THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SECTION. 
31 
many places of missing portions, which was very cleverly 
done in plaster. 
The specimens from Mathura, Sravasti, Amrawati, and 
the Gandhara sculptures were arranged in the second room, 
while the collections from Sarnath, Bodh-Gaya and other 
places were placed in the long gallery on the south side of 
the Museum. 
After completing the arrangement in the archaeological 
galleries. Dr. Anderson set himself to write a catalogue and 
handbook of the section, which was no easy task, considering 
that hitherto he had not studied Indian archaeology seriously. 
The catalogue compiled by him was published in two parts 
and remains to this day the most reliable and accurate 
account of the archaeological collections of the Indian 
Museum. His powers of observation were so keen that even 
where he has not succeeded in identifying particular speci¬ 
mens his description of them has enabled others to do so in 
different parts of the world. The catalogue was completed 
in 1882 and published during the course of the next year. 
In its preface Dr. Anderson acknowledges the help which he 
obtained from prominent archaeologists of his day. It can 
be gathered from it that prominent members of the Asiatic 
Society of Bengal, such as Raja Rajendra Lala Mittra, and 
officers of the Archaeological Survey, such as Sir Alexander 
Cunningham and the late J. D. M. Beglar, took great interest 
in the newly formed Museum. The actual division of the 
contents of the Archaeological Section into four departments, 
viz., (a) Asoka, (6) Indo-Scythian, (c) Gupta and (d) Muham¬ 
madan with inscriptions, is, as Dr. Anderson himself acknow¬ 
ledges, due to a suggestion originally made by Sir Alexander 
Cunningham. 
The Asoka Gallerj^ contained specimens of greater 
antiquity than the first century of the Christian Era. These 
exhibited in the second room, called the Indo-Scythian 
Gallery, extended in date over the first two centuries after 
Christ. The specimens of the Gupta gallery were more 
recent in date than the third century a.d. Owing to the 
want of space certain objects had to be displayed in this 
gallery which should have been kept apart by themselves. 
