Bharat Kala Bhavan is an art and architecture museum located in Varanasi. It is situated in within the campus of the Banaras Hindu University. The museum exhibits India`s heritage and is a store house of a vast collection of paintings, Hindu and Buddhist sculptures and other archaeological materials. The museum helps in displays the various aspects of the Indian culture, civilization, and history. Textiles and costumes, decorative art items of different types can also be seen here.

History of Bharat Kala Bhavan
According to the history of Bharat Kala Bhavan it was established in the year 1920 A.D. Its first Honorary Chairman was poet Rabindranath Tagore and its Honorary Vice-Chairman was the poet`s nephew Silpacharya Abanindranth Tagore. However, the acclaim and recognition for the origin and subsequent development of the famous museum goes to Padmavibhushan Late Rai Krishnadasa. He was a famous writer in Hindi. He was also a pioneer among the Indian art historians. Later the museum also gained name and fame under the patronage of Dr. Motichand, Shri O.P. Tondon, Dr. R. C. Sharma (Ex. Director), Dr. T.K. Biswas (Ex. Joint Director) and Dr. D.P. Sharma (present Director).

Attractions of Bharat Kala Bhavan
The main hall of the Bharat Kala Bhavan houses an image of Lord Krishna. He is seen standing on one leg and with one hand on his hip and lifting Mount Govardhana above his head, with one hand. There are many other illustrations and images in the Bharat Kala Bhavan that confirm about the prevalence of the Krishna religious group or Krishna cult in Kashi during the 15th and 16th century.

Presently Bharat Kala Bhavan holds a collection of over 100,000 miniature paintings from the courts of Mughals and other Kingdoms and principalities. It has been separated into several sections. Few of these are the Archaeological gallery, Mahamana Malaviya gallery, Nicholas Roerich gallery, Numismatic gallery, Chhavi i.e. painting gallery, Nidhi (treasures gallery), Sculpture gallery, Decorative Art gallery and Banaras Through The Ages gallery. The Mahamana Malaviya gallery has been dedicated to Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya. He is credited with establishing the Banaras Hindu University. The gallery exhibits all the important events that took place in his life. These have been displayed through photographs, books written by him as well as books written on him, and many other collections. In the Nidhi gallery one can see the exquisite collection of crystals, coins, beads, terracotta figurines, precious and semiprecious stones, jade objects, silver, enamel and rare jewellery. The ancient terracotta figurines and palm leaf manuscripts that have been displayed in the museum draw a lot of attention. The museum, remarkable in nature is visited by many tourists from various places. The best time to visit Bharat Kala Bhavan and Varanasi is between the months of October and March.