Painting, sculpture, decorative objects, textiles, and architectural elements

At the heart of the Department of Indian and Himalayan Art’s holdings stands an extraordinary 16th-century temple hall, its carved stone pillars and relief panels setting the stage for a distinguished collection of nearly 3,000 works of art. Highlights include very early Indian Buddhist images of the Gupta and Kushana periods, sculpture from the Medieval Hindu temples of northern and southern India, and metal ritual objects and sculptures from Tibet and Nepal. The 1994 bequest of the department’s former curator Dr. Stella Kramrisch, including paintings and sculptures of both human and divine figures, as well as embroidered textiles and other examples of folk art, helped ensure the Museum’s place as home to one of the finest collections of South Asian art in the country. Dr. Alvin O. Bellak’s 2004 bequest of vibrant Indian “miniature” paintings further established the Museum as one of the world's important repositories of Indian painting.

View objects in Collections Online >>