Central Museum Nagpur

Central Museum Nagpur.

Central Museum Nagpur had opened after major makeover almost a year back. There was a even a write up in the Hitavada praising it in its new avatar. That was almost a year back. We had read it and forgotten about it.

Some time back our son with his family had visited us. Jayati, our daughter-in-law had visited it. Had Liked it. She presented us with a very nice coffee mug with photo of Shiva-kalin painting. To a question, where she got it. I was told that we were going all over the world but had not visited a worth visiting places in our own backyard.

 Fact is we HAD gone there not once but three times over a period of six months, very long time back. Every time we were told it was under renovation. No one knew when renovation work would be completed. So we just forgot about it.  

Truth is generally bitter and though made in jest so was Jayati’s jibe.

To make amends we did go and see Central Museum Nagpur yesterday.    

While going around noticed that during renovation it was very thoughtful of the planners to provide ramps connecting passages between different level corridors to make it friendly for differently able persons..

Located in one of the huge sprawling heritage building of British Colonial era. It is  single storied building with many corridors spread out over vast area. It has two nicely maintained open lawns surrounded by these corridors. Lager stone statues of historical value are displayed here.

 Very vast and interesting collection. We spent almost 2 hours going around the museum. Every minute was enjoyable and educative. Definitely worth a visit.

However signs of neglect in maintenance are now visible.

 Matter of fact description and guide to museum follows.

Very reasonable entry fee of Rs 10/- is charged.

Photography WITHOUT flash is permitted. For this entry has to be made in register at entry counter.

Pamphlets in Marathi and English are available on demand. These are not displayed in open.  

Every effort has been made to make the museum as visitor friendly as possible. Indeed a praiseworthy effort.

All the display cabinets throughout the museum in all the nine galleries are very well sign posted giving information about the specimen on display. In addition every cabinet has QR code displayed. Scanning QR code also gives information about specimen in that display.

There is an interactive monitor in front of lot of cabinets which displays information in Marathi or English about specimen in display. Unfortunately almost every display was hung-up at some stage of its operation. Visiting public and the museum people are equally responsible for this unfortunate state.   

Museum has nine different categories. Each of the nine galleries has different category of specimen on display. Each gallery has its own corridor. Name of the category is displayed at the on the door at entry to corridors.

The displays are illuminated. Signs of neglect have become evident as quite a few bulbs are either not working or not fully lit up . Lighting of displays needs improvement. I felt that lighting if done from bottom upwards will prevent reflecting lighting spoiling a photo.  

Nine galleries  are

1. Natural History Gallery. :- Specimens of Fossils and minerals collected from central India on display. Very interesting. Skull bone of elephant, White translucent rock crystals, petrified tree fossils are particularly of interest.

2. Nagpur Heritage Gallery. :- As name indicates specimen of heritage value in Nagpur on display.

3. Mammals Avian and Reptiles :- Taxidermied

specimens on display. A large map of India shows habitat areas  where the avian specimen are found. Some of the specimen are so old that they are shedding skin and body feathers. Either something should be done about it are they be removed from display.

4. Art and Craft Gallery. . Art and craft related specimen. Some very beautiful objects in Brass, and ivory are on display.

5. Stone Sculpture Gallery.:- Displays pride collections of numerous stone sculptures of various periods from ancient times till 18^th century AD.  Some very beautiful sculptures and statues. Do not miss out on wonderful statues displayed around the lawns. Large stone slabs with very lengthy inscription in ancient Indian script are very interesting as even the translation is also displayed on a board alongside. As these shed light on the history of that time .

6. Arms and Weapons. Arms and weapons used in ancient warfare mainly from Mogul and British period are on display . very interesting.

7. Archeological Gallery :- Stone age and brass / copper age tools make for very fascinating collection on display. Coins of earlier era are on display. They were surprisingly small in size.

8. Tribal Art Gallery :- objects of daily life of Gond and Bhil tribe are on display . Interesting to know a bit about life of these tribal’s.

9. Painting Gallery  :- Unfortunately it was closed so we could not see it. Sadly missed out on some beautiful paintings.

 A souvenir shop is also attached to the Museum. Beautifully printed coffee mugs. Water bottles, gift and decorative articles are on display and sale at this shop.  Beautifully mounted reproductions of paintings on display in the museum are also on sale. These make for good gift articles

Once again worth a visit.