National Museum, New Delhi

The National Museum in New Delhi is one of the largest museums in India. Its collection includes historical and artistic objects ranging from pre-historic era to modern works of art.

The Museum has around 200,000 works of art, both of Indian and foreign origin, covering over 5,000 years.

Virtual Tour of the National Museum, New Delhi

Dancing Girl (Mohenjo-Daro)
Nataraja
Shield of Maharana Sangram Singh II

National Museum, New Delhi – 360 Virtual Tour

Highlights Tour of the National Museum, New Delhi

Dancing Girl (Mohenjo-Daro)

The Dancing Girl is a bronze statuette created over 4,500 years ago and is a rare and unique masterpiece. It was found in the ancient Mohenjo-Daro site in 1926.

This statue is a cultural artifact reflecting the aesthetics of a female body as conceptualized during that historical period.

The bronze girl was made using the lost-wax casting technique and shows the expertise of the people in making bronze works during that time.

The statuette was named “Dancing Girl” based on an assumption of her profession. She is one of two bronze artworks found at Mohenjo-Daro that shows a more natural pose than compared to other more formal figures.

The statuette has large eyes, a flat nose, healthy cheeks, curly hair, and a broad forehead. She is a tall figure with long legs and arms, high neck, subdued belly, and sensuously modeled.

Nataraja

Nataraja is a massive yet elegant statue represents Shiva, passionately engaged in ecstatic dance. This form of Shiva’s image is known as Nataraja in iconographic tradition, and the dance, as ‘Ananda-tandava.’

Perfected anatomical proportions and distinct features define the image of the great Lord. The sculpture was cast in bronze and anodized in deep copper tint, and it represents Shiva as the Lord of Dance.

It combines in a single image the great Hindu god Shiva’s roles as creator, preserver, and destroyer of the universe and conveys the concept of the never-ending cycle of time.

Shiva has many guises and many representations in art, but the most popular is as a dancing figure within the arch of flames, called Shiva Nataraja, Lord of the Dance.

Nataraja is a depiction of the Hindu god Shiva as the cosmic ecstatic dancer. The pose and artwork are described in many Hindu texts, and the dance relief is featured in major Hindu temples of Shaivism.

Shield of Maharana Sangram Singh II

The “Shield of Maharana Sangram Singh II” belonged to Sangram Singh II (1690 – 1734), who was the ruler of Mewar, India. He reigned from 1710 to 1734.

This historical object is part of the Arms and Armor Gallery of the National Museum, New Delhi.

The shield is made of rhino hide making it robust and able to withstand battle blows; however, it was also light to carry. The shield has an inscription of ownership and depicts various expeditions by the Maharana.

The rhinoceros hide has been lacquered and painted in lac red, carbon black, and gold. It has been painted like a contemporary Mewar miniature and with as much detail and beauty.