MATHURA GOVERNMENT MUSEUM

Location-Mathura.

Found by-F.S. Growse.

Found in-1874.

Collections Include-Mathura School of Sculptures of 3rd century B.C.

Government Museum - originally founded by F. S. Growse in 1874, is today one of the leading centres for research, study and the preservation of Mathura's splendid heritage of art. The museum housed in an octagonal, red sandstone building, has the largest collection of Kushan sculptures in the country. Other attractions are terra cottas, gold, silver and copper coins, clay seals, ancient pottery, paintings and bronzes. The vast collection includes stone sculptures, bas reliefs, architectural fragments, inscriptions of various faiths and creeds, coins, terracotta, inscribed bricks, pottery pieces, clay seals, bronze objects and paintings. The museum has the richest and by far the most important collection of the Mathura School of Sculptures of 3rd century B.C - 12th century A.D. The museum can be visited everyday except Monday, on the second Sunday of every month and other government gazetted holidays. Excavations in and around Mathura have added to the collection. The huge number of terracotta pieces include archaic mother goddesses, plaques from the Sunga period and many images dating to the Kushana and Gupta eras. The Goyindnagar site yielded a rich hoard of magnificent Buddhist sculpture from the Kushana and Gupta periods. A dated Gupta period epigraph identifies the site as the Viradatta Vihara. The Govindnagar discoveries are extremely significant as they help establish an almost complete chronology of the Buddhist pantheon as well as shows the growth of the Mathura school which reached its zenith of perfection in the 5th century AD.