H-Announce Exhibition on Rahul Sankrityayana's Antiquity Collection (From Patna Museum) from March 16- April 9, 2018 at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi, India Announcement published by Navneet Sawhney on Tuesday, March 20, 2018 Type: Event Date: March 16, 2018 Location: India Subject Fields: Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Asian History / Studies, Historic Preservation, South Asian History / Studies, Southeast Asian History / Studies Pandit Rahul Sanskrityayana (1893-1963) was an outstanding scholar in the field of Buddhist Studies and also Hindi Literature and is well known for his arduous and adventours journey to Tibet in search of lost works in Sanskrit pertaining to Indian culture and also original Buddhist manuscripts which were lost after the burning of two great ancient Universities of Nalanda and Vikramshila (13th Century). With zeal and strenuous effort he could retrieve some of the lost manuscripts from the ruins of the Monastery which were translated into Bhot Language. Some of the important Buddhist texts discovered by him are Pramāṇa – Vārtika of Dharmakriti; Hetu-Bindu; Dharmottara Pradipa. Nyāya text of Jñaṇaśrimitra Ratnakirti; Abhidharma Kosha of Vasubandu (Nālandikā Ṭika) etc. He returned to India with many more valuable manuscripts and Thanka Paintings which are housed in Patna Museum,Bihar,India. It is an undoubted fact that Buddhism found its way into Central and Eastern Asia from India ages ago. But the efforts of the Indian Pandits in the land of snow buried in oblivion. India and Tibet were linked together by almost thousand years of spiritual bonds and golden links. The symbiotic relationship between the Indian and Tibetan Buddhism cannot be ignored unless and until we explore thoroughly Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan in a proper perspective. He belonged to both India and Tibet. Mahapandita Sankrityayan brought many rare antiquities, Paintings, Manuscript from his strenuous journeys to Tibet, presently housed in the Patna Museum, Patna, Bihar. These antiquities like Thangka, Bronze and Wooden statues, Manuscript etc., brought by Mahapandita Rahul Sankrityayan are of great cultural and artistic value. This exhibition will showcase eighty five rare original antiquities from Rahul Sankrityayan’s collection housed in Patna Museum as well as glimpses of Mahapandit Sankrityayan’s life through photographs. These objects are part of Patna Museum Collection from last eight decades but with this special exhibition on these objects from Patna Collection in New Delhi surface the opportunity to access this Citation: Navneet Sawhney. Exhibition on Rahul Sankrityayana's Antiquity Collection (From Patna Museum) from March 16- April 9, 2018 at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi, India. H-Announce. 03-20-2018. https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/1568959/exhibition-rahul-sankrityayanas-antiquity-collection-patna Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-Announce rare collection on display. This exhibition is an initiative to disseminate the scholarly contribution of multifaceted personality Mahapandita Rahul Sankrityayana to India’s art, culture and heritage among the people who know him as traveller, or as a scholar. The exhibition displays several rare and important silk embroidered and painted thangkas depicts Buddha, Bodhisattvas, Arhats, Siddhas, and Avalokiteshvara in several forms and Buddhist Acharyas. There is a thangka depicting Ratnakar Santi who waspradhanacharya (head) of Vikramshila monastery in the end of 10th century C.E., other representations on these thangkas includes great Tibetan scholars such as Mikhas-Grup, Chos-kyi-rdo-rje, Lo-Bzang-Kalden –Yeshes. These beautiful thangkas also depicts Tibetan emperors and Jataka tales as well. Besides Thangkas the beautiful bronze, wooden, brass objects, etc., enrich the display of the exhibition. The exhibition also displays rare photographs of Mahapandita Rahul Sankrityayana from personal collection of his daughter Jaya Sankrityayana. These rare photographs give glimpses of life journey this multifaceted Mahapandit. Contact Info: For any queries please contact Navneet Sawhney, Project Associate, East Asian Programme Unit, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi, India ([email protected]) or [email protected]. Contact Email: [email protected] URL: http://ignca.gov.in/events/exhibition-on-rahul-sankrityayan-puratan-sangraha/ Citation: Navneet Sawhney. Exhibition on Rahul Sankrityayana's Antiquity Collection (From Patna Museum) from March 16- April 9, 2018 at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi, India. H-Announce. 03-20-2018. https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/1568959/exhibition-rahul-sankrityayanas-antiquity-collection-patna Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 2.