Glasgow museum highlights Hindu deity Shiva

Bronze sculpture “Shiva Nataraj” is one of highlights of award-winning Saint Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art (SMMRLA) at the heart of medieval Glasgow in Scotland.

SMMRLA has three galleries of permanent displays exploring some of the world’s major religions through religious objects and works of art, as well as a gallery dedicated to the role of religion. “Magnificent” sculpture of Shiva Nataraj is at the far end of the Gallery of Religious Art.

Galleries of SMMRLA “explore the importance of religion in peoples’ lives across the world and across time” and it “aims to promote understanding and respect between people of different faiths and of none”. It reportedly hosts talks relating to religion regularly.

Commending SMMRLA for showcasing Hindu artifacts and efforts at promoting understanding among diverse religions, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that art had a long and rich tradition in Hinduism and ancient Sanskrit literature talked about religious paintings of deities on wood or cloth.

Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged major art museums of the world, including Musee du Louvre and Musee d'Orsay of Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Los Angeles Getty Center, Uffizi Gallery of Florence (Italy), Art Institute of Chicago, Tate Modern of London, Prado Museum of Madrid, National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, etc., to have exclusive Hindu galleries, thus sharing the rich Hindu art heritage with the rest of the world.

Glasgow's patron saint Mungo reportedly brought the Christian faith to Scotland in the 6th century.