The Indian Museum (Bengali: ভারতীয় জাদঘর) is the largest museum in India and has rare collections of antiques, armour and ornaments, fossils, skeletons, mummies, and Mughal paintings. This was the first museum of its kind in Asia. The Indian museum rose from the Asiatic Society of Bengal which was created by Sir William Jones in 1784.
It has six sections comprising thirty five galleries of cultural and scientific artifacts namely Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Geology, Zoology and Economic Botany. This multipurpose Institution with multidisciplinary activities is being included as an Institute of national importance in the seventh schedule of the Constitution of India.[2]
It currently occupies a resplendent mansion, and exhibits among others: an Egyptian mummy, the Buddhist stupa from Bharhut, the Buddha's ashes, the Ashoka pillar, whose three-lion symbol became the official emblem of the Republic of India, fossil skeletons of prehistoric animals like dinosaurs, an art collection, rare antiques, and a collection of meteorites.
The administrative control of the cultural sections, viz Art, Archaeology and Anthropology rests with the Board of Trustees under its Directorate, and that of the three scientific sections is with Geological Survey of India, Zoological Survey of India and Botanical Survey of India.
The National Museum of Natural History, which has all the ingredients of becoming a world-class museum has become an exhibit in itself.
