The Orissa
State Museum began as a subsidiary of Ravenshaw College's Department of
Histoiy. However, over the years it has become one of the premier
institutions of the state with a wide range of antiquities representing
the region's rich cultural heritage. The galleries cover archaeology,
epigraphy, numismatics, armoury, mining and geology, painting,
anthropology and manuscripts.
The manuscript gallery here is
significant as it contains some rare palm leaf manuscripts. The 50,000
manuscripts, some of which are beautifully illustrated, cover subjects as
diverse as religion, philosophy, astronomy,astrology, poetry, science,
medicine, mathematics, warfare and the crafts. The oldest manuscript dates
to the 15th century though evidence reveals that this art existed as far
back as the 6th century AD.
Palm leaves were dried and the Oriya
script was incised into the leaf with a stylus.The manuscripts are
incredibly rich in exquisite penmanship and are a repository of artistic
expressions of that time. The costumes, jewellery, hairstyle and facial
features are very similar to the Orissa temple sculpture. The scenery
depicted is highly stylised and symbolic. The earliest palm leaf
manuscript i the Abhinava Gita Govinda b-Chandra Das Dibakar Mishra by
Sridhar Sharma, dated 1496.
A 1690 illustrated manuscript of
Gita Govinda written by the 12th century poetjayadeva has 80 folios It
displays the advanced writing technology of its time in its drawings on
both sides of palm leaves, in rich primary colours undiminished bv time.
Rare epigraphic records are preserved in the Epigraphy Gallery.
Stone inscriptions copper plate grants and a number of plaster cast
impressions of originals depict earlier patterns of writings, following
different dialects and languages. The most coveted acquisition is the
Bhadrakali inscription in Prakrit dating to the 3rd century AD.
Orissa
State Museum
Gautam Nagar
Opp Hotel Kalinga Ashok
Bhubaneswar
751 014
Timing: 10.00 am to 4.00 pm
Closed on Mondays and
government holidays.
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