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Government Museum Description:-

Well worth visiting, the Government Museum is on Pantheon Rd, between Egmore and Anna Salai. The buildings originally belonged to a group of eminent British citizens, known as the Pantheon Committee, who were charged with improving the social life of the British in Chennai. The main building has a fine archaeological section representing all the major south Indian periods including Chola, Vijayanagar, Hoysala and Chalukya. It also houses a good ethnology collection. The bronze gallery has a superb collection of Chola art. One of the most impressive is the bronze of Ardhanariswara, the androgynous incarnation of Shiva.

Museum Collections
Rare collections of Buddhist sculptures from Amaravati along with relics of the Pallava, Chola and Pandya eras can be seen here. The finest collections of bronzes of the cosmic dance of Lord Shiva - Nataraja, Durga, Ganesha from the Chola Empire are a pride of this museum.

The Amaravati collection has panels, pillars, carved railings and Buddha statues of milky white marble from a Buddhist stupa excavated at Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh. Within the complex lie an Art Gallery, Department of Natural History, a Museum Theatre and a Public Library. Especially impressive are the Arms gallery, its pre-historic collection, its philatelic collection, its antique jewellery and the musical instruments collection.