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National Museum, New Delhi




Established in 1949, the National Museum is one of the biggest prevalent museums of India is situated on the corner of Maulana Azad Road and Janpath. It holds a wide variety of entities from the pre-historic era to the contemporary works of art. This museum works under the supervision of Ministry of Culture, which in turn functions under the Government of India. This museum possesses over 2 lakh works of art covering over 5000 years. Both Indian and foreign origin products have been preserved in this museum.

This museum houses a deemed university, the National Museum Institute of History of Arts, Conservation and Museology. It was established in 1983 and got converted into deemed university in 1989. It runs Master's and Doctoral level of courses in Art Restoration, Art Conservation and History of Art.

The roots of this museum lie in an exhibition that took place at the Royal Academy in London and exhibited arts and artefacts' of Indian origin during 1947-48. After the end of this exhibition, it was decided by the exhibition curators to display the same collection of arts and artefacts in Rashtrapati Bhawan in India in 1949 before the artefacts are returned to their individual museums. The success of this display led to the formation of the National Museum.

Attractions at National Museum, New Delhi

The collection of arts and artefacts in this museum is over 2 lakh entities hailing from different forms of arts. The entities preserved in this museum represent the history of over 5000 years.

The major galleries of the museum that display different entities include:

  • Harappan civilization gallery which possesses over 3800 objects belonging to this civilization.
  • Archaeology gallery which has about 800 sculptures
  • There is a wide collection of Buddhist art
  • You can also see a wide array of Indian miniature paintings hailing from styles like Pahari, Rajasthani, Central Indian, Deccani and Mughal etc. related from the period between 1000 AD to 1900 AD
  • Evolution of Indian coins and scripts
  • Central Asian Antiquity
  • A vast display of over 1600 coins in a modernised format
  • Indian textiles and wood carvings
  • Western and Pre-Columbian art
  • Arms, Armours and Musical Instruments from the Indian history
  • Temple Chariot placed near the museum's entrance gate
  • North-Eastern India's tribal lifestyle

How to Reach

By Air

After reaching the Delhi Airport, you can hire a taxi or an auto-rickshaw to reach the museum. It will take around 50 minutes to an hour to reach Janpath, where the museum is situated.

By Rail/Road

Janpath lies quite near to the railway station and the bus station (ISBT) and an auto-rickshaw or taxi will take 20 - 25 minutes to take you to the museum.

OUR PLANING

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