Museum culture has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years from the public sphere as well as within historical and anthropological circles. Institutions like the British Museum have been labouring under the public perception of them as some of the last remaining bastions of British Imperialism. It might be said that an issue with museums is their representation of cultures as stuck in time, exiled to the past behind panes of glass. However, in the upcoming exhibition Ancient India: Living Traditions, which will run at the British Museum from the 22nd May to the 19th October 2025, past and present collide in a burst of vibrant colour: “gold, turquoise, emerald green, orange, hot pink”. As Dr Sushma Jansari, the curator of the South Asian collection at the British Museum and the mind behind Ancient India: Living Traditions, tells me, this is an exhibition which the museum has never seen the likes of before.
For one thing, the exhibition focuses on the devotional art of three major religions: Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. While similar exhibitions on early South Asia might focus on a particular region or indigenous religious tradition, Jansari strongly felt that this was not representative of the real lives of diasporic communities: “everyone lives together, and for me it was really important that we did an exhibition that brings the different traditions together, that brings people together.”
As Jansari described to me, the 5th and 6th centuries BCE were periods of real social and religious ferment, out of which the three major religions as we know them today began to grow. The religions and their devotional imagery were deeply interconnected, notably with the inclusion of Yakshas and Yakshis, powerful male and female nature spirits. These nature spirits were “so powerful and so part of people’s daily lives that you almost couldn’t develop a new religion without them if you wanted to bring in more people.”
Crucially, these are living traditions, and “it’s really quite striking that some of the images you see now haven’t changed in 2000 years”. This is the core story of the exhibition, and it is reflected in the conclusion which features objects that are borrowed from community partners: a gold Buddha from the Buddhapadipa Temple in Wimbledon, a dancing golden Ganesh from an events manager in Wembley, and a marble sculpture of a Jain enlightened teacher commissioned by a community partner in India. These objects are all rich in personal history: the Ganesh statue was used for the wedding of its owner’s sister, and the statue of the Jain teacher is used by his family for personal devotion. The conclusion film is deeply personal and close to Jansari’s heart, as it features her grandma and daughter speaking about Diwali. The rituals they describe are alive and hybrid, reflecting a form of diasporic experience: for example, Jansari’s daughter writes to Lakshmi every year for Diwali in the same way that she writes to Santa at Christmas.
It’s worth mentioning here that in 2018, Jansari was the first person of South Asian origin to be appointed the role of curator for the South Asian collection at the British Museum. It seems surprising that this has happened so recently, especially because of the unique perspective that Jansari is able to bring to her work. Alongside exploring her interest in collecting histories through her collaboration with PhD students researching female and South Asian collectors in the museum, she deeply values working alongside communities. This is a key part of what she has done throughout her career, having worked alongside the local community when curating the South Asia gallery of the Manchester Museum, with members of the Sikh diaspora community on a rotating display in the Sir Joseph Hotung Gallery that was curtailed due to the pandemic, and with members of the Jain centre in Leicester when curating the section on Jainism in Western India.
Many aspects of Ancient India: Living Traditions were informed by discussions with focus groups from the local community, such as the organisation of the exhibition into Jain, Buddhist, and Hindu art to aid understanding about the distinctiveness of each art form. Even the materials used to make the accompanying exhibition book are vegan, in keeping with the principles of non-violence in the three religions. Jansari also pays careful attention to how the objects made their way to the museum: every single item in the exhibition is accompanied by a label with information about its provenance.
When asked which object in the exhibition she found most interesting, Jansari described with visible pleasure a “beautiful bronze figure of a goddess”, wearing a chundri (shawl), as small as a bottle of sun cream, with a face “worn in veneration” which dates back to the 1st century CE. Interestingly, the goddess has all of the imagery associated with female nature spirits (Yakshas): “voluptuous figure, heavy jewellery, flowers in her hair, lots of flower motifs”, but unlike a Yaksha, has four arms. Hence, this goddess shows a “pivotal moment” in the transition between nature spirits and the powerful, many-armed deities of Hinduism.
In Ancient India: Living Traditions, Ancient Indian devotional art is not represented in an impersonal, conventional manner but rather as relevant to the modern diasporic experience: vibrant, mobile, and unmistakably alive.
This interview has been edited for clarity.