Museum · London, United Kingdom
British Museum
Room 33 holds the museum's main display of Asian art, including sculpture from across the Indian subcontinent. Next door are the Amaravati reliefs.
See first
- The Amaravati sculptures
- Sculpture from the Indian subcontinent in Room 33
- Mughal paintings
- The jade terrapin made for Jahangir
Part of the British Museum’s Indian holdings came from the East India Company’s India Museum, whose collections were divided between this museum and the V&A in 1879–80.
The principal Asian gallery is Room 33, with Chinese, South Asian and South-East Asian objects. Its sculpture from the subcontinent is a small but comprehensive survey.
The reason to go is next door. The Amaravati reliefs are limestone carvings from a great Buddhist stupa in Andhra Pradesh, excavated in 1845 by Sir Walter Elliot of the Madras Civil Service. Many were shipped to London in 1859; more stayed in Madras. The largest groups of Amaravati sculpture are here and at the Government Museum in Chennai. Seeing one makes you want to see the other.
The Islamic collections hold Mughal paintings and a large jade terrapin made for the emperor Jahangir.