Ancient India: living traditions exhibition at the British Museum, 22 May – 19 Oct 2025
Date: 22 May – 19 October 2025
Time: Daily: 10.00–17.00 (Fridays 20.30)
Location : Room 30 – The Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery
More information : https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/ancient-india-living-traditions
Reaching back more than 2,000 years, Ancient India: living traditions explores the origins of Jain, Buddhist and Hindu sacred art in the ancient and powerful nature spirits of India, and the spread of this art beyond the subcontinent.
This is one of the first major exhibitions in the world to look at the early devotional art of India from a multi-faith, contemporary and global perspective. It highlights the inspiration behind now-familiar depictions of the deities and enlightened teachers of these world religions – and how they were shared across the Indian Ocean to Southeast Asia and along the Silk Roads to East Asia.
This exhibition showcases more than 180 objects – including sculptures, paintings, drawings and manuscripts – from the exceptional South Asia collection at the British Museum as well as generous loans from national and international partners. It will highlight provenance, examining stories of each object in the show, from creation to acquisition by museums.
The Jain section showcases early depictions of the tirthankaras in human form carved in beautiful mottled pink sandstone in the workshops of the ancient city of Mathura in north India. These sculptures marked a major innovation in Indian religious art. These sacred images were inspired by and incorporated features from earlier depictions of nature spirits and divine serpents. Each of the tirthankaras have male and female nature spirit attendants, for example.
Throughout this project, curators Sushma Jansari and Kajal Meghani and other specialist staff at the museum worked alongside UK-based practicing Jains, Buddhists and Hindus. We met regularly at the museum and we were also welcomed to the Oshwal Centre and Derasar in Potters Bar by Shandip Shah and team. The Community Advisory Panel helped shape many aspects of the exhibition. This included the design, the selection of products in the shop, contributions to some of the exhibition labels, and the use of eco-friendly and vegan materials. In fact, the museum committed to only using vegan paint in the exhibition, and the exhibition book is also vegan!
The films, the ‘Hands on’ desk and the Sensory trail, were made in collaboration with many different community partners, including Jains. Some helped us unlock stories about the devotional images and religious rituals through touch, smell and sound. Others, such as Manjula Shah whom we filmed at the Oshwal Derasar in Potters Bar, generously shared their personal stories showing the different ways people across the UK choose to worship and what this brings to their lives. Their generously shared personal insights and perspectives have greatly enriched this exhibition.
These living religious traditions and their sacred art are now integral to the daily lives of almost two billion people around the world, including in the UK. Key loans from our community partners help to tell this contemporary story. Mehool and Arshna Sanghrajka generously loaned their marble image of Parshvanatha from Shankeshwar, Gujarat for this section.