Collection rich, maintenance poor
Dinajpur Museum, which has rare and rich collections of different eras and cultures, has been struggling to protect the artefacts from ruin due to lack of maintenance amid shortage of skilled manpower.
This museum turned 48 last year, but very few people know about it. “We get only one or two visitors a day,” said Showkat Ali, curator and guide of the museum.
AKM Zakaria, a former deputy commissioner (DC) of Dinajpur, founded the museum with some rare artefacts in April 1968 in a tin shed at Munshipara area in the municipality on his own initiative.
A seven-member committee was also formed for taking care of the museum, with the DC of the district as the head.
Within a year, the number of items in the museum reached 800.
During the Liberation War in 1971, Pakistani troops and their Bangladeshi collaborators destroyed most of the touchstone statues, while statues made of bronze, brass, and wood were looted.
“AKM Zakaria and Mehrab Ali, a historian of the district, were the pioneers of the museum,” said Swadhin Sen, a teacher at the Department of Archaeology in Jahangirnagar University.
The museum was shifted to a new two-storey building in 1985. It was set up on the ground floor while the first floor was used as a library.
Norwegian Organisation for Relief and Development financed the construction of the building.
Showkat said the museum has over 1,300 archaeological objects, most of them deities of Hindus. Of them, 110 sculptures are of different Hindu deities, three of Buddhists and two of Jains. There are also 9,674 coins of colonial eras and different countries, including India and Pakistan, 14 inscriptions on stone, pottery and decorated bricks, 83 Liberation War relics, two wooden objects, two potsherds, six medals, four bamboo objects, three photographs and 45 other items.
The museum also has old weapons of ethnic people; inscriptions engraved in Bengali, Arabic and Persian; documents and credentials in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Bengali and English; manuscripts in Bengali and Sanskrit; handwritten copy of the Holy Quran; old pictures; old furniture and metallic utensils; artefacts recovered from the Sitakot excavations and other archaeological sites and some unidentified stone relics. A carpet from the Dinajpur Rajbari is gathering dust.
“In terms of collection, Dinajpur Museum is in third position after the National Museum in the capital and Borendra Museum in Rajshahi,” claimed Shafiqul Haque, secretary of the museum committee. Most of the collection is now on the verge of ruination for lack of maintenance as they do not have funds to employ skilled manpower to maintain the collections, he added.
During a visit to the museum, this correspondent found all the items gathered in one room. Most of the items on display were on the floor or waist-high concrete racks, not in showcases. Some pieces were put in glass showcases, but they developed fungal problems.
Experts say a skilled person must look after the museum, which also needs more rooms for displaying the collections. “Visitors will not be satisfied if the artefacts of different eras are arranged in one room,” said Swadhin, adding that the museum did not get any new collection after the Liberation War.
“Proper care and maintenance by skilled manpower are a must for protecting such artefacts, Swadhin said.
Shafiqul said they have no funds to hire an expert. Jamal Uddin Ahmed and Ahmed Shamim Al Razi, two former DCs of the district, renovated the museum at their own initiative.
The secretary also said that they wrote several letters to the Department of Archaeology and Ministry of Cultural Affairs, urging them to take over the museum. High officials of the archaeology department visited the museum several times, but no action has been taken yet, he added.
The museum needs CCTV cameras, dust management system and skilled manpower to protect the collections.
It remains open for visitors from 3:00pm to 7:00pm every day.
“It has many rare items, but many people know nothing about it,” said visitor A Sattar of Ghoraghat upazila.
Showkat said he has been working at the museum since 2005 for only Tk 2,000 per month as salary.
Comments