History of National Museum in Delhi

On May 12, 1955, Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone of a three-storied hexagon-shaped building for the National Museum at the junction of Rajpath and Janpath in New Delhi. The first phase of the building was completed in 1960. Till then the Museum had been located in the Durbar Hal and adjoining corridors and rooms in Rashtrapati Bhavan. It was in 1945 that the Central Advisory Board of Archaeology had recommended that National Museum be set up. A committee worked out the details and thus the project of a National Museum took shape.

The National Museum has acquired a sizable collection of about 40,000 objects worth about 50 lakhs of rupees. Of these about 5,000 are paintings representing the Mughal, Rajasthani, and Pahari schools. Some of them are rare paintings, e.g., miniatures form the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, Bhagawat paintings, Kishangarh paintings, etc. there are about 300 stone sculptures including such masterpieces as the Mathura Buddha, the Mathura Vishnu, Bull capitol from Rampurva, Flying Celestials from Aihole, etc. Of the 600 bronzes, the museum is fortunate in possessing the Dancing Girl from Mohen-jo-daro, the Natesa in Chatura pose from Thiruvarangulam and about six exquisite Chola pieces. In the manuscript collection, there are some rate manuscripts like the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri and Babarnama.