| Indian architecture is rooted in its history, culture and religion. Among a number of architectural styles and traditions, the best-known include the many varieties of Hindu temple architecture, Indo-Islamic architecture, especially Mughal architecture, Rajput architecture and Indo-Saracenic architecture. As with the Mughals, under European colonial rule, architecture became an emblem of power, designed to endorse the occupying power. Numerous European countries invaded India and created architectural styles reflective of their ancestral and adopted homes. Some prominent examples of modernist architecture in India include IIM Ahmedabad by Louis Kahn (1961), IIT Delhi by Jugal Kishore Chodhury (1961), IIT Kanpur by Achyut Kanvinde (1963), IIM Bangalore by B. V. Doshi (1973), Lotus Temple by Fariborz Sahba (1986), and Jawahar Kala Kendra (1992) and Vidhan Bhawan Bhopal (1996) by Charles Correa. Indian Museum is one of the largest and oldest encyclopaedic museums in Asia. It has its origin linked to the Asiatic Society, founded by Sir William Jones in 1784 which later on emerged as a separate entity called the Imperial Museum. Later known as Indian Museum Calcutta it was established in the year 1814 under the stewardship of a Danish botanist named Nathanial Wallich. Presently, it is a museum of national importance under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. Initially the museum was incepted as "an institution for the reception of all articles that might be sent to illustrate Orient manners and history," over a period of time it has widened its scope and avenue by becoming a modern museum with a vast repository of indigenous and international exhibits that are spread across six sections such as art, archaeology, anthropology, zoology, geology and botany. Apart from these sections, there are other units to help the museums, viz., library, publication, modelling, presentation, photography, conservation unit. There has been a paradigm shift in the concept of museums across the world and the Indian Museum is no exception. |
