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With the implementation of the various Five Year Plans
there was a definite policy of the State Government which decided to establish
museums at important archaeological sites, at district and regional level, and
museums with specific objectives like the period and personalia museums. |
Today there are three regional museums, one each a
Nagpur, Aurangabad and Nasik. A district level museum at Kolhapur, two
period museums, one each at Sindhkhed Raja (Dist. Buldana) and Satara, three
art museums, one each at Sangli, Aundh and Kolhapur (Chandrakant Mandhre
Musuem), two site museums, one each at Ter (Dist. Osmanabad), and Mahur (Dist.
Nanded). The Department is thinking of establishing personalia museums at
the protected monuments connected with celebrities of the recent past like
Chhatrapati Shahu, R.G. Gadkari, Veer Savarkar and Mahatma Phule. |
Among art museums reference has already been made to
the unique museum at Aundh. It was only recently (1984) that the noted
cine artist Shri Chandrakant Madhre donated his house and collection of
landscape portraits to the Government to create a museum of paintings.
During his leisure hours, this artist, famous on the silver screen, made
portraits and landscapes for which he was honoured by the Education Department
of the State Government. About 300 paintings covering mainly landscapes,
beautiful tracts of India and some foreign countries adorn this Gallery
attracting art lovers and connoisseurs alike. |
The museum at Mahur which houses local sculptures,
coins and other artefacts of interest came into existence because of the
untiring efforts of the local social worker, Shri Uttamrao Rathod, who added to
the collection by donating many Banjara artefacts.
Perhaps a better example of such selfless endeavour to collect art objects and
antiquities of a particular period was in the form of the Ramlingappa Lamture
collection of Satavahana antiquities at Ter. The Grocery merchant from
Ter had a good eye for Satavahana artefacts and purchased terracottas, beads,
coins and a number of objects from local people, especially school
children. He donated these objects to the Government without any monetary
gain in mind but with the expectation that the museum should be established at
Ter only. One of the precious items was the famous ivory figurine, the
twin of which was found during the Pompeii excavation. (For the latter,
he was offered a fabulous sum by an English museum). |
The museums at Sindhkhed Raja and Satara are period
museums. The latter was established to commemorate the golden period of
Maratha history and named after Shivaji, the founder of that kingdom. It
houses arms and armours, ornaments and dresses, means of entertainment like
musical instruments and playing cards, coins and utensils and last but not the
least, the murals and paintings of the period. |
Shri Shahu's birth place in Kasba Bawda Kolhapur was
the beginning for museums of museums of the personalia type. Here pieces
of works of contemporary art (paintings of Madhavaro Begal and English marbles)
and pictorial representations of important events from the life of the great
social reformer and educationist have been displayed. |
| The oldest and perhaps the best of the Government
Museums is the Central Museum at Nagpur. This museum which was
established in 1863 was the State Level Museum of the C.P. & Berar till the
reorganization of the States. It is multi-disciplined museum with a rich
collection of minerals, archaeological artefacts, specimens and handicrafts and
articles of daily usage of a bygone era. It has anthropological gallery
and an entire section on birds, reptiles and mammals from the jungles of the
Central Provinces and Berar. A decade ago, an art gallery was added which
houses certain specimens of paintings from the Bombay School of Art. The
Government has decided to renovate the 125 year old building, and reorganise
the galleries because of which it is presently closed. |
| The museum movement in Maharashtra has yet to reach
all the districts of Maharashtra, not to speak of villages, Still, with its
rich museums like those at Nagpur, Kolhapur, Aundh and Satara, it is definitely
keeping pace with other states of India. |
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