The British Museum in London has often been accused of cultural imperialism and colonialism, particularly by the U.K.’s ethnic minorities. There is a bitter dispute about many famous pieces acquired during the colonial era, including the Parthenon marbles and the Benin Bronzes, and demands have been made for their return. Meanwhile, the decolonization of museums continues to be hotly debated.
In an ambitious new exhibition titled “Ancient India, Living Traditions,” which considers the origins of three of India’s major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism—the British Museum hopes to reinvent itself. The exhibition explores the vast journey of India’s spiritual art from around 200 B.C.-600 A.D. while also actively involving modern British Indians to help them feel a part of the museum and retrieve their heritage.
Hinduism is one of the world’s oldest religions; many of its traditions and ideas are over 3,000 years old. And India’s sacred images have spread to the furthest corners of the world, via the Silk Road to China and East Asia, and along maritime routes to Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, transforming the landscapes of these regions. Later Indian migrants took these images to East Africa, Malaysia, the Caribbean, the U.K. and the U.S. Still, India’s impact on the world has been largely overlooked by museums, even the British Museum. Greece and China have typically taken center stage.
But change is in the air. Curator Dr. Sushma Jansari is the first person of Indian origin to hold a permanent role curating the British Museum’s South Asian collections. “It’s only in the last decade that South Asians have entered the museum space. I think I see the artifacts in a different way than my predecessors did,” Jansari tells Observer. First, she does not hide the provenance of objects in the collection, many of which were acquired through colonization and dubious means. (Others have had more complex journeys, such as donations from collectors in Bangladesh.) Second, Jansari has insisted on community involvement.
Walking into the exhibition, there’s hot pink lighting, devotional music, tiny glittering lamps and cascading drapes, all intended to make it seem less like a museum and more like a temple or monastery. It’s serene, but there’s generous display space and ample square footage for contemplating the 118 sculptures, paintings, drawings and manuscripts sourced from museums across the world, which stand alongside artifacts donated by local communities.
The journey begins with nature images, significant in a time when people were dependent on rain, sun, water and forests for their living. Visitors enter the exhibition to a dramatic display of grimacing, angry and sometimes mischievous yakshas, male nature spirits associated with trees, water and mountains. Their beautiful female counterparts, the yakshis, also figure. These are wide-hipped, languorous, adorned with heavy jewelry and long braided hair. Devotees made offerings to the spirits, hoping to receive good fortune in return. Yaksha and yakshi images were adopted across India by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains.
Then come the snake motifs. Ahead is a stone plaque with a thickly coiled and rearing five-headed cobra, so realistic that it looks like it might strike at any moment. Nagas and naginis—male and female serpent spirits—were among the most ancient deities worshipped by Indians. Their powerful appeal helped them spread rapidly from India to Southeast Asia, where they surface in images across the three faiths.
Versions of Ganesha, the friendly elephant god most recognizable as a symbol of Hinduism, are scattered through the exhibition, but each Ganesha is very different. An 8th-century Ganesha from India is playful, pot-bellied, dancing and with a snake cord tied around his waist. You can almost hear the patter of his dancing feet. But three centuries later, a Ganesha made in Java from volcanic stone is stern, portrayed with skulls, feet together and carrying an empty bowl rather than one full of sweets. Each country interpreted the gods differently.
Depictions of the Buddha have changed dramatically, too, the exhibition shows. The Buddha was first represented symbolically in India, often as a footprint, a tree or an empty chair. Later, he began to be represented as a man. On display is the Bimaran casket, a shimmering, intricately carved golden box studded with garnets, with what is thought to represent the earliest image of the Buddha shown as a man, dating from the 1st Century A.D. Interestingly, he is draped in Hellenic robes, perhaps influenced by Greek depictions of their heroes.
By the 7th Century, Buddhist missionaries had spread the Buddha’s word across East Asia. A fiery orange, glowing silk watercolor of the Buddha from China, showing him seated between his disciples, dominates one wall. This rare watercolor has an incredible origin story. It was found in the so-called Library Cave, a cave in Dunhuang, China, stuffed with over 50,000 paintings and scrolls dating from the 5th Century, and which remained secret until it was discovered in 1900. Local artists made their own changes, replacing Indian trees with the conifers found in China, and giving the Buddha mustaches and native features. And so the Buddha became a familiar face worldwide—the same but different.
However, while portrayals of the Buddha have varied, depictions of Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and good fortune, have stayed the same for over 2,000 years, perhaps because of the effectiveness of her imagery. A brightly colored painting of the Gaja Lakshmi (Elephant Lakshmi) shows her seated in a lotus surrounded by elephants, which symbolize monsoon clouds ready to bring rain to the parched land. Another shows the Ardhanarishwara, the deity who is half-man and half-woman, combining the gods Shiva and Parvati in one.
Jansari emphasized that these snakes, elephants and spirits are not just mythical “monsters” of the past. There is a reason why “living” is emphasized in the title of the exhibition. As Jansari points out, while Egyptian and Greek gods are no longer worshipped, Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism are living faiths. “These faiths continue to be practiced by two billion people across the world.” Sanskrit, the language of India’s ancient texts, is still in use in religious practices, unlike Latin.
As a Hindu myself, I have often found it hard to explain the complexities of my religion. Videos of Hindus, Jains and Buddhists worshipping show that faith in a benevolent and powerful force is universal. This is where the collaborations come in. In one video, worshipper Samaroha Das performs a puja or prayer ceremony for the goddess Lakshmi in his home, explaining that it’s like his “confessional,” a time where he can be alone with his god, and confess his hopes and fears. It’s a simple and effective way to make Hinduism more relatable to the average visitor.
Arshna Sanghrajka, a British Indian pharmacist and a practicing Jain, collaborated with the British Museum on the Jain exhibits. “I wanted to reclaim and reconnect with my heritage,” she says. For instance, the devotional images and materials displayed are all in vegan materials and colors, because the Jain religion emphasizes non-violence towards all forms of life. The usual silk drapes were avoided. Sacred imagery was removed from shop products. You won’t find the ubiquitous Ganeshas on t-shirts at the gift shop. As Sanghrajka points out, the serene statue of one of the Jain tirthankaras—the revered teachers of the faith—is displayed on a small plinth, as it is done in the Jain community. Putting it on the floor would have been disrespectful. “These artifacts are rightfully meant to be a part of faith, and I wanted to keep it as a living faith,” she tells Observer.
Jansari points out that for British Indians like her and Sanghrajka, who were born and raised in the U.K., it is important to see exhibitions that reflect their cultural heritage. “These are not just foreign gods. They are the gods of those of us who have lived here for generations.” The exhibition’s catalog includes a telling Tamil saying: “One should not settle in a town without a temple.” With immigrants being demonized in just about every country, collaborative exhibitions like this one are needed now more than ever.
“Ancient India, Living Traditions” is on at the British Museum in London through October 19, 2025.
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