{"id":23006,"date":"2026-05-27T03:35:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T03:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/?p=23006"},"modified":"2026-05-27T03:35:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T03:35:46","slug":"bring-back-saraswati-statue-from-british-museum-says-indian-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2026\/05\/27\/bring-back-saraswati-statue-from-british-museum-says-indian-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Bring Back Saraswati Statue From British Museum, Says Indian Court"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NEW DELHI, INDIA, May 21, 2026 (India West): A recent ruling by the Madhya Pradesh High Court on the disputed Bhojshala complex has renewed public and scholarly attention on an 11th-century sculpture of Goddess Saraswati that today sits thousands of miles away in London\u2019s British Museum. The court, while declaring Bhojshala a temple dedicated to Goddess Saraswati, also known as Vagdevi, directed that representations seeking the statue\u2019s return to India may be considered by the government. The observation has revived a long-running conversation not only about ownership and faith, but also about the journeys of India\u2019s sacred and artistic heritage through the colonial era. For historians, art scholars and conservationists, the Saraswati statue is more than a religious symbol. It is regarded as one of the finest surviving examples of medieval Indian sculpture associated with the Paramara dynasty and the cultural legacy of King Bhoj, the 11th-century ruler after whom Bhojshala is believed to be named.<br><br>Carved from stone and standing nearly four feet tall, the sculpture depicts Saraswati, the Hindu Goddess of learning, music and wisdom, in a poised and serene form characteristic of central Indian temple art of the period. Sanskrit inscriptions in Devanagari script are etched into the statue, linking it closely to the intellectual traditions fostered under King Bhoj\u2019s reign. Its presence in London places the Saraswati statue within a larger global debate over the ownership and repatriation of cultural artefacts removed during colonial rule. In recent years, museums across Europe and North America have faced increasing calls to return objects acquired under imperial administrations, wartime conditions or unequal power structures. India, too, has intensified efforts to reclaim antiquities and sacred objects taken abroad over the past two centuries.<br><br><a href=\"https:\/\/indiawest.com\/bring-back-saraswati-idol-from-british-museum-says-indian-court\/\n\">https:\/\/indiawest.com\/bring-back-saraswati-idol-from-british-museum-says-indian-court\/<br><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW DELHI, INDIA, May 21, 2026 (India West): A recent ruling by the Madhya Pradesh High Court on the disputed,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23006"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23018,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23006\/revisions\/23018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}