History & Background
Founded in 1910 by a group of Bengali zamindars and scholars, including Kumar Sarat Kumar Roy, to research the history and archaeology of the ancient Varendra region of northern Bengal, the museum grew out of the same intellectual movement that supported early excavations at Paharpur and other Buddhist and Hindu sites across the region. Its Indo-Saracenic building, completed in 1919, now houses thousands of stone and bronze sculptures, coins, and palm-leaf manuscripts spanning the Pala, Sena, and Sultanate periods, making it a key repository for understanding Bengal's ancient civilizations.