The museum
in Lucknow, once situated in the historic Choti Chattar Manzil and the Lai
Baradari, erstwhile coronation hall of the nawabs ofAvadh, moved in 1963
to its new premises, a modern three storeyed structure situated
incongruously in the the Prince of Wales Zoological Gardens.
The
initial collection centred around the arts of Avadh and objects related to
the customs, habits and mythology of India. Gradually, it expanded to
include excavated antiquities from Piparahawa, Kapilavastu, where the
Buddha grew up. Today, this has evolved into a multipurpose museum with
sculpture, bronzes, paintings, natural history and anthropological
specimens, coins, textiles and decorative arts. From the vast number of
displayed objects, some hundred are rare and of great value. These include
an inscribed wine jar bearing the name of Aurangzeb Alamgir (17th
century), a jade chamakali with the name Jahangir and the date 1036 AD, a
16th century painting of a scene from the Kalpasutra depicting an elephant
rider and a Jain mum, a 16th century copy of the Harivansha in Persian
with nine illustrations, rare silver and gold coins, a prehistoric
anthropomorphic figure and a fossilised plant. However, what thrill
visitors most are the Egyptian mummy and wooden sarcophagus (1000 BC).
Rare stone sculpture includes the earliest image ofBalarama and
a panchmukhi shivalinga(both 2nd century BC), and a statue ofSaraswati,
again reputed to be the earliest depiction (2nd century AD). The coin
collection dates from 6th century BC onwards. Two recent acquisitions
areJahangir's silver zodiac coins made at the Ahmedabad mint. Lai
Baradari, the Kaisarbagh unit i museum, remains the archaeology and
displays excavated antiquities from Uttar Pradesh.
State Museum
Banarasibagh, Lucknow
Timing: 10.30 am to 4.30 pm
Closed
on Mondays and certain holiday
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State Museum, Lucknow
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