The East Asian Art Gallery at Mumbai's main museum

As a part of an assignment in the Bachelor of Vocation course in travel and tourism, we first year students tried our hands at tour-guiding at Mumbai's main museum, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sanghralya (formerly known as the Prince Of Wales). This museum houses over 50,000 artifacts of different kinds- archaeological, artistic and natural. Each student guided the group through five artifacts. I chose the Japanese and Chinese art gallery, which is part of the Sir Ratan Tata and Sir Dorab Tata collection, as it suited my interests. This gallery houses artifacts from the Orient-like lacquer, jade, ivory, porcelain and ceramic art; as well as paintings. These artifacts are from 18th-19th century dynasties.#1 Chinese artChinese Porcelain-Chinese ceramic ware shows a continuous development since the modern dynastic periods and is one of the most significant forms of Chinese art.  Porcelain is so identified with China that it is still called "china" in everyday English usage.Chinese Blue and White porcelain, for example:(18th-19th century AD)

Blue and white porcelain designate white pottery and porcelain decorated under the glaze with a blue pigment, generally cobalt oxide. The decoration is commonly applied by hand, by stenciling or by transfer-printing, though other methods of application have also been used. The technique of cobalt blue decorations seems to have come from the Middle-East in the 9th century through decorative experimentation on white ware.

Blanc de Chine (18-19th Century AD) - It is a type of white porcelain.

Those are statues of Buddhist deities, one of them Guan Yin, a deity of mercy. 

#2 Chinese jade

It is the primary hard stone of Chinese sculpture. Prized for its hardness, durability, musical qualities, and beauty, it was associated with Chinese conceptions of the soul and immortality. By the Han dynasty, the royal family and prominent lords were buried entirely en-sheathed in jade burial suits sewn in gold thread, on the idea that it would preserve the body and the souls attached to it. Jade was also thought to combat fatigue in the living.

#3 Japanese porcelain 
It's one of the of the country's oldest art forms, and dates back to the Neolithic period. 

#4 Japanese lacquer- Lacquer is a clear or coloured wood finish that dries by solvent evaporation or curing process that produces a hard, durable finish. These objects are decoratively covered with lacquer. 

#5 Woodblock Prints (Moku Haga)- It's a hand printing process imitated from the Chinese woodblock prints of the 17th century. The process involved several people- the master painter to draw the design, the block makers to cut the blocks, the paper makers to prepare the design and artists to prepare pigments. The following painting is by artist Kikugank Eizan (1787-1867).

Published by Nivedita Roy, roll no. 108, FBVOC Tourism, Xavier's 

Rajasthan - Culturally Yours..!!

What comes in your mind if you hear the word "Rajasthan"..??
That it is the largest state of India or you will find desert rich with cactus and camel around or the Ghumar folk dance.
It has a lot more to give and display.On my tour to Rajasthan for a week I discovered the true sense of culture-rich diversity of our nation.
 I started my trip from Ajmer which is formally known as Ajmeru famous for being a resting place for a renowned Sufi poet - Moinuddin Chisti. He is referred as Khwaja Garib Nawaz for being sympathized towards the poor and needy people. There is a magnificent shrine surrounded by many other graves of people famous in his time. And all this is covered by a splendid portion developed into a Dargah. One can sense the spiritual touch merged with Sufi elements of Qawalli and floral decoration in the dargah. Along with the shrine, there are other historic buildings which include Jehangir Mosque, Shahjahan Mosque which is constituted with white marble and Sandal Masjid.
Few meters from the shrine is the classic blend of ancient Hindu-Muslim Architecture called as Adhai Din ka Jhopda. It was a hindu temple which was demolished by a muslim ruler and later converted into a mosque. Few inscription from Holy Quran are present on the walls of the marvelous sandstone complex while the entry gate have inscriptions in Sanskrit.
My next destination was Jaisalmer which has the ambiance of the real Thar. The Jaisalmer Fort and Patwon ki Haveli is just exquisitely fantastic. Where Jaisalmer Fort forecasts the traditional Rajasthani method of building a fort, Patwon ki Haveli is showcases the grandeur of Patwa family built in yellow sandstone. The real Indian desert - Thar can only be experienced in Jaisalmer sand dunes. There are regular Camel rides and privately owned Buggy rides which catches the nerve of any adventurous individual.
The Pink City - Jaipur was the final destination of my trip. From mouth watering Ghevar and Dal Bhati Choorma to Baandhni fabrics made a perfect end to the trip. And how can I not mention the ever breezy Hawa Mahal which houses a museum containing the collection of paintings, sculptures, coins and handicrafts. The amalgamate of Rajasthani and Mughal Architecture called The City Palace is breathtaking. The palace is divided into the Maharaj Mahal, Maharani Mahal, Diwan-e-khas, Diwan-e-aam & Chandra; each of which is distinctively unique.
Thus the incredible state of Rajasthan has a treasure of culture and much more to offer....

Once upon a time in a city...

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), formerly Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, is the main museum in Mumbai, formerly Bombay. It was founded in the early years of the 20th century by prominent citizens of Bombay, with the help of the government, to commemorate the visit of the then prince of Wales. It is located in the heart of South Mumbai near the Gateway of India. The museum was renamed in the 1990s or early 2000s after Shivaji, the founder of Maratha Empire. 

The museum building is built in the Indo-Saracenic style of architecture, incorporating elements of other styles of architecture like the Mughal, Maratha and Jain. The museum building is surrounded by a garden of palm trees and formal flower beds. 
The museum houses approximately 50,000 exhibits of ancient Indian history as well as objects from foreign lands, categorized primarily into three sections: Art, Archaeology and Natural History. 

Selected objects:- 

Railing pillar

        It is a Buddha monument, it was from pauni a small near Nagpur, close to the river wainganga. Pauni was an important Buddhist centre in the 2 nd century BC.  this is one of the many octagonal sculpted pillars found scattered at the site with Hinayana, early Buddhist themes. The Three front faces address carved intricately, the remaining faces though dressed are uncared. The upper right face has a scared bodhi tree with a devotee making an offering and a small figure collecting the falling bodhi leaves. The upper central face has the triratna(guiding) symbol. The third face has a dharmachakra ( a wheel of life) . the lower large panels show an elaborately adorned donor-couple and their bears. 

Brahma 

Brahma is the famous Hindu god. he has four head. He is considered as the god of creation. goddess saraswathi is his wife.there is no more temple which is worshiping brahma because of curse.
 Here, Brahma seated on a lotus pedestal surrounding by Muni's in the clouds and devotees near his feet offer him flowers and objects. Brahma holds an akshamala (rosary), sharuva ( ladle) and kamandalu( ritual vessel) in his three hands. The forth hand it's in the boon- giving gesture. It is from  7th century (AD). This is made in pink sandstone and This is excavated from aihole, Bijapur district in Karnataka. 

Ganesha 

   Ganesha is the son of shiva and parvathi. He is considered as the god of beginnings. his birthday is widely celebrating in india , especiallyin mumbai as vinayaka chadurthi. There is no.of interesting stories behind ganesha.
He is the favorite deity of Maharashtra and this sculpture was l was found in Thane district of Maharashtra. His chubby body and pot belly convey his iconographic details. He hold his  broken tusk, a bowl of sweets (laddu) and a lotus bud in his three hands. The fourth arm of sculpture is broken. He wares a serpent girdle, tied with a knot in the front. His mount (rat), occupies a prominent position on the pedestal 
      Sculpture material is basalt and it is dated 1100 AD. 
           

 Mandapa of a domestic shrine

This lacquered and gilded mandapa probably adorned the front of an adinatha shrine, it portrays his birth as the first jain thirthankara with narretive panels. the mandapa with pillars and a dome on a double platform has four kshatrapalas ( guardian deities) on each base. The cross beams, depict episodes from the life of adinatha. the front beam shows the dream of Marudevi, the mother of adinatha. the ornate carving compares with the famous Vadi-Paraswanatha Temple of Anhilvad patan, built in 1594-96.

Personal Armour of the emperor Akbar

Abdul fatha Jalaludheen muhammed akbar was the greatest king of mughal Dynesty.he is ruled  about 49 years.  akabar was interested in philosophy, religious talk, and literacy . he was created a library with 24,000 books He founded a new religious concept called "din ilahi" literally  means "the religion of god".

This set of Armour belonging to emperor Akbar consist of four elements: helmet, breastplate, and two arm guard's. The back plate is missing from the set.  Three helmet has fine gold damascene along the lower border, vertical bands and a movable nasal guard flanked by two plume holders. the breastplate, forged in one piece. The high neck collar; intended to protect the throat, is not a common feature in Indian Armour. 
      Material is steel with gold damascene. 

For visitors :- 
timings is 10:30 am to 06:00 pm

Admission charge 
For 12 year old Rs 10/- 
Above 12 Rs 60/- 
Colleges bearing Id card Rs 25/- 
Audio guide are also available. 
There is no parking facilities in the museum, it's in khalagoda 
Nearest railway station is churchgate. 

Warning:- keep silent  in museum and never touch any of the object!!

Kmsabith 

I am going to share with you my exprience as a tour guide in the prince of wales museum with my co-students of the bvoc toyrusm departement at st. Xaviers college,mumbai.
Let me take you to a long long ago (3000 BC) to human history in India. Indian civilization is one of the ancient civilizations of the world. It was in 1920 A.D, when the work of laying the Larhore-Multan Railway line was in progress, a few bricks of ancient origin were found. The archaeological department started excavation work under the guidance of sir John Marshall and an ancient civilization was discovered. The HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION. As harappa was the first site where the remains of this civilization was found it is known as harappa. This civilization was situated on the banks of the Indus river. That day at the museum we had a section on prehistoric and historic culture where we had got to see a lot about the harappan style of living. Let me tell you a little in detail about it. 
The town planning- The Harappan culture was extremely advanced in respect to town planning and architecture. Thiers houses,protective walls,drainage systems etc show progress in architecture. The roads of the Harappan towns were parallel and connected to each other. 
Toys and aritfacts-There were displays of toys and small artifacts that they used to have in their houses. The artifacts also dipicted their belief in God or Goddess.
One of the major architecture that caught my eye was the GREAT BATH. The remains of the great bath was found at mohenjodaro. The great bath measured twelve metre long,seven meters broad and 2.5 metre deep. The putter wall of the bath had a width of 7 to 8 feet and there was also a provision of separate changing room. This implies that Harappans were well aware of sanitation.There were other objects of religious beliefs like seals,atatues,fire tanks etc. This was indeed a very nice experience for me as I came to know so much of my history that I don't know.
Here are some more recent facts I thought you'd like to know. They are in the picture-

Sources of this picture is newspaper and google.

By Zayceeann Alvares

102, Bvoc Tourism

HARMONY IN NATURE

                                   

ECO FRIENDLY TOUR

There were times when people moved from place to place with an idea of displacement with defined reasons. But I'm pretty sure that even Phoenician's or  Mesopotamian's wouldn't have thought of there voyages could ever convert into an industry. An industry which is not only growing on a fast paced speed but also evolving and getting diversified in many other streams.

Meanwhile, the main focus of this whole wavered idea is that with the growth of tourism sector we are facing a new problem which is directly linked to the tourism industry, "Environment Degradation ", this is in fact a very old issue but shows up time to time with the so called advancement of our civilisation  What is so bad about this ? this question has never helped a lot in solving the problem but its something like, you hit a jackpot and boom!! become a millionaire  obviously you would want to upgrade your lifestyle but would you do that if there's a condition applied stating you will have to spend rest for your life with dirt and garbage scattered around you in a messy house  no matter how big it is? Spontaneous reply will be no.

But, in real life we are doing the same with our home, our very own and till now alone habitable planet, Earth. Upon asking few questions to yourself, you may think that what can i do for such a big planet, but the point is that its "you", who is also a part of us and if you  are not thinking  to change then what will make "us" think to change. Further continuing with our topic eco tour, nobody really knows what it means exactly but whole notion of ECO or ENVIRONMENT FRIENDLY attached to things, make it very obvious to understand in a very understated manner. But allow yourself to think just a little bit harder and instantly without pushing yourself  further you will get the idea about ECO TOUR. This is just a small picture of the big idea behind SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT. We need to cut down on our spoiler attitude and become a responsible tourist for the sake of both nature and tourism industry if we really want to spend some good time with our near and dear ones in a clean and clutter free wandering zone. I don't need to teach what should be done, but you need to be reminded that  sooner we start, better the circumstances will become for our future travellers.

NATURE IS YOUR BEST FRIEND

                                                                                                                                       










  - SATTVIK

My First Museum Tour Guide

            Well Today i am writing this blog on as my Title suggest my first tour guide in Museum.The Museum i gave the guide was Prince Of Wales Museum a.k.a Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya,Colaba. It was an Assignment given to me by my Teacher. As I am Travel and Tourism student it becomes part of my studies and career So as i went to decide my topic for the guide i saw many awesome artifacts and i was just amused by seeing what India has collected in their Museum. I haven't seen all the Museums but seeing this Museum gave a rough idea of the beautiful things India has.

                        So as i was saying about my tour guide, I went into the sculptures section first. I saw many magnificent sculptures of many gods and goddess and there were also sculptures of Jain Gods.Then I went into Pre And Proto History Section and I decided to Select that as my topic to give tour guide as I have always been fascinated by History. And in this section I choose Tools used in Different Periods In those old days and it showed how mankind changed or I can say developed as the time went by as they started making progress.

So the Periods were :

·        Palaeolithic  Period

·        Mesolithic Period

·        Neolithic Period

Palaeolithic, Mesolithic Period were Stone age period. The tools they used were made by stone which was used for hunting and other purposes. It was during Neolithic period everything slowly started changing. It wasn’t Stone age anymore. There were many developments. The concept of agriculture was introduced in this time. People actually started settling down, villages were being formed and they started making tools from other materials as well. This period was later known as Bronze Age. Then Indus Valley Civilization . In this period as people began to settle down domesticating animals and cultivating plants. They began pottery. They made hand-made clay vessels which were sun-dried and not painted.In Harappan Studies, archaeologists have relied heavily on pottery, having used it to construct a chronology and site-to-site relationships across the abundant Harappan sites spread over a vast geographical area.

Viral Lodaya, 105

FyBvoc Tourism.

My Experience at Prince of wales Museum Mumbai

     CHATRAPATI SHIVAJI MAHARAJ VASTU SANGHRALAYA
              I found this museum very interesting because firstly it has a really extraordinary name and secondly the sculptures are beautiful. Actually I was really amazed when I saw so many different sculptures of gods and goddesses. While observing those sculptures there was one big question roaming inside my head; how did such an  early dynasty know that these were the faces of Hindu gods and goddesses?? Well!! coming to the sculptures. When a person talks about sculptures they mainly mention how wonderful!, beautiful !..... But I saw all the following sculptures not from the wow point of view but from the perspective of what mud they used. How did they make it?? How did they stick various parts?? What thoughts came in their mind before making such sculptures?? Oh! My questions will never end!!
           Alright so these are some of the amazing fabulous sculptures.

THE AMAZING SCULPTURE OF SHIVA

This sculpture is amazingly polished, with fine artistic effects,   

I really can't imagine how earlier people made such sculptures,

and interesting part is what instrument they used for carving?? Did God give them some power to make extraordinary sculpture??  If you look at the sculpture it has been wonderfully carved. The snake which is around Shiva's neck, a trishul which is weapon, a crown on his head, you can also see two kids standing on both the sides of Shiva. They have done it in such an awesome way....!!    

 

 When it comes to types of stones used for making of sculptures, I am definitely sure after many generations and lots of hard work people discovered what all properties did these stones consist!! 

  

Did the names of the goddesses actually exist or were they myths?? This question cannot be answered but at least we have one fact clear that people at that time were intelligent and they had the capability to make something which is totally unexpected by others!! The unexpected glorious sculptures of Devi are so wonderfully carved, I feel there is a carving instrument which is still unknown to us, which helped them to make these Devis!!

Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Why are all the three names always spoken together?? Well!! Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer, whether these three gods always existed together or were they individuals or they weren't there..??  I have no idea!! but having a look at this sculpture I feel that because people believed all these myths or true facts, took the pain to carve such lovely sculptures!!

THIS WAS MY EXPERIENCE, HOW ABOUT YOURS??

Akanksha Agrawal, FY B.Voc. Tourism