Mixing Memory And Desire: A Museum Trail For Jaipur

Pink City offers an unmatched-as-yet mix of experiences, blending heritage and modernity like few other cities. For the discerning city bird, its clutch of museums both new-age and oozing traditional splendour, is as tempting an invitation as they get. Here are five museums you should visit in the Rajasthan capital:

Albert Hall Museum

This impressive museum, now called the Central Government Museum, is located in Ram Niwas Bagh, a public garden built in 1868 by Sawai Ram Singh II and modelled on the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The building is designed by Sir Swinton Jacob in the Indo-Saracenic style. The vast collection of exhibits at the facility includes metal ware, jewellery, pottery, textiles, and other antiquities. Do look out for the Egyptian mummy and a rare collection of coins from the Gupta, Kushan, Delhi Sultanate, Mughal and British eras.

Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, Jaipur City Palace

Built by Maharaja Jai Singh II, seven years after the founding of Jaipur, the seven-storied Satkhana Mahal, or Chandra Mahal, is a veritable palace of illusions that abounds in floral and mirror decorations and ornate tiling.
Life-size portraits of Jaipur’s royals, along with Mughal and Persian miniatures adorn the ground and first floors. Sukh Niwas on the second floor leaves you spellbound with its delicate Persian-style floral patterns and Mughal miniatures, and expansive view of the palace gardens from the terrace. The third, fourth and sixth storeys—Rang Mandir, Shobha Niwas and Sri Niwas—area-glitter with mirrorwork and decorations in gold and Mukut Niwas, the top floor is, quite literally the citadel’s crown, serving up sweeping views of the walled city.

Anokhi Museum

Located about 12 km from Jaipur and housed in a 2-storied pink sandstone structure, to most locals the Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing, is still the Chanwar Palkiwalaon Ki Haveli of yesteryears.

The museum’s open courtyard features an assemblage of boards explaining the elaborate hand block printing process —from the selection of the design to be printed, to their carving on wooden blocks soaked in oil, and the subsequent printing using vegetable dyes.
Inside, alcoves and galleries showcase over a hundred printed pieces and blocks. One look at this permanent collection acquaints the visitor with a variety of natural and chemical techniques. The eclectic designs of the hand-block-printed textiles of Balotra, west of Jodhpur, come alive in another dedicated, permanent exhibition. The designs on display are among those that have traditionally featured on the gathered skirts of local women.

Amrapali Museum

Design junkies flock to gurgling springs of gemstones and heritage jewellery at the Amrapali Museum, where founders Rajiv Arora and Rajesh Ajmera’s covetable collection—chains, pendants, amulets, head and hair ornaments, earpieces, bracelets, bangles, and toe rings from the far reaches of the subcontinent—stands displayed.

Stopping by at a particularly stunning piece from Gujarat, one notices how the physical boundaries between Rajasthan and Gujarat vanish as one encounters numerous similarities between the jewellery of the two regions. Yet, the artisans have dipped into their respective indigenous traditions and resources to create a sumptuous repertoire of jewels. Also from Gujarat is the 12-foot-long silver chariot, an exhibit that has garnered much attention in the three years of the museum.