Anuradhapura Museum
Anuradhapura Archaeological Museum is the oldest and the largest museum belonging to the Department of Archaeology of Sri Lanka.
Location
The museum is located near the Ruwanwalisaya Stupa, adjacent to the Anuradhapura Presidential House in the Anuradhapura District, North Central Province, Sri Lanka.History
The museum is one of the archaeological museums of Sri Lanka. It is situated in the old administration building, in the sacred city of Anuradhapura.Earlier, the Department of Archaeology had a residual collection of artifacts and Dr. Senarath Paranavithana started recording these artifacts according to the orders of the Archaeological Commissioner, Arthur Maurice Hocart. This museum was initially maintained in a part of a hospital located near Sri Maha Bodiya and Ruwanwalisa in Anuradhapura. But later on due to lack of facilities, Paranavithana constantly insisted on the necessity of establishing the museum in a new place.
According to the reports, in 1948, this collection of goods, which was kept on the south side of the Anuradhapura department building, was organised as a museum with the contribution of S. Shan Muganathan and G. D. Ranasinghe.
According to this request, the government gave the old administration building in Anuradhapura for the establishment of the Archaeological Museum. The establishment of the museum was delayed because the building was functioning as a centre to accommodate the Anuradhapura flood victims in the 1940s.
Accordingly, with the help of Nisshanka Wijeratne, who was the Anuradhapura Governor at that time, the museum was able to acquire two buildings from this grant building and the adjoining two-storey recording building. Officially, Anuradhapura Archaeological Museum was established under the prime effort of former Director General, Dr. Senarath Paranavithana.