Government Museum, Mathura, commonly referred to as Mathura museum, is an
archaeological museum in
Mathura city of
Uttar Pradesh state in
India. The museum was founded by then
collector of the
Mathura district, Sir
F. S. Growse in 1874. Initially, it was known as Curzon Museum of Archaeology, then Archaeology Museum, Mathura, and finally changed to the Government Museum, Mathura.[1]
Overview
The museum houses artifacts pottery, sculptures, paintings, and coins primarily from in and around Mathura, plus discoveries made by noted colonial archaeologists like
Alexander Cunningham, F. S. Growse, and Fuhrer.[1]
The museum is famous for ancient sculptures of the
Mathura school dating from 3rd century BC to 12th century AD., during
Kushan Empire and
Gupta Empire.[2] today it is one of the leading museums of Uttar Pradesh.[3]
The
Government of India issued a postage stamp on 9 October 1974 on the centenary of the museum.
^Myer, Prudence R. (1986). "Bodhisattvas and Buddhas: Early Buddhist Images from Mathurā". Artibus Asiae. 47 (2): 111–113 Fig. 10.
doi:
10.2307/3249969.
ISSN0004-3648.
JSTOR3249969.
^"Naigamesa was a popular deity in the Kushana period and we have at least eight figures of this god from Mathura assignable to c. 1st to 3rd century A.D. (GMM., E. 1, 15.909, 15, 1001, 15. 1046, 15. 1115, 34.2402, 34. 2547, SML., J 626, etc)" in Joshi, Nilakanth Purushottam (1986).
Mātr̥kās, Mothers in Kuṣāṇa Art. Kanak Publications. p. 41.