In 1919, the Museum received what would become its first Asian architectural interior and one of the highlights of the future Indian and Himalayan collections: carved stone pillars and relief panels which recent research indicates are all from the Madanagopalaswamy Temple, a 16th-century building complex in the south Indian city of Madurai. Twelve years later, University of Pennsylvania professor of Sanskrit W. Norman Brown was named curator of Indian art. The department also had an excellent advisor in legendary Indian art historian Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, whose relationship with the Museum, begun in 1919, would last until his death in 1947.

The renowned Austrian-trained scholar Stella Kramrisch, who had been the first art historian to teach at the University of Calcutta, became Curator of Indian Art in 1954 and remained as Curator Emeritus from 1972 until her death in 1993. Under her aegis, the Museum's major holdings in Indian and Himalayan art were acquired. Kramrisch’s own superlative collection of North Indian temple sculpture entered the Museum in 1956. In 1959 came the first of 71 gifts of Himalayan art from the fascinating Natacha Rambova (born Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy). In addition to publishing on all aspects of South Asia’s art, Kramrisch was also the curator of some of the most significant exhibitions in her field, such as the 1968 Unknown India: Ritual Art from Tribe and Village, the first survey of Indian vernacular arts to be presented in a fine arts museum, and the blockbuster 1981 Manifestations of Shiva. Dr. Kramrisch's many gifts and the bequest of her personal collection brought to the Museum distinguished examples of Indian textiles, sculpture, painting, and vernacular art reflecting the full range of her scholarly interests. Notable works include the elegant 5th-century sandstone sculpture Avalokiteshvara, Bodhisattva of Compassion, one of the finest examples of art created under the powerful Gupta dynasty of northern India.

In 2004, the Museum received a magnificent collection of "miniature" paintings from the bequest of former Trustee Alvin O. Bellak. These delicate works on paper represent five centuries of India's artistic history, from the adoption of papermaking technology in the late 14th century to the advent of photography in the late 19th. This area was further enhanced by the 2006 bequest of Indian sketches and preparatory drawings by Dean Walker, who had been the Museum’s Henry P. McIlhenny Senior Curator of European Decorative Arts and Sculpture for over fifteen years. In 2009, Trustee Sheldon Bonovitz and Jill Bonovitz donated their exquisite collection Bengali kanthas (embroidered quilts from Bangladesh and eastern India), enriching the Museum’s collection of South Asian textiles and vernacular arts.

Recently, the department has also brought the modern art of the region to wider audiences when it hosted the 2008 exhibition of the work of Nandalal Bose, a major artist who has been called the father of Indian modernism and one of the patriarchs of India’s cultural revival.