To recap, I paid a visit to the local museum in Chennai and it was a splendid way to see the lives that our forefathers led. The galleries of bronzes was mighty impressive. Continue to read here about what else I saw.
Gallery of Sculptures
After all that bling bling, I strolled across to the gallery of sculptures. Huge stone statues of gods and goddesses from a distant past greeted me. Some of these massive structures were broken, a reminder that they had gone through the ravages of time.
Sculptures from the Pallavas, Chalukyas, Hoysala and Kakatiya periods were all represented here. An exact recreation of a grand temple entry way made me think of all the hard work that went into such intricate carvings. The craftsmen of these periods were so creative! The best part of it was the symmetry. There were no computer programs to tell the architects how to plan and build their structures. It was all in their minds to engineer these marvels.
Having seen all the sculptures on the ground floor of the gallery, I went up to see some ancient exhibits related to the development of the Indian language and script. There were inscriptions in Nagari the ancient script from which other Indian scripts such as Devanagari developed. Looking closely, it looked nothing like what we are used to seeing now in our writings. We have come a long way. 
Concluding my tour I stopped at the hallway where there were beautiful relics from Harappa and Mohenjodaro. There were 2 large urns that were especially stunning. The urns had been obviously found in tiny pieces by archaeologists. They were painstakingly pieced together for the exhibit. Much like what we study in history textbooks, the artifacts were powerful reminders of our past. Our forefathers were truly clever. The tools, seals, weights and house ware found in the glass cases took me back to ancient times.
Phew! I was exhausted and I hadn't even scratched the surface of the museum. There were still 3 more galleries to be covered. I was looking forward to the children's museum with an area devoted to dolls from around the world. Unfortunately, it was time to get back.
