Archaeological Site Museum, Nagarjunkonda

The Archaeological Site Museum at Nagarjunakonda is built in the form of a Buddhist vihara on an island within the Nagarjunasagar reservoir, reached by an ASI ferry from a jetty at Vijayapuri. Nagarjunakonda, named after the Buddhist scholar Acharya Nagarjuna, was a major religious center that supported both Brahmanical and Buddhist faiths and later developed into a stronghold of the Mahayana tradition.

The museum's five galleries display Ikshvaku-period art including serene Buddha sculptures and carved ayaka-slabs depicting episodes from the Buddha's life, stupa architectural elements, Brahmanical sculptures such as Kartikeya and Sivalinga images, ceramics, carved mandapa pillars, and valley models showing more than 120 excavated sites comprising stupas, viharas, temples and secular structures. A dedicated epigraph gallery houses inscriptions in Brahmi script (3rd-4th century AD), mostly in Prakrit with some Sanskrit.