National Museum in Delhi

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Delhi, the capital of India has a number of popular museums. National Museum is one of the most prominent museums of Delhi. National Museum is located at the corner of Janpath and Maulana Azad Road. It is a huge three-storied building that showcases India's culture and history as old as 5,000 years.

The present building of the museum was inaugurated on December 18th, 1960. However, the collection of artifacts and other interesting things dates back to 1946 when Gawyer Committee decided to collect items from various museums all over India, and display them at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Gradually, the number of items kept on multiplying and a proper building for the museum was built in 1960. The administration of the museum is under the Department of Culture, Ministry of HRD, India.

The artifacts are well arranged in the museum and things are put in a chronological order. Some of the artifacts date back to 2nd and 3rd century B.C. Each item has a proper description in Hindi and English so that the viewer can properly understand its context. The purpose of the National Museum is to showcase the eventual growth of Indian culture and society by displaying objects and items that belong to various eras and reigns. The objects at the museum try to depict the story of India from pre-historic times. The 2, 00,000 works of art displayed at the museum bring history to life.

National Museum holds special interest of: foreigners interested to understand the Indian origin and culture, school children who want to enrich their knowledge, historians and research scholars. It takes about 1-2 hours to visit the whole museum but it really enhances ones knowledge of Indian history.

Major Attractions of National Museum

• Bronze Gallery:
  
  Bronze gallery is adorned with bronze masterpieces of Cholla and Pallava dynasty. Among these are: Bronze Dancing Girl, Natraj figure of Shiva and Kaliya Mardan Krishna. It has various other statues that have been found in excavation and by other ways.
  
  
• Manuscripts and Paintings:
  
  Manuscripts and paintings show the writing and governing style of various eras. For example, there are manuscripts that show firmans issued by Mogul rulers.
  
  
• Coins and currency:
  
  There are thousands of coins and currencies from one or the other era. Each is made of different material, has different denomination and has its own engraving. Some of the coins date back to 2nd or 3rd century B.C.
  
  
• Musical Instruments:
  
  There are musical instruments of more than 300 types which tell the stories of the kings and their likings or passion for music.
  
  
• Holy Manuscripts:
  
  Some of the big attractions of the National Museum are the Bhagvat Gita, Holy Mahabharata and Geet Govind written in golden alphabets. Other Holy books are Octagonal mini Quran and Babarnama in Babar's handwriting.
  
  
• Harappan Gallery:
  
  This gallery is dedicated to the artifacts and objects specifically from the Harappan civilization. Coins, terracotta figures, jewelleries, and other day to day objects show the life as it would have been in Harappan civilization. The above mentioned attractions are a few examples of what should be expected in National Museum. There are numerous other things of interest and historical significance. Thus, whether you have interest in history or not, the National Museum has enough infotainment to offer each one of you.