Terracotta soldiers in the mausoleum of Chinese emperor Qin Shihuang

Two of the life-size terracotta warriors found in the underground mausoleum of emperor Qin Shihuang (third century BC) will be on display along with many other artefacts from China at Belvedere House of National Library from September 8 to November 7.

“Treasures of Ancient China is being organised by the Archaeological Survey of India, the culture ministry and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China to reciprocate the earlier exhibition of ancient Indian art in four Chinese cities in 2006-07,” said Gautam Sengupta, the director-general of the archaeological survey.

A terracotta Qin warrior and (above) an Avalokitesvara statuette that will be on display

The exhibition, comprising 95 historical treasures from 10 museums of China, has been touring Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. In Calcutta it will be inaugurated by governor M.K. Narayanan, in the presence of chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

The terracotta warriors, installed in various formations in the underground mausoleum of Qin Shihuang, date back to the third century BC and were discovered in the 1970s. Qin was the first king of unified China.

The people of the period believed in afterlife and used to provide in the necropolis all things the dead would need. Thus, there would be pottery depicting pictures from everyday life, such as two dancers in long robes, a pipe-player and a story-teller. Samples of the pottery from the Han period (202BC-220AD) will be on display at the exhibition.

Also to be displayed are artefacts from the Neolithic Age (spades, sickles and millstones) and Bronze Age (drinking utensils and other vessels), as well as later periods when the Han, Wei, Jin and other dynasties were in power.

Between 220AD and 589AD, painting murals and sculpting in grottoes, which went to China from India, reached their peak and the Gandhara and Gupta styles of India blended with the ethnic Chinese.

The grotto sculptures prompted a demand for statues for individual worship. One such stone figurine, to be shown during the exhibition, shows the Bodhisattva in an unusually relaxed, serene and pensive mood.

A bronze Avalokitesvara as a woman who can grant fertility (symbolised by a baby seated on one knee) will be a surprise while the gilded bronze Tara will seem familiar. A bronze mirror from the Yuan era (13-14 centuries) has a Buddhist incantation inscribed in Sanskrit and Chinese.

There will also be specimens of porcelain items from the Longquan kiln (907AD to mid-1300) as well as those produced during the Ming and Qing periods (1368-1911) that were exported to countries in Asia, Africa and Europe.

Speaking about the exchange of ideas and artefacts between India and China, ASI director-general Sengupta said: “There has been a Chinese settlement in Bengal since the time of Warren Hastings (late 1770s). But Chinese goods have been here from long before that.”