![]() Allahabad Museum | |
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Established | 1931, 91 years ago |
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Location | Kamla Nehru Raod, Prayagraj, India |
Type | National Museum |
Director | Rajesh Prasad |
Website | theallahabadmuseum |
The Allahabad Museum is a national-level museum in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. [1] [2] Established in 1931, [3] it is known for its rich collection and unique objects of art, and is funded by Ministry of Culture. Moreover, it is a premier research centre for archaeologists, historians and academicians and carries out extensive research activities and publications in archaeology, art and literature. Its rock art gallery has the largest collection of prehistoric paintings displayed in India dating from 14,000 B.C to 2000 B.C. [4] The museum, using solar power system, has become the first museum in the country to become self-reliant in power generation. [5] The Allahabad Museum is centrally located in the Civil Lines area of the city in a lush green garden at Chandrashekhar Azad Park, popularly known as Company Bagh. It is about 3 km away from the Allahabad railway junction and almost equidistant from three different Railway Stations such as Prayag, Rambagh and Prayagraj junction and about 12 km away from Prayagraj Airport. [6]
A museum was originally set up in Allahabad in 1863 by North-West Province Governor General Sir William Muir, before being shut down for unspecified reasons in 1881. After the initiative to reopen the museum was taken by Jawaharlal Nehru, the then President of the Allahabad Municipal Board, stalwarts like Madan Mohan Malviya and the then leading newspaper The Pioneer, the museum was eventually opened in the Municipal Board building in 1931. Due to space constraint, the museum was shifted to the present building at the Alfred Park. The foundation stone of the present museum building was laid on 14 December 1947 by Jawaharlal Nehru and the museum was opened to the public in 1954. In 1985 it was declared an Institution of National Importance. [7] [8]
The museum houses galleries each devoted to Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. The Gandhi Gallery displays rare pictures of Gandhi from his childhood till death, while the Nehru Gallery features Nehru's original manuscripts called 'In and Out of Prison' which were later published as his autobiography The Discovery of India. His other collection includes documents, gifts, wedding cards and letters, including some from Gandhi himself. The museum's another valued possession is the Gandhi Smriti Vahan, the 47-Model V-8 Ford truck on which Gandhi's ashes were immersed in the Triveni Sangam on 12 February 1948. [4] [9]
The pistol of Chandrashekhar Azad, a Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless semi-auto .32 bore, is displayed and preserved in the entrance hall of the museum. Azad used it to shoot himself after a long firefight with British policemen at the Alfred Park, the same year the museum was established. [10]
The museum boasts 19 exclusive canvasses painted by the Russian painter, Nicholas Roerich. There are 10 Roerich Halls all over the world, including the one at Allahabad Museum. [11]
The museum's library stores 25,000 books, including rare collections of Loeb Classical Library — translated works of ancient Roman and Greek scholars. [4]
Jawaharlal Nehru was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, statesman, secular humanist, social democrat, and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a principal leader of the Indian nationalist movement in the 1930s and 1940s. Upon India's independence in 1947, he served as the country's first prime minister for 16 years. Nehru promoted parliamentary democracy, secularism, and science and technology during the 1950s, powerfully influencing India's arc as a modern nation. In international affairs, he steered India clear of the two blocs of the Cold War. A well-regarded author, his books written in prison, such as Letters from a Father to His Daughter (1929), An Autobiography (1936) and The Discovery of India (1946), have been read around the world.
Svetoslav or Svyatoslav Nikolayevich Roerich was a Russian-Indian painter based in India. He was the son of Helena and Nicholas Roerich and studied from a young age under his father's tutelage. He studied architecture in England in 1919 and entered Columbia University's school of architecture in 1920. He won the Grand Prix of the Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1926.
Feroze Gandhi was an Indian freedom fighter, politician and journalist. He served as a member of the provincial parliament between 1950 and 1952, and later a member of the Lok Sabha, the Lower house of Indian parliament. He published the The National Herald and The Navjivan newspapers. His wife, Indira Gandhi, and their elder son Rajiv Gandhi were both prime ministers of India. He was a member of Indian National Congress.
Events in the year 1949 in India.
Nehru Planetariums are the five planetariums in India, named after India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. These are located in Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune and Bangalore, plus there is a Jawahar Planetarium in Prayagraj, where Nehru was born.
The Salar Jung Museum is an art museum located at Dar-ul-Shifa, on the southern bank of the Musi River in the city of Hyderabad, Telangana, India. It is one of the notable National Museums of India. Originally a private art collection of the Salar Jung family, it was endowed to the nation after the death of Salar Jung III. It was inaugurated on 16 December 1951.
Nayantara Sahgal is an Indian writer who writes in English. She is a member of the Nehru–Gandhi family, the second of the three daughters born to Jawaharlal Nehru's sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit.
Kamala Nehru was an Indian independence activist and the wife of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India. Their daughter Indira Gandhi was the first female prime minister of India.
Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, formerly Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, is an autonomous Institute established by the Government of Kerala on 17 November 1979 at Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala. It functions under the umbrella of the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE), Government of Kerala.
The Anand Bhavan is a historic house museum in Prayagraj, India, focusing on the Nehru family. It was bought by Indian political leader Motilal Nehru in the 1930s to serve as the residence of the Nehru family when the original mansion Swaraj Bhavan was transformed into the local headquarters of the Indian National Congress. Jawahar Planetarium is situated here, which has been striving to inculcate scientific temper among masses through its sky shows on astronomy and science.
Swaraj Bhavan is a large mansion located in Prayagraj, India, best known for once being owned by the Indian political leader Motilal Nehru and being home to the Nehru family until 1930.
Kesava Shankar Pillai, better known as Shankar, was an Indian cartoonist. He is considered the father of political cartooning in India. He founded Shankar's Weekly, India's Punch in 1948. Shankar's Weekly also produced cartoonists like Abu Abraham, Ranga and Kutty, he closed down the magazine during the Emergency of 25 June 1975. From then on he turned to making children laugh and enjoy life.
Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad or Allahabad in an anglicized version in Roman script, and anciently Prayag, is a city situated on an inland peninsula, surrounded by the rivers Ganges and Yamuna on three sides, with only one side connected to the mainland Doab region, of which it is a part. This position is of importance in Hindu scriptures for it is situated at the confluence, known as Triveni Sangam, of the holy rivers. As per Rigveda the Sarasvati River was part of the three river confluence in ancient times. It is one of four sites of the Kumbh Mela, an important mass Hindu pilgrimage.
Prayagraj, formerly known as Allahabad or Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of the Prayagraj district, the most populous district in the state and 13th most populous district in India and the Prayagraj division. The city is the judicial capital of Uttar Pradesh with the Allahabad High Court being the highest judicial body in the state. As of 2011, Prayagraj is the seventh most populous city in the state, thirteenth in Northern India and thirty-sixth in India, with an estimated population of 1.53 million in the city. In 2011, it was ranked the world's 40th fastest-growing city. The city, in 2016, was also ranked the third most liveable urban agglomeration in the state and sixteenth in the country. Hindi is the most widely spoken language in the city.
The Ministry of Culture is the Indian government ministry charged with preservation and promotion of art and culture of India.
Mushirul Hasan was a historian of modern India. He wrote on the partition of India, communalism, and on the history of Islam in South Asia.
Balan Nambiar is an Indian painter, sculptor, enamellist, photographer and an academic researcher.
This is a timeline of the history of the city of Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Ranjit Sitaram Pandit was an Indian barrister, politician, author and scholar from Rajkot in the Kathiawar region of British India. He is known for his role in the Indian non-cooperation movement, and for translating the Sanskrit texts Mudrarakshasa, Ṛtusaṃhāra and Kalhana's Rajatarangini into English.