Museum of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology

The Museum of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, located inside the campus of the Panjab University, falls under the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture, and Archaeology. In line with the adjoining Fine Arts Museum, the architecture of this museum too was designed by the legendary French architect, Le Corbusier. The characteristic features of Le Corbusier’s building designs, such as high ceilings, sun breakers, glass windows, etc., are evident in this museum as well. The strategic positioning of windows ushers through enough sunlight so as to reduce dependence on artificial lighting. The two-storeyed building can be seen as a series of interlocking galleries around a central courtyard. The lower level of the museum houses the exhibits as well as a library catering to the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture, and Archaeology.

A stone sculpture of goddess Parvati flanked by apsaras is kept in the corner of the museum. It also has on display the terracotta pots that were found during excavations done in Sector-17 of Chandigarh. Neolithic and Palaeolithic stone tools of various sizes, characterised by sharp edges; beads made of terracotta stone and metal; and other jewellery items are also on display. One of the famous artefacts of the museum are the beads found in Singh Bhagwantpur (AD 200 - AD 300). Toys, animals, and human figurines made of terracotta; punch mark coins (500 BC - 200 BC), seals, sealing coins from Sugh, Sunet and Sanghol, Indo-Greek coins (300 BC - 200 BC), Kushana coins, ivory pins, and copper objects are also some of the other articles exhibited in the museum.

Most of the terracotta artefacts are sourced from the ancient sites of Sugh, located near Yamuna Nagar in Haryana. These excavation expeditions were undertaken by Dr Suraj Bhan from the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture, and Archeology, Panjab University, Chandigarh.