Philadelphia Museum has Hindu Mandapa

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Philadelphia Museum of Art in Pennsylvania (USA) has a granite pillared Hindu temple hall (mandapa), dating back to 1550.

At the second floor of the Museum; the pillars, slabs and brackets of this temple hall come from Madurai (India) and depict deities/characters/scenes from Ramayana and Mahabharata; including Krishna, Hanuman, Garuda, etc.

Philadelphia Museum’s  collections include many Hindu objects; including Vishnu, Shiva as Nataraja, Rama, Durga, Dancing Ganesha, Karttikeya, Kali, Face of Bhairava, Indra, Kamadhenu, Nandi, Surya, etc.

Applauding Philadelphia Museum for Hindu Mandapa and Hindu objects in its collections, distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that art had a long and rich tradition in Hinduism and ancient Sanskrit literature talked about religious paintings of deities on wood or cloth.

Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged major art museums of the world; including Musee du Louvre and Musee d’Orsay of Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Los Angeles Getty Center, Uffizi Gallery of Florence (Italy), Art Institute of Chicago, Tate Modern of London, Prado Museum of Madrid, National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, etc.; to have exclusive Hindu galleries, thus sharing the rich Hindu art heritage with the rest of the world.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art, whose history goes back to 1876, is among the largest museums in the United States, with a collection of over 227,000 works of art and over 200 galleries presenting painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography, decorative arts, textiles, and architectural settings from Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States. Constance H. Williams is its Trustees Chair and Timothy Rub is the Director & CEO.