Museum revisited

I did not know why should I visit a museum?  In my sub-conscious mind I found the buried information that people of well-breed keep visiting such places.  Its importance, time to time is underlined by news that a historical item from this museum or that had been stolen and the police have sealed the entire exit points leading out of the city and moreover, the record auction further highlights its worth.

These are the things which I had in my mind when I entered the Patna museum. I got the opportunity to see and observe many historical items ranging from Mauryan, Gupta and Mughal periods. The stone sculptures and the terracotta figurines I found the most attractive and captivating. Rather, I should say that my eyes were stuck on the two types of items. The stone sculptures were telling their own stories. The types of stone and their polishing were showering some lights on the rulers, their economic conditions, development of crafts, etc. I found the Mauryan stone sculptures quite big in size, fine polished, and gleaming. Most of them were carved out of granite. Where as the majority of the stone sculptures of other periods were made out of sandstone.

However, I discovered a similarity in the terracotta figurines throughout the ancient to the early medival periods. . They were more or less similar; small in size, depicting many animals, birds, human, playthings, etc. These figurines probably wanted to tell me many things. What I construe that they were narrating the stories of their masters- the common people, which were unsolicited throughout the periods. I neither understood their languages nor developed any sympathetic liaison. I also failed to understand them but my mind did not sit idle rather remained entangled.

So I decided to understand farmers, artisans and craftsmen of my own surrounding vis-à-vis the others. I realized a trend runs parallel. The people who represent the lower rung, their live-chance remain more or less static whether they belong to this century or that. Availability and accessibility of food is the mainstay of their lives’ goal. Most of their energy and efforts go in fetching their sustenance. Their situation is decided by the mercy of nature and type of taxation. In the 21^st century, the spectrum of life has been raised up but their relative position remained the same.

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