Albert Hall Museum

Albert Hall Museum

The Albert Hall Museum in Jaipur is the oldest museum in the state and serves as the Rajasthan State Museum of India. It was considered one of the best museums of the 19th century due to the diversity of its collection. It was renovated in 2008 and reopened as one of the most advanced museums in India. The building is located in the Ram Niwas Garden outside the city wall opposite the New Gate and is an excellent example of Indo-Arabic architecture. It is also known as the Government Central Museum.

History

The building was designed by Samuel Swinton Jacob with the assistance of Mir Tujummul Hussain and opened as a public museum in 1887. Maharaja Ram Singh initially wanted the building to become a town hall, but his successor Madho Singh II decided it should be a museum of Jaipur art and incorporated it as part of the new Ramniwas Gardens.

It is named after King Edward VII (Albert Edward), whose foundation stone was laid on 6 February 1876 during his visit to the city as Prince of Wales. The museum's founders collected the best examples of many crafts and sometimes commissioned some of the artefacts. Colonel Thomas H. Hendley was entrusted with the responsibility of preserving the collection. The Maharaja and Hendley were assisted in realising their dream by a young engineer, Samuel Swinton Jacob, who was the head of the Public Works Department. "Hendley's careful account book of each object collected forms the basis of our catalogue and remains an important source material even today."

The Albert Hall Museum evolved from an industrial craft collection that Hendley had amassed for the grand Jaipur Exhibition of 1883. The precious collection was housed in a magnificent building called Albert Hall. Hendley introduced the appointment of guides and demonstrators to conduct informed tours, a pioneering initiative that was adopted by museums around the world. Rajasthan was under the rule of princely states and the practice of purdah (veil) for women was widespread in the region. In this context, every Friday was reserved for female visitors. For many such innovative museum practices, Albert Hall became famous and many of its features were highly appreciated even in the West but the major attraction of the museum is its exhaustive collection of industrial art and other outstanding pieces.

Collection

The museum has a rich collection of artefacts that include paintings, jewellery, carpets, ivory, stone, metal sculptures and crystal artefacts. The collection also includes coins from the Gupta, Kushan, Delhi Sultanate, Mughal and British periods.  This magnificent collection is the result of the efforts of Hendley, who wanted to preserve the local skills and crafts and showcase the best craftsmanship from other places to the people of Jaipur. A collection of 19,000 objects was amassed by Hendley, which includes arms and armour, sculpture, international art from Japan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Hungary, Germany, Austria etc., pottery, carpets, jewellery, musical instruments, ivory, woodwork and stonework. The Egyptian collection has many objects. An Egyptian mummy is the main attraction of this museum. A 17th century Persian garden carpet and many ancient sculptures are the coveted treasures of the museum. Many brass and metal objects were acquired for the collection. Many of them were replicas of the Jaipur exhibition at the Imperial Institute in London

Building

The museum building is made of marble and stone. The building was expanded specifically with a museum in mind. The outer walls of the building depict scenes from ancient civilizations. The upper part of the courtyard has murals depicting excerpts from religious texts such as the Quran, the Bible and the Indian epics. The walls depict six scenes from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana in colour. The six-panel set includes scenes from the epics such as the great dice game, the abduction of the white horse, Damayanti's swayamvara, the sacrifice of King Mevardhwaj and Bhikhya's marriage to Chandrahasa. The murals are taken from the 16th century manuscript of the Razmnama, a Persian translation of the Mahabharata by 19th century copyists. The Albert Hall has attracted attention from experts, dignitaries, the general public and artists alike. Rudyard Kipling expressed his scholarly admiration for the museum in the Journal of Indian Art and Industry of 5 January 1885, saying, "Every part of it, from the domes of the roof to the cool green lime pots and the carvings on the sides of the fountains in the courtyard, is worth study."

Gallery

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