Analytical study of museum education in Indian museums
I received the grant soon after completing my masters in museum management from the MS University of Baroda. The award came at the right point in my career. It gave me an opportunity to travel to important Indian museums and understand the status of museum education; my theoretical knowledge of museology was augmented by observing practical working of state and national museums. It also gave me an opportunity to interact with museum professionals from important Indian museums.
Study of prehistoric foreign tools in Indian Museums and Indian prehistoric antiquities in UK Museums and Institutions
This grant allowed me to start a larger study of prehistoric Indian antiquities in both Indian and UK museums. The report which I submitted to the NTICVA at the end of the grant had chapters on foreign tools in Indian tools in UK museums such as the Institute of Archaeology, the British Museum, the Liverpool Museum, the Ashmolean Museum, the Pitt Rivers Museum., who supplied me with literature and some photographs.
Study and documentation of Chola Bronzes in the museums of India
This award was a timely help, when I was planning to document the Chola bronzes in and around the Thanjavur region for the visitors of our museum. After getting this award, I extended the area for collecting data on Chola bronzes to the museums of India. This gave me an opportunity to acquire the latest museum techniques and to gain more information about the provenance of Chola bronzes kept in different museums. I plan to bring out a small catalogue about Chola bronzes which will be useful to our visitors.
Research, study and display of historical arms and armour of Saurashtra, Gujarat, and Rajputana
The study aided by this grant and two subsequent grants the following year has helped me to bring to reality in a practical way my dream of preparing a catalogue of arms and armour in the museums of Maharashtra, and also the cataloguing of arms in the Government of Chennai's collections. Primarily, it allowed me complete the identification of the arms collection in the Mahatma Phule Museum, Pune. The catalogue of this collection will be published shortly (2001).
