Indian Museum

According to the Museums of India portal, Sir William Jones founded the Asiatic Society in Kolkata in 1784. In 1796 its members conceived the idea of a museum to receive and keep objects made by people or produced by nature. The idea took shape in 1808, when the Society occupied premises at the corner of Park Street, on land granted by the Government.

Single source·Indian Museum, Kolkata: museum page[1]

The portal gives 1814 as the founding year, with the museum housed in what is now the Asiatic Society's building at 1 Park Street.

Single source·Indian Museum, Kolkata: museum page[1]

Wikipedia adds that on 2 February 1814 Nathaniel Wallich, a Danish botanist, wrote to the Society's council proposing a museum and offering to serve as its curator. It also records that the first Indian Museum Act was passed in 1866, that the foundation at the present site was laid in 1867, and that the present building, on what was then Chowringhee Road, was completed in 1875 to a design by W L Granville. We have not checked these dates against a primary source, so they are given here as Wikipedia's account.

Single source·Wikipedia, “Indian Museum” (tertiary source)[2]

The museum's catalogue record for its Lion Capital gives the provenance as Rampurwa, Bihar, and a date of about the 3rd century BCE. It describes a single lion on an abacus decorated with a line of geese, above a bell-shaped inverted lotus, and says the capital still keeps its high lustrous polish in places.

Single source·Lion Capital, catalogue record A24800[3]

Wikipedia says the museum also holds a copy of the Lion Capital of Ashoka, whose original is in the Sarnath Museum. That is a different object from the Rampurwa capital.

Single source·Wikipedia, “Indian Museum” (tertiary source)[2]

Records for sculpture from the north-west of the subcontinent include a Preaching Buddha and a seated Bodhisattva, both from Loriyan Tangai and both dated to about the 2nd century CE. The catalogue says the Buddha holds his hands in the vyakhyana mudra, the preaching gesture, and describes the Bodhisattva as having typical Gandharan features.

Single source·Preaching Buddha, catalogue record 4838/A23230[4]·Bodhisattva, catalogue record 4993/A23527[5]

Two bronzes, a Nataraja and a Somaskanda group of Siva, Parvati and Skanda, are each dated to about the 13th century CE. The catalogue gives Chennai, Tamil Nadu, as the origin of both.

Single source·Nataraja, catalogue record 11000/A9983[6]·Somaskanda, catalogue record 11001/A9981[7]

From eastern India, the catalogue records a standing Avalokitesvara from Lalitagiri, Orissa, dated to about the 10th century CE, whose left forearm is broken. It also records a Khadiravani Tara whose pedestal inscription names the second year of King Ramapala.

Single source·Avalokitesvara, catalogue record 6954/A24136[8]·Khadiravani Tara, catalogue record 3824/A25158[9]

The placards in the galleries carry the museum's own wording and accession numbers. A sandstone relief of scenes from the life of the Buddha (S. 60/A24175) is labelled as from Sarnath, about the 6th century CE. A basalt votive stupa (BG41/A24212) is labelled as from Bodhgaya, about the 11th century CE.

Single source·Indian Museum gallery labels[10]

Wikipedia lists the railings and gateways of the Bharhut stupa, remains of the Amaravati stupa and an Egyptian mummy among the collection. None of these has a catalogue record in the app's research so far, so the app has nothing sourced to show for them yet.

Single source·Wikipedia, “Indian Museum” (tertiary source)[2]·Epocheye app: Lens cards and museum scan flow[11]

Epocheye does not reconstruct the museum building. There is no 3D model of it and no view of how it once looked.

Confirmed·Epocheye app: Lens cards and museum scan flow[11]

Inside the museum, the app recognises an object from the camera, or reads the accession number on its placard, and places cards beside it. Each card holds one claim. A line above the claim names the evidence tier and the source, and the card links to the source's page. At this museum those sources are, so far, the Museums of India catalogue records.

Confirmed·Epocheye app: Lens cards and museum scan flow[11]·Lion Capital, catalogue record A24800[3]

When the app finds no record, it says so in these words: “No published record of this object was found in the sources this app is allowed to cite. That is a statement about the search, not about the object.”

Confirmed·Epocheye app: Lens cards and museum scan flow[11]

The app marks a museum catalogue claim as confirmed on its card, and shows a lead card saying when everything rests on one source. This page is stricter. The catalogue and the placards both come from the museum, so a claim backed only by them is marked here as single source.

Confirmed·Epocheye app: Lens cards and museum scan flow[11]·Indian Museum gallery labels[10]

We found no disagreement between the sources on the points this page uses. That is mostly because most points rest on a single source. Wikipedia's account of the founding cites the museum's own website, so where it agrees with the Museums of India portal on 1808 and 1814, that is not independent confirmation.

Single source·Indian Museum, Kolkata: museum page[1]·Wikipedia, “Indian Museum” (tertiary source)[2]

For the relief from Sarnath and the votive stupa from Bodhgaya, the placards and the online catalogue give the same place and century. Both come from the museum, so this page does not count them as two sources.

Single source·Indian Museum gallery labels[10]·Scenes from the life of Buddha, catalogue record S60/A24175[12]·Votive Stupa, catalogue record BG41/A24212[13]