Barendra Research Museum

The Barendra Research Museum was founded in 1910 by local zamindars and scholars to collect the antiquities of the Barendra region, which makes it the oldest museum in the country, and its holdings are the best sculpture collection outside Dhaka: black stone images of the Pala and Sena periods from the eighth to twelfth centuries, when this part of Bengal was a centre of both Buddhist and Hindu carving, along with terracotta, coins, inscriptions, manuscripts and material from the excavations at Paharpur and Mahasthangarh that the society itself helped run. The building of 1919 mixes European and Indo-Saracenic elements. It is run by Rajshahi University and is the reason to stop in the city.

History

Varendra, or Barind, was an ancient region of northern Bengal, and under the Pala and Sena dynasties it had its own renowned school of sculptors. In 1910 Sarat Kumar Ray of the Dighapatiya royal family, the lawyer and historian Aksaya Kumar Maitreya and the scholar Ramaprasad Chanda founded the Varendra Research Society, exploring and collecting finds from villages around Rajshahi to keep them in a local museum; it opened on 27 September 1910, was registered in 1914, took its present name in 1919, and the society went on to dig at Somapura with the University of Calcutta (Wikipedia, Varendra Research Museum).

Highlights

• Pala and Sena black stone sculpture - the finest group outside Dhaka.
• Paharpur and Mahasthangarh finds - material from the society's own digs.
• Terracotta and inscriptions - the wider Barendra collection.
• The 1919 building - the museum's own architecture.

When to go

November to March. Two hours. It closes on some days and Friday hours are short. Photography rules are restrictive. Mornings are quieter.

Practical notes

Display and lighting are dated and labelling is thin in English. Photography is restricted. The museum is small relative to the quality of the collection. Rajshahi is far from the usual routes.

Nearby

Puthia is east; the Padma riverfront is south in the city.

Key facts