Since this blog is one that has emerged after aeons of time, Imma begin with something timeless: A riddle.

Here we go:

There is a house. One enters it blind and comes out seeing. What is it?

-50 if you say an ophthalmologist’s clinic.

-100 if you say there’s no such thing.

+500 and a load of Mesopotamian gold if you say, a School.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the world’s oldest riddle, inscribed on a Sumerian tablet.

hehe….

As I wake from a hibernation consisting of mostly sleepless nights, I thought that it would be swell to turn the wheels of time and begin where everything first began.

In this blog, I will be taking ye wee time travelling adventurers to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalay, Mumbai or simply the Mumbai Museum.

Let’s get that flux capacitor rolling….

hehe:)

Founded in 1922 in the Kala Ghoda precinct of Mumbai, the museum was initially called the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India before being renamed to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalay.

While the museum is an absolute treat from the inside, the campus is a lovely place for a stroll before or after immersing oneself in history and culture. The lawns are very aesthetic and there are many interesting sculptures along the grassy paths, which makes the stroll feel like a treasure hunt.

Here are two sculptures that I came across while exploring the lawns. The first one is a sculpture depicting the Churning of the Ocean.

In Hindu Culture, the Churning of the Ocean was a phenomenon where the Gods and the Demons used a giant serpent and a mountain to churn a cosmic ocean. The event is the basis of many cosmic creations and it is often depicted in many murals and literary accounts.

The second sculpture is a nested sculpture of the Buddha, where a sleeping version of the Buddha is built in a shell of His face. I think it depicts how restful and calm His mind is and I love the depiction of peacefulness.

Sculptures have so much to unpack, with every little crevice of the medium used to build them and it is rather meditative to stroll amongst sculptures and letting the mind decipher secrets of its own.

Very Zen.

hehe.

Stepping inside the museum, the first gallery is called Networks of the Past.

It is dedicated to human civilisation, and it is set up from the most ancient to the most modern excavation findings, making it seem like a walk through the evolution of humanity.

The entrance of the gallery has this Lotus Motif which is a fragment from a pillar from the Great Stupa of Amaravati, India. It is made out of Amaravati limestone and dates back to 100 AD.

100 AD.

And here I am thinking my parents are dinosaurs.

People existed before the 70s….

Wild.

hehe.

This is one of the newer structures that the museum contains.

The Great Stupa of Amaravati was a constant work in progress, where some parts were built around the third century BC while newer modifications such as this one were built in the AD. It was a Buddhist monument, which was built through multiple Indian dynasties such as the Mauryan, Satavahana and the Ishvaku dynasties.

It was rediscovered in 1797 by a British surveyor named Colin Mackenzie and parts of its ruins were taken to the British Museum while parts of it are in museums all over India.

Up next, we have Queen Puabi’s harp(reconstructed), dating back to 2600 BC, from the Mesopotamian civilisation that flourished along the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. This harp was found by archaeologists in the royal tombs at Ur in modern day Iraq and the harp was reconstructed later.

The harp was said to have been made of wood, gold, bitumen and decorated with lapis lazuli. It looks rather ornate and the lapis lazuli reminds me of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile, hehe.

Queen Puabi was a Sumerian Queen and quite possibly one of the first female rulers in history. She was one of the most powerful figures in Sumerian history and her tomb showed signs of wealth and mystery, with her shroud being made of gold, lapis and agate, along with other articles such as decor and crowns.

The Queen’s tomb is believed to be a death pit as many other corpses of attendants and armed men were found in the tomb. It is believed that when a royal died in Mesopotamia, their attendants were sacrificed and buried along with them, so that they may be served in the afterlife.

Quite some fodder for Halloween, is it not?

Human beings are scary.

Moving away from humans, here we have a doggie and a ram, from ancient China. The Chinese revered animals like dogs, pigs and rams and often made sculptures of them.

I love how expressive the doggie looks. Its as though he is waiting for a treat, while the ram looks like it is contemplating the dog’s life choices, hehe:)

There is something so elegant about Chinese sculpture. No matter how ancient the sculpture is, it still looks so delicate and ornate.

It as though the artistry is frozen in time.

No matter what era, the world has always lived by the dictum that cats are superior beings.

Here we have a cat mummy, from Ancient Egypt, circa 1-50 AD.

The Egyptians worshipped cats, and they even had a cat-headed goddess named Bastet who was the goddess of the home and fertility. The Goddess’ cult was at Bubastis, where there are massive cat cemeteries to honour the lives of the cats who graced the peoples’ lives.

As a cat worshipper myself, this exhibit filled me with so much reverence.

I mean, no matter what was wrong with the world, a cat was always there at its heart, holding it together while knocking things off the counter.

hehe.

Talk to the Hand.

Or something like it.

hehe.

This exhibit is called The Hand, and it dates back to 100 AD. It was discovered in Zafar, Yemen and the inscription on the Hand is written in ancient South Arabian.

It loosely translates to Wahab Ta’lab has dedicated to their patron this right hand, in the city of Zafar for his well being.

So, in ancient Yemen, the right hand was considered auspicious and pure, so dedicating one’s right hand to their patron God was the most appropriate way to invoke the patron Gods and please them.

I mean, what better than a bronze right hand to manifest a good hair day, right?

hehe.

Up next, we have one of the most prized exhibits of the Museum.

This here, is an Ashokan edict which was erected by Emperor Ashoka in Nala Sopara, Mumbai in 250 BC.

Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan Dynasty of India was one of the country’s first monarchs. He had denounced violence in all its forms and edicts such as this one were inscribed with principles of non violence towards all living beings, courteous treatment of servants, reverence towards teachers and generosity towards holy men and the poor.

The script for the inscription is the ancient Brahmi script while the language is the Prakrit language. Some Ashokan edicts in other parts of India also have Greek and Aramaic inscriptions, which show that Indians could speak more than just their native tongues, ever since the ancient times.

India has a flair for linguistics. Every state has a different language, with dialects changing from town to town and exhibits such as this draw us back to our roots. I feel proud to be able to speak four languages, and I love how despite changing times, India still has its flair for the spoken tongue, because even today, most of us speak at least three languages.

Also, it was so interesting to see a slice of Mumbai from the BC era. The city is always associated with fast paced glitz and glamour so it was really fascinating to know that the city once housed quiet and rather austere principles written upon edicts.

Here’s a mosaic from Roman London, dating back to 1 AD. The mosaic depicts Bacchus, the Roman God of Wine, sitting upon an Indian tiger.

It is believed that Bacchus had once travelled to India to indulge in its riches, and while here, he made friends with this tiger who came back to Rome with him.

I love how all our mythology fuses so many cultures. It goes on to show that we are all so connected, despite boundaries and the human spirit might well be a singular entity in a billion different forms.

Moving on from the Networks of the Past gallery, Imma take ye spirited lot to an ongoing exhibition at the Museum, showcasing one of Mumbai’s oldest aristocratic communities, namely the Pathare Prabhu community.

The Pathare Prabhus came to Mumbai in the 13th century and much like the Young family in Crazy Rich Asians, they built the city on rock and roll, elite culture and tonnes of seafood delicacies.

hehe.

The first exhibit in the Pathare Prabhu exhibition is a traditional Maharashtrian wedding.

The Pathare Prabhus fused Marathi styles of clothing with influences from the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan and this style is showcased in the sarees worn by the women and the attires of the men in the painting.

A Maharastrian wedding is rather more simple than most other Indian weddings. The ceremony is also a lot shorter. In the painting, the bride and the groom are the two figures in the middle, wearing ceremonial crowns and matching yellow attire. The bride also wears a traditional Maharastrian nose pin called a Nath.

Here’s a glimpse of the jewellery and clothing owned by some of the Pathare Prabhu ladies.

The Pathare Prabhu saree was a nine yard saree lined with actual silver thread. The jewellery was all made of gold with the occasional gemstones thrown in.

There is something so regal about Indian jewellery.

Every small piece looks like a million bucks and makes the wearer look like royalty.

hehe.

This is a traditional shrine in a Maharastrian household, with the state’s patron God, Ganpati at the top.

The Pathare Prabhus built many shrines and temples around Mumbai and during the freedom struggle, these shrines are what brought the community together, amidst fear of suppression.

The women of the Pathare Prabhu community were very enterprising. All of them were highly educated and very talented. Here’s a glimpse of Mohantara Talpade, a singer whose legacy spans Indian cinematic music right from its advent.

There’s also a lady named Lakshmibai Dhurandhar, from the Pathare Prabhu community, who authored a cookbook, helping countless women take an interest in cooking and using food as an expression rather than treating it like a chore.

It’s so empowering to see that even in a bygone era, women were always trailblazers and there was always a voice of hope standing against all odds.

Moving on to the final gallery of the museum, here’s the Stone Age gallery which houses some of the most fascinating exhibits.

This mummy, for instance, is one of the only mummies in India. It is nearly 2000 years old and it is Mumbai’s only Ancient Egyptian mummy.

It was one of my main reasons for visiting the museum and I thought there would be crowds hounding the exhibit but I was so lucky to have the entire Mummy room all to myself.

I mean, I spent so long looking at the mummy that at one point, I thought he blinked.

Maybe it was the lighting.

Maybe the mummy’s alive.

What are the odds?

hehe.

Finally, here’s a carved stone from the Ice Age era.

This was my favourite exhibit in the museum, simply because the carvings look like plain scribbles from afar but if one looks closely, one will see that it is actually a carving of a horse, a mule and a stag fused together.

Here’s a short film showing ye folks how this piece of Ice Age history was created.

I mean, I think the Ice Age humans were rather Cubist, before the art form was cool.

hehe.

Whenever I mention going to a museum, my family rolls a dice.

My father’s gamble made him my museum companion and this is a mirror selfie taken against a mirror owned by the Tata family of Mumbai.

The Tatas are industrialists and revolutionaries who have shaped much of the city, so the Museum has a gallery dedicated to their collection. This mirror was so grand and the lighting was perfect and the little selfie addict in me couldn’t resist.

This was taken after I had dragged my father through every exhibit of the museum.

Like I said, it’s all a gamble.

hehe.

And that is a wrap.

Until next time.

See Ya:)