National Museum – Christine's Reviews

Delhi readers, take note!

If you haven’t already seen this astounding exhibition at the National Museum, you only have until May 5th to do so.

Trust me, it is so fabulous that you will not regret it.

I had seen the jewels when they were last exhibited at the Museum in 2007, but the pieces on display are so gorgeous and so breathtaking that it was a joy to see them again.

There are more emeralds than you can imagine, more diamonds, more pearls, more necklaces, more turban ornaments, each one more fantastic than the next. Precious stones so big and so luscious that they look like enormous, brightly coloured boiled sweets – if that makes sense.

The star of the show is the Jacob Diamond, with all its attached dramatic back story, including being used as a paper-weight by the Nizam.

You have to buy a separate ticket for this exhibition, but at Rs 50 it’s a steal.

The atmosphere in the vault where the jewels are displayed is remarkably relaxed, with everyone ooh-ing and aah-ing, and taking photos with their mobiles. Once or twice a guard will politely ask people not to lean too much on the display cases, but overall, it was a super relaxed visit.

Well worth it.

The information inside the exhibition itself is pretty scant, so be sure to read the good information panels outside, before you go into the vault.

And don’t miss the lovely sepia photos of the court of Hyderabad wearing the very pieces you are drooling over.

This is a dazzling (literally) part of India’s history, and deserves to be seen and enjoyed.

Here’s a link to the Museum’s website for you, with timings and prices.

And here are a few more photos to whet your appetite :

In Mumbai last week, I went to the marvellous exhibition “India and the world: A history in nine stories” which is on at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya – or, as it says on their own website “(Formerly Prince of Wales Museum of Western India)”.

Although the exhibition will travel to Delhi later this year, I very much wanted to see it in the splendid surroundings of the beautiful colonial-era museum.

At the risk of sounding bossy – please do go see this exhibition.

Trust me. You will not be disappointed.

It is superb, and the way objects are displayed and explained is world-class, weaving history laterally across countries and religions through 9 stories.

The concept of the exhibition is fascinating, allowing us to see Indian artefacts in a global context, across civilisations. We see how Indian history ties in, for example, with the history of Rome or Greece or Mesopotamia, and you can stand and compare contemporaneous sculptures or pottery from across civilisations, as they are exhibited together.

Take a display like this one, above, in which images of emperors across different civilisations are placed side by side – a Kushan king from India’s Uttar Pradesh, the Roman Emperor Hadrian and Alexander the Great.

Quite extraordinary.

This is a rare, very privileged opportunity to see treasures from the collections of the British Museum, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya itself, and Delhi’s National Museum, as well as objects from smaller regional museums and private collections. In other words, access to objects you would otherwise never get to see.

All the stops have been pulled out:

“It is the largest such collaboration for even the British Museum, which has never before lent so many objects for a single show.”

https://scroll.in/magazine/858303/an-exhibition-tells-the-incredible-history-of-indian-civilisation-through-nine-stories

Stunning.