Mymensingh Museum

After reading so many articles and watching so many videos online on this museum ,being enthusiastic when I finally made a visit to this place ,a locked gate with a padlock hanging on it and a wall mounted signboard displaying 'Proposed Land for the Department of Archeology ' prevented me from exploring this magnificent structure of feudal era.Hence seeing this yellow-painted,one-storey historic building with an amazing front yard as much as I could through the grill gate ,I had to return with great disappointment.

The bagan bari of Zamindar Madan Babu at 17 Amrita Babu Road, Mymensingh, which has been used as Mymensingh Museum since 1969 is no longer used as the museum as the museum has been shifted to a new place .

After being established at the initiative of the-then Deputy Commissioner of Mymensingh District with a view to preserving the rare and unique relics of local architecture,sculpture, metal works, coins of different ages,handwritten manuscripts on papers and leaves, utensils,furniture, photographs and paintings of the feudal era and before being placed under the charge of Department of Archeology, Cultural Affairs Ministry in 1989, this museum- formerly known as Momenshahi Museum was run by the Mymensingh Municipality and finally, in 1995,it was enlisted in the gazette .

Though the initial collection of this museum-collected mostly from the palaces of Mymensingh District Zamindars included 214 articles, only few of the wooden carved furniture items including a sofa set, a partition wall, few showcases and chests ; natural history items including skulls of elephants; heads of wild bull and deers ; a stone sculpture and card- built model of Gouripur Zamindar palace had been put on display. Rest of the articles- collected mostly from Muktagacha Zamindar palace, Atharabari Zamindar palace and Gouripur Zamindar palace included sculptures of Saraswati, Vishnu and a dragon, antique collections of clocks, weaving machines, candle stands, ornamental flower tub stands, sports items, a stone flower vase,a compass, Bakharee(an ornament) ,a tiger head,a rhinoceros hide , a table with a marble stone top ,collection of coins of different ages and paintings , which unfortunately as a result of insufficient showcase and space constraint problems could not be put into display in this museum.Because of the same issue, handwritten manuscripts on papers and leaves were kept in iron shelves, in the open corridor of the museum gathering dust with no preservation system.Moreover ,bamboo and cane items,preserved birds,photographs, pottery were damaged during a renovation in 1999-2001.According to the visitors, peacock mummy presented by Mymensingh Medical College,a huge shade used during hunting coming from Gouripur Zamindar palace,collection of coins of different ages,calligraphy on palm leaves and paper found there earlier had gone missing.Absence of the list of all relics displayed at the museum had created dissatisfaction among the enthusiastic visitors going there with huge expectation.

Sheer negligence of the authority in protecting the unique and rare relics from the risk of ruination and enriching the collection of relics of the museum and the display of the rare relics in three damp rooms having very poor lighting,insufficient space and showcase and no proper preservation system had affected the museum in such a way that once a popular draw for the public was managing to get only 10-20 visitors a day.

Because of all these problems, Mymensingh Museum was shifted to Shashi Lodge- another jaw dropping architecture of feudal era having enough space to display the entire museum within just few of the 22 rooms of the lodge, in 2019.Besides increasing the number of visitors from 10-20 to 300 per day,shifting of the museum to this lodge has also been generating revenue around TK 1,00,000 per month which was beyond imagination before the shifting .

Anyone who is interested in making a visit to Mymensingh Museum should go to Shashi Lodge instead of going to the bagan bari as it is no longer open for visitors