Tamil Nadu is a land with history and culture. Innumerable historical sites, cities and monuments across the length and breadth of the state are a testimony to this rich cultural past. Tamil Nadu's museums offer visitors a rare opportunity to view culture under a single roof.

Government State Museum 

This museum in Chennai is best known for two important collections: sculptures from Amarvati and its famed Bronze Gallery. The Amaravati collection has panels, pillars, carved railings and Buddha statues of Milky white marble from a Buddhist stupa excavated at Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh.  There are bronze sculptures from the later Pallava, Chola, Hoysala and Chalukya periods.

The museum displays collection of portraits and paintings of former governors of Chennai as well as of English royalty. Among the other objects on view are weapons, coins, porcelain and the communion vessels of the church.

Thanjavur Art Gallery

The former palace of the Nayaks of Thanjavur once viceroys of the Vijaynagara rules and later hereditary rulers, is a wonderful and extravagant piece of architecture, built in 1600. The huge enclosed compound encompasses a complex which includes the Art Gallery, the Saraswati Library and the Sangeetha Sabha or Music Hall.
A gigantic tower, the arsenal, decorated with bands of arches form the external facade. One enters into a hall which is the sculpture gallery where examples of south Indian stone sculptures dating from the Pallava to Nayak period are exhibited.

Government Museum

The various sections in the museum deal with archaeology, anthropology, zoology, numismatology,  botany and geology. The museum has a fine collection of bronzes which are not allowed to be photographed.