After shifting Mymensingh Museum to Shashi Lodge over two years ago, the number of daily visitors has significantly increased. While this is good news, the establishment is yet to show visitors all it can offer.
The lodge has more than adequate space to display all museum exhibits, but due to lack of showcases and necessary support staff, many items have been stored away in several rooms of the lodge, depriving visitors.
Shashi Lodge, the historically renowned building, makes most passers-by take a pause to get a glimpse of its architecture. Maharaja Suryakanta Acharya Chowdhury built the two-storied palace in 1877 for his adopted son Maharaja Shashikanta Acharya Chowdhury.
Once the premises of Teachers Training College (Female), the lodge was handed over to the cultural affairs ministry, following an inter-ministerial meeting with the education ministry in 2015.
The lodge started housing the museum in 2019. And now, around 300 visitors throng there daily, as opposed to just around 20 at the previous location.
Presently, the museum has enough rooms to display some 200 relics, collected from zamindar houses, mainly those in Mymensingh’s Muktagacha, Atharabari and Gouripur.
Md Saiful Islam, office assistant at the museum, said there are 22 rooms at the lodge, of which three are for displaying exhibits and two office purposes.
Earlier, the museum had been at Bagan Bari of Zamindar Madan Babu on Amrita Babu Road for about 50 years. It was established by the district administration in 1969 to preserve the relics, which include sculptures, metal and wooden works, and other objects of interest.
Initially run by Mymensingh municipality, it was later put under management of Department of Archaeology in 1989 through a gazette notification.
Contacted, Sabina Yasmin, the museum’s assistant custodian, said, “Many items are currently stored away and would be put on display after getting showcases.”
Authorities, however, do not know the exact time-frame for getting all the resources.
“The museum’s revenue is around Tk 1,00,000 per month, which was beyond imagination before shifting to this location,” she said.
-With The Daily Star input
