A fresh peek into ancient worlds

Globally-curated new CSMVS gallery wows Mumbai

Mumbai: A new, globally-curated gallery - affording an insight into how the ancient world was not secluded but interconnected 5,000 years ago through trade, religion, arts, communication and common purpose - which opened this month enthralls locals and tourists alike. 

Envisioned by the 103-year-old Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) in Mumbai, the expo - titled ‘Networks of the Past: A Study Gallery of India and the Ancient World’, features thrilling stories from the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Rome, Persia, China, Egypt and India. 

The 300 carefully sourced and selected archaeological artifacts provide deep awareness into the history of that era’s thriving cultures, including the oldest, Harappan (Sindhu-Sarasvati) civilization – not as isolated entities, but as a vibrant web of relationships that shaped humanity thousands of years ago. 

In the making for over four years, the gallery puts forth a simple yet powerful idea – that “the ancient world was deeply interconnected and long before modern borders were created or technologies developed, people, goods, beliefs and ideas traversed vast distances, linking each other closely”. 

Expected to motivate and fire the imaginations of students, scholars, teachers, historians and intellectuals to teach history with objects, the gallery breathes life into those ancient links in an engaging, accessible and deeply humane touch. 

“Civilization is not a destination, it’s a journey. The past has profoundly shaped our global, national and local relationships between societies and individuals for hundreds of centuries, and the events, innovations and decisions made in antiquity continue to influence us even today,” remarked CSMVS Director-General Sabyasachi Mukherjee.

Global Exchange

Moving away from the narratives that revolved around the ancient world on the Mediterranean regions, the new gallery highlights the classical India’s dynamic role in the global exchange, and how these interactions shaped Indian society down the centuries – positioning India as not on the margins of world history but at its crossroads. 

“Here, visitors encounter a story of dialogue rather than dominance, of mutual influence instead of a one-way transmission. It places education at its core and intends to be a long-term resource for schools, colleges, universities, researchers and historians, supporting object-based learning and interdisciplinary inquiry,” said Suhas B. Naik-Satam, Chief Executive, National Centre for Science Communicators (NSCS).

Own Space 

The display includes an awe-inspiring collection of maps, visual reconstructions, interpretative texts to simplify complex history in a layered manner allowing wide-eyed newcomers and veteran scholars to engage at their own pace, he added. 

The outcome of an exceptional international collaboration, alongside CSMVS, leading institutions like The British Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum Rietberg in Zurich, the Benaki Museum and the Ephorate of Antiquities of the City of Athens, the Al-Sabah Collection in Kuwait, have shared knowledge and collections. 

Besides the CSMVS, the initiative elicited strong support from the Archaeological Survey of India and eight major museums across the country, reflecting a collective commitment to rethinking how history is presented and studied. 

Mukherjee said that even in today’s interconnected world no major event passes without impacting humanity, and to understand our history meaningfully, “we must move beyond isolated narratives and cultivate a global perspective” as the present and future is built on the foundations of the ancient cultures and civilizations.

A window to lost civilizations

Rather than following a rigid timeline, the new gallery adopts a thematic approach that encourages exploration and comparison. Starting with the Harappan (Sindhu–Sarasvati) Civilisation around 3000 BCE, it jumps to the Gupta period in the 6^th century CE, explaining Indian history within a broader global context. 

The exciting  journey culminates with Nalanda (India) and Alexandria (Egypt), the two legendary centres of learning, symbolising the ancient world’s shared pursuit of knowledge though separated by over 5000-kms. 

The objects are as diverse as the cultures they represent: sculptures, coins, inscriptions, jewellery, ceramics, paintings, and funerary objects, replicas of iconic portraits, and together they reveal striking similarities in materials, techniques, plus motifs, underscoring how ideas and aesthetics travelled across regions. 

Both Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Suhas B. Naik-Satam said that the connections where we once saw divisions, were actually exchanges and cooperation that were central to human progress, affording a richer understanding of antiquity.