Having read an article by Gurucharan Das on Patan Museum, I was pretty tempted to explore it. Das calls it a ‘miracle’ and goes on to say that it is arguably the best museum on the subcontinent! It was somewhat shameful to acknowledge that while foreigners knew so much about our heritage, I was ignorant of the marvels exhibited in the museum of the City of Arts. I am, no doubt, not the only one with such sheer ignorance, and so for a valid reason: absurdly enough, human beings feel like exploring places miles away, yet turn a blind eye to miraculous things within easy reach.

Visiting Patan Museum, finally, implied a sort of immersion into a historical, cultural and artistic past dating back as far as fourth century AD. The well spruced up inside of the 18th century Palace is fascinating. It accommodates around 200 museum pieces — Hindu and Buddhist — depicting evolutions in different phases of time.

Compared to the Louvre in Paris which houses over 65,000 objects or the National Museum in New Delhi with well above 200,000 pieces, Patan Museum is a tiny one. However, fascinated by some beautiful objets d’art, I discovered that every museum, big or small, is a great learning place.

Every museum has its own peculiarities. The National Museum in New Delhi is a great place to learn things on the Indus Valley Civilisation. The fine bricks and potteries of that time, easily put to shame the modern day machinery.

Similarly, if one wishes to smile back at Mona Lisa, one should go to the Louvre. Interestingly, while Louvre stores and exhibits objects of beauty that are to be found no other place, the vast majority heads right to Monalisa, or La Joconde as the French call Da Vinci’s most famous tableau.

As for Patan Museum, it is charmingly small, the advantage being that the curious onlooker may choose to observe and study every object: from fierce-looking tantric Padmasambhava to serene Maitreya Buddha, from eleven-headed Avalokiteshwara to statue of Uma-Maheshwara as well as numerous objects from 4th to 19th century BC.

At last, whatever one’s penchant and predilections, one thing is for sure: no one walks upset out of the Patan Museum.