Archaeological Museum, Aihole, Karnataka

Archaeological Museum, Aihole, Karnataka

Archaeological Museum is located within the Durga Temple Complex, located in the heart of Aihole, an historical town, in Bagalkot District in Karnataka, India. The Museum is managed by the Archaeological Survey of India.

History

The Museum was originally planned as a sculpture shed in the year 1970 to collect and exhibit the sculptures, inscriptions, and architectural members found during excavation in and around Aihole. It was converted into a full-fledged Museum in the year 1987 and extended in the year 2000.

The Museum

The museum comprises of six galleries and an open-air gallery. The museum houses 381 antiquities mainly comprises of stone sculptures of Brahmanical, Jaina and Buddhist faith, fragmentary carved architectural members, inscriptions, hero stones, sati stones, etc. All these were dated from 6^th century CE to 15^th century CE. The huge open-air gallery is situated in front of the Museum building.

It consists of a neatly arranged, named and dated collection of ancient sculptures found within and beyond Aihole. It exhibits Hero stones, Ganesha, Sapta Matrikas, seated figures in the Chaitya arch, Jaina sculptures, Naga and Nagini figures. The artifacts in the museum are dated between 6^th and 15^th centuries. The Gallery No 1 can be found immediately after entering the Museum building.

It exhibits life-size sculpture of Lajja Gauri with lotus head, a seated Buddha, Jaina, Lakulisa, Matrikas and Ganesha etc. The entrance on the right side leads to the Gallery No 2 and Gallery No 3. Sculptures of Ardhanarisvara, standing Vishnu, Matrikas, Kalabhairava and Dwarapalakas etc. are displayed in these galleries. The Gallery No 4 houses a valley model of Aihole village.

It shows the cluster of monuments in and around Aihole in the birds eye view.  The preservation works of the Aihole monuments are shown in the trans-slides boxes around the valley model. Trilingual audio, video & document film containing information about political history, art and architecture of Aihole, Badami, Pattadakal are available in the museum. The museum also has departmental publication sales counter and a reference library with good collection of books of history, art and architecture.

Museum Timings

The Museum remains open from 09.00 AM to 05.00 PM on all days except Fridays.

Entrance Fees

Entrance Fee is Rs. 5/- per head for adults and Rs 25/- for camera. The entry is free for children up to 15 years.

Connectivity

The Museum is located at about 100 meters from Aihole Bus Stand. Aihole is located at about 13 Kms from Pattadakal, 30 Kms from Badami Railway Station, 33 Kms from Bagalkot Junction Railway Station, 34 Kms from Badami, 38 Kms from Bagalkot, 88 Kms from Gadag, 136 Kms from Hubballi Airport, 164 Kms from Belgaum Airport, 277 Kms from Goa and 446 Kms from Bengaluru. Aihole is situated on Pattadakal to Amingad route.

Location