GOVERNMENT MUSEUM
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Government Museum comprising main and front buildings, bronze and art galleries, children's museum
The Government Museum once belonged to the Pantheon Committee, a group of prominent British citizens who were responsible for improving the social conditions of the English in Madras. It consists of a main building, a front building, a gallery of bronzes, a children's museum, a national art gallery and a contemporary art gallery. It is the second largest museum in India. It gathers very old historical treasures: Buddhist sculptures of Amaravati, vestiges of the Pallava, Chola and Pandya periods, and the bronze statues of the Cosmic Dance of the god Shiva, Durga or Ganesh dating from the Chola empire. In the same building, you will find the museum's art gallery, the Natural History Department, the theater and the Connemara Public Library.
Don't miss the impressive 3.30 m high Indian elephant skeleton; this temple has some beautiful sculptures and 63 bronze statues of Shivaite, or Nayanmar, saints adorning the outer courtyard. Under the old Punnai tree in the courtyard, there is a small shrine where the goddess Parvati is depicted as a peacock worshipping Lord Shiva.
It is from this legend that Mylapore got its name, myil meaning peacock and oor meaning city. During the Arupathu Moovar festivities, in March-April, all the nayanmar people are paraded in a procession around the temple.
If this museum is a visit impossible to circumvent of the city, one regrets however the prohibitive price of entry.