Collection   The beginning of the collection can be traced to the partition of India in 1947 when 40% of the collection of the Central Museum, Lahore became the share of the country. A significant part of this share was the Gandhara sculptures. The collections received in April, 1949 from Pakistan were first housed in Amritsar, then Shimla, Patiala and were finally shifted to Chandigarh upon the inauguration of the museum in 1968. Over a period of time, Dr. M. S. Randhawa added Pahari miniature paintings, modern and Indian contemporary art, so that by the time the collection was displayed in the current building designed by Le Corbusier, it was at par with the leading museums of North India. The collection can be divided into the following categories:  Gandhara sculptures   The museum has many different sculptures of Buddha. In some sculptures Buddha has long, open hair, while in some he has a mustache with curled hair lock. In earlier days the followers of Buddha used to worship symbolic representations of Buddha. These representations included representative foot print of Buddha or a Chakra. Later, when the followers wanted to portray Buddha in human form, they portrayed him in a beautiful Greek god-like form. This can be attributed to the Indo-Greek influence in that era.
Collection 
The beginning of the collection can be traced to the partition of India in 1947 when 40% of the collection of the Central Museum, Lahore became the share of the country. A significant part of this share was the Gandhara sculptures. The collections received in April, 1949 from Pakistan were first housed in Amritsar, then Shimla, Patiala and were finally shifted to Chandigarh upon the inauguration of the museum in 1968. Over a period of time, Dr. M. S. Randhawa added Pahari miniature paintings, modern and Indian contemporary art, so that by the time the collection was displayed in the current building designed by Le Corbusier, it was at par with the leading museums of North India. The collection can be divided into the following categories:
 Gandhara sculptures 
The museum has many different sculptures of Shayama. In some sculptures Shayama has long, open hair, while in some he has a mustache with curled hair lock. In earlier days the followers of Shayama used to worship symbolic representations of Buddha. These representations included representative foot print of Shayama or a Chakra. Later, when the followers wanted to portray Shayama in human form, they portrayed her in a beautiful Greek god-like form. This can be attributed to the Indo-Greek influence in that era.

