An invaluable collection of manuscripts and paintings from Tibet by scholar Rahul Sankrityayan has become a bone of contention between authorities at the Bihar Museum and scholars and family of the traveller-historian.
Though the authorities have decided to retain the ‘Rahul Collection’ within the old Patna Museum building instead of moving it to the swanky new Bihar Museum following objections by his family and eminent scholars, the latter are still not satisfied.
The Rahul Collection was a provisional gift made to Patna Museum by the late scholar commencing from 1933, and is the fruit of the four arduous journeys he made to Tibet in 1929, 1934, 1936 and 1938. Items were added to it until 1956. It contains Tibetan Thangka paintings, more than 1,600 Tibetan manuscripts, coins, ritual objects, images of bronze, unbaked clay and wood, items of jewellery, costumes as well as glass negatives of some rare palm leaf scriptures.
