among others.

Colourful scroll paintings ( patachitra) that narrate tales like Gourangalila and Manasamangal adorn the walls . There are also square paintings that depict ordinary people living ordinary lives as well as gods and goddesses. One such painting shows a rural market scene with some people dressed in proper clothes while others are clad only in a dhoti, creating an image of social contrast.

Tribal musical instruments like dhamsa, madal, shinga and damru are also on display in the museum.

The majority of the pieces are from the collection of Gurusaday Dutt, an Indian Civil Service officer who gathered those during his stints as collector in various districts of undivided Bengal. Many others have made donations to the museum.

One of the more striking pieces is the Crowned Buddha. “We are used to seeing figures of a bare-headed Buddha. A figure of Buddha with a crown on his head and jewellery around his neck and arms is rare,” said Dipak Barapanda, the assistant curator of the museum.

The stone sculpture dates back to the 10th Century.

The museum has been in the news, albeit for the wrong reason, since the Union ministry of textiles informed the authorities that it could not fund maintenance forever. In a letter last November, the ministry asked the museum to find a sustainable revenue model to keep the show going.

About 800 exhibits are currently on display and another 4000 are languishing in the storeroom for paucity of space.

State Archaeological Museum, Behala

Tucked away behind a pavement full of hawkers in Behala is the richness of a heritage often overlooked. Several galleries in this museum are dedicated to paintings and artefacts found during excavation of historical sites.

Very few seem to know that artefacts excavated in 2005 at Jagjivanpur, a site in Malda, are on display here. “This site was excavated between 1996 and 2005,” said Sumita Guha Roy, the assistant curator and an employee of the museum since 1992.

How Jagjivanpur was discovered is an interesting story in itself. “In 1987, a man digging his field found a bronze plate,” Guha Roy recounted. “Archaeologists later deciphered the text on the plate and found that it was a land grant made by King Mahendrapala to his senapati (commander) to build a Buddhist monastery there.”

This was the first clue to the treasure trove hidden underground. A plaque inside the gallery mentions that excavation began in 1992, but had to be stalled for some years to rehabilitate people living there.

In one gallery, a painting from the late 18th Century shows the intermingling of people from different stratas of society. This one came from Nashipur in Murshidabad.

“The painting shows a medieval king and a Vaishnava saint standing in front of Lord Krishna with folded hands,” said Sayak Ghosh, a member of the Bespoken Architectural and Unique Legacies of Bengal (BAUL), the group that had organised the Sunday tour with the German consul general.

Smaranika, the tram museum in Esplanade

A tram of 1938 vintage at the Esplanade depot has been turned into a museum-cum-cafeteria with 16 seats. The rear bogie of the tram is where the museum is. It contains replicas of a tramcar that was once used to water and clean roads, besides a trolley bus. Tram tickets used during various periods are also on display.

Trolley buses had wheels like buses, but they drew electricity from overhead electric cables meant for trams.

The visit took consul general Feiner back to Germany, where trams still run. “Around 50 cities of Germany like Berlin, Stuttgart and Munich have streetcars. In Germany, streetcars get priority over other traffic,” he said.

At the cafeteria, which is open from 1pm to 8pm, a montage of films shot inside trams between 1931 and 2012 runs on loop on a television screen.

Feiner, who has lived in Calcutta for 10 months, offered a suggestion to promote tourism within Calcutta. “I think there should be a website with comprehensive information on the museums and heritage of Calcutta. There are a lot of ways to promote tourism and this can be a start,” he said.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Home> Calcutta / by Subhajoy Roy / July 09th, 2018