Patna Museum to close for visitors from June 1 for old building's revamp: Official

Patna: The historic Patna Museum, home to a collection of rich artefacts, rare paintings and a 200 million years old fossilised tree trunk, will be closed to visitors from June 1 to undertake restoration and revamp of its 95-year-old building, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Besides, refurbishment of the heritage building of the museum, being done as part of a redevelopment project, its old galleries will be redesigned, rearranged and curated in a new way to showcase the artefacts and other historic items in a better manner, he said.

The celebrated British-era landmark in the Bihar capital endowed with Indo-Saracenic architecture and fondly referred to as 'Jadu Ghar' by locals was completed in 1928 with two identical ornate gateways -- the 'In Gate' and the 'Out Gate'.

It was opened in March 1929 by the then Governor of Bihar and Orissa Sir Hugh Lansdowne Stephenson.

A project on redevelopment and extension of the museum building located on the old Patna Gaya Road, is currently underway, whose foundation stone was laid by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in August 2020.

"Civil work on construction of new wings around the old museum is almost complete. Visual galleries will now come up gradually in them. The work on revamping of the heritage building will now commence, and therefore from June 1, the Patna Museum will be closed to visitors," a top official in the Bihar government 's Art, Culture and Youth department said.

The museum will be closed for a "period of three months", he said.

"The exhibits and artefacts currently on display in the old building of the museum, will be packed and moved into storage in a section of the newly-constructed wing on its premises. Besides, revamping of the old building, its galleries would also be redesigned and rearranged for better display for visitors," the senior official said.

Patna Museum is a veritable treasure trove, and one of its most famous occupant till a few years ago was the Didarganj Yakshi or the Chauri-bearer, as she is also referred to as.

It remained one of the star attractions of the Patna Museum until the sculpture was moved, along with a large number of antique items, to Bihar Museum on Bailey Road.

The current exhibits at Patna Museum include artefacts dating to the period of 1764 onwards. Those belonging to pre-1764 period have been shifted to Bihar Museum which was inaugurated in 2017.

Patna Museum is also home to a fossilised tree trunk displayed in a corner of the ground floor of the old building.

It is a 200 million years old "slicified tree trunk, and 58-ft long, which was found near Asansol (in West Bengal) in 1927 and presented by the Eastern Railway, according to a wooden information panel mounted near the fossilised relic.

The new wings will be connected to the rear side of the old building, and a staircase and a lift will be built in an inner portion of the old auditorium to take visitors to the old museum, the official said.

The new wings trace an arc around the old museum building, covering the southern, western and northern portions of the old museum campus.

As per the plan, after entering through the main gate, the navigational direction for visitors would be, seeing the new galleries first, staring with the south wing, followed by the west wing and then through a staircase or a lift, they would go to the first floor of the old building of the museum, and after seeing exhibits on the first and ground floor, they would exit from the main door leading to the portico, the senior official said.

"So, the current entry point of the museum (old portico) will become the exit point. The gardens in front of the museum building would also be refurbished," he said.

A "small portion" of the interior of the current auditorium, located in the western side of the old building, will make way for construction of the staircase and a lift, and "its exterior will not be touched", a senior official had earlier said.

"The Patna Museum will be closed temporarily to undertake the renovation work. The galleries in the old heritage building will be curated in a new way. Some portions of the rare manuscripts that scholar Rahul Sankrityayan brought from Tibet, and later donated to the Patna Museum, will also be displayed," Secretary, Bihar government’s Art, Culture and Youth department, Bandana Preyashi, had told PTI here on May 18.

Other galleries in the old building would be based on themes, including (first president) Rajendra Prasad gallery, arms and ammunition gallery, coins, art -- old paintings and contemporary work and natural history.

The art section will also have on display some of the specimens of Patna Qalam paintings.

"The old artefacts will be kept in storage till the renovation is completed. And, then our plan is to have the entire redevelopment project finished in the next few months, so that by early November, it can be inaugurated and people can return to the Patna Museum, and see it in a different avatar," she had said.

The new galleries will be placed in new single-storey wings, telling the story of rise of the city of Pataliputra (ancient Patna) and the civilisation on the banks of the Ganga.

"The new galleries are yet to be set up, and these will be audio-visual galleries, models or virtual walkthroughs of say, the ancient city of Pataliputra or the evolution of the city. These will be called 'Ganga' and 'Patali' galleries," another official said, adding, the budget for the redevelopment project is Rs 158 cr.

The majestic old building of the museum was designed by Rai Bahadur Bishun Swarup, and its architectural elements include Rajput styles such as 'jharokhas', 'chhatris', ornate domes and a courtyard with an old fountain at its focal point.

The Patna Museum was established in April 1917, five years after Bihar & Orissa was carved out as a separate province from Bengal in 1912.

The museum began functioning in April 1917 out of a section in the northern wing of the Patna High Court building, before moving to the new building in early 1929.