INDIA’S VERY BEST : CY LISTS MUST VISIT MUSEUMS AROUND INDIA

Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum (formerly the Victoria and Albert Museum)

The oldest museum in Mumbai, established under British colonial rule in 1855, the museum was renamed the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum in 1975 after the Indian physician who made a huge contribution to the arts in the city. Showcasing the heritage and culture of Mumbai, the collection focuses on decorative arts and artefacts that exhibit what daily life was like in Mumbai over a century ago. Celebrating India’s rich tradition of highly skilled craftsmanship, the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum traces the city’s history and the shape of daily life through a stunning collection of highly intricate clay model dioramas created in the late-19th and early 20th centuries.

National Museum, Delhi

Located on Janpath, the National Museum in New Delhi is also the largest museum in India. It holds variety of articles ranging from pre-historic era to modern works of art. The impressive building of National Museum houses curious artifacts of the Indus Valley Civilization and the Mughal era sampling a rich survey of India’s past. Constructed in 1949, the museum collection boasts of luxury railway coaches used by kings back in the day. It houses a variety of collections that include jewelry, paintings, armors, decorative arts and manuscripts. There is also a Buddhist section where one can find head of a Buddha statue, and Buddha Stupa having remnants of Gautam Buddha, constructed in 3rd century BCE by Sovereign Ashoka.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (formerly the Prince of Wales Museum)

Built in 1914 and opened in 1922, Scottish architect George Wittet who worked in the Indo-Saracenic architectural style (which was prominent in the 19th century under British colonial rule) designed the building. The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Museum is the finest cultural site in Mumbai, located in the artistic district of Kala Ghoda. Located near the Gateway of India, also designed by Wittet, the museum features a rich collection of Indian miniatures, decorative artefacts from succeeding empires, including the Mughal and Rajasthani.  The colonial style was a fusion of British and European architectural forms with some Indian characteristics integrated. Mumbai’s role as a centre of transnational trade is also apparent, with artefacts from Europe, China, Japan, Nepal, Tibet and across Southeast Asia. Located amidst a beautiful botanical garden, the museum encompasses art, archaeology, design and natural history.

Indian Museum, Kolkata.

The Indian Museum is the oldest and the biggest museum in India. Originally the Indian Museum was a part of the Asiatic Society and opened to public in the year 1875. Established in 1814 by Asiatic society of Bengal in Kolkatta, the truly diverse Indian Museum has a unique collection of armors, skeletons, sculptures, fossils, meteorites, embryos and skeletons of prehistoric animals on one end and Mughal paintings, ornaments and manuscripts on the other. It possesses six sections containing five galleries of creative and scientific work of arts that is archaeology, geology, economic beauty and art. The ash remains of Lord Buddha is one of the valued assets of the Indian Museum besides an exhibit that boasts of a marvelous collection of 50,000 coins.

Salarjung Museum, Hyderabad

Situated on the southern bank of the river Musi, the Salar Jung Museum is an art museum with world’s largest collection of artifacts. Salar Jung Museum is among the most important attraction in Hyderabad. An art museum situated in the beautiful city of Hyderabad, Salar Jung Museum contains a collection of paintings, textiles, metallic artifacts, clocks and carvings from various countries like China, North America, Egypt, Nepal, Europe, Burma and India. The Indian Parliament acknowledged it as an institution of National importance. Salar Jung Museum, which has an exquisite collection of priceless articles like Ivory, Marble sculptures. Salar Jung Museum is popular as largest one-man collections