Museum · Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh
Allahabad Museum
A national museum in Prayagraj, established in 1931 and declared an Institution of National Importance in 1985. Known for its rock-art gallery and nineteen canvases by Nicholas Roerich.
See first
- The rock-art gallery of prehistoric paintings
- Nicholas Roerich's canvases
- The Nehru gallery and his manuscripts
- The Gandhi Smriti Vahan
A first museum opened in Allahabad in 1863, set up by Sir William Muir, and closed in 1881 because it was housed in an empty barracks open to fire and storm. The present museum was established in 1931. Nehru laid the foundation stone of its building in Chandrashekhar Azad Park, the old Alfred Park or Company Bagh, on 14 December 1947, and it opened in 1954. It is funded by the Ministry of Culture.
For art, two rooms matter most. The rock-art gallery shows prehistoric paintings, dated from about 14,000 BC to 2000 BC; it is said to be the largest such display in India. And the museum has nineteen canvases by the Russian painter Nicholas Roerich.
The rest is history in objects. A gallery for Nehru holds his manuscripts; one for Gandhi holds photographs of his life. The museum also keeps the 1947-model Ford V-8 truck that carried Gandhi’s ashes to the Sangam in February 1948.
The library has 25,000 books.