The Salarjung Museum , Charminar

and Laad Bazaar

- Rajesh Rawal / Jyoti Arora

 Salarjung museum

It was Saturday and I was totally in

mood to sleep but an early morning call
from my friend reminded me that we had
planned to visit the world renown
“Salarjung museum” that weekend. As
the word museum came to my mind I felt
lazier and tried to give some excuse for
not going, or going a little late. But as
luck would have it, I found myself ready
for the excursion on time, i.e. 10 AM
and we reached the Purana Pool
junction where we had planned to
assemble. From there we were
supposed to take an auto directly to
the museum. There are various options available to reach the museum and the route we followed was Mehdipatnam
(Ring Road) → Purana Pool (Old Bridge) → Naya Pool (New Bridge) → 5 mins walk to the museum across the
‘New Bridge’. We took shared autos everywhere, so from Mehdipatnam the journey cost us a meager Rs.10 per head
to reach our destination.

We reached there at about 10:30 AM, and then began our 4 hour journey into the
world of Nizams. I know it sounds very tiring but after you read my experience, you will
plan to go and visit the museum this weekend itself for sure. The entry ticket was Rs.25
per head for an adult.

The museum was made open to public on December 16, 1951. It is the world’s largest
one man collection of artifacts and houses the collection of SalarJung family (that’s why
the name ‘SalarJung museum’), who were important nobles in the courts of the Nizams.
The museum has a collection of astrolabes, jeweled swords and daggers, Persian
carpets, European painting and sculpture, the best one being the Veiled Rebecca of
Italian sculptor Giovanni, Maria Benzoni. The collection was mostly acquired by Mir
Yousuf Ali Khan, also known as SalarJung III. Some of the items he inherited were collected by his father and
grandfather.

The Museum has 40,000 pieces spread over 78 rooms of the palace. As we started our journey towards galleries we
were getting more and more amused. Stones of 1A.D (CAN YOU BELIEVE, 1 A.D!!!) are also there, which
made us feel more curious to know what’s more stored in other rooms.

Let me give you a brief introduction to the galleries I liked the most –

Gallery 1 has personal artifacts, mementos received and portraits of the SalarJung’s and the Nizams's. Royal
clothes, porcelain and silver bowls, books furniture etc. Gallery 3 and 3A contains collection of Indian art and articles.
This section displays Indian textiles; bronze images of Jain, Cholas and Kakatiyas dynasty and brass articles
belonging to Vijanagar dynasty etc. Kalamkari paintings on cloth have various scenes of Ramayana, 'Parvati
Kalyanam', Lord Krishna along with Gopis etc. Gallery 4 and 5 contains minor arts of South India and wood carvings.
The special attraction is the armed Vishnu of 1st and 2nd centuries found in Nagarjuna hill. Gallery 9, 10 and 11 is
the Children’s section and has a marvelous assemblage of toys from all over the world. It displays puppets, model trains
and objects acquired by Salar Jung III during his childhood. Gallery 14 contains carved ivory works belonging to 18th
and 19th century. These ivory chairs were presented to Tippu Sultan by Louis XV of France. Gallery 15 and 16
contains metal ware and European artifacts including the world famous statue of Veiled Rebecca, her beautiful face
hazily visible through a flimsy marble veil. Rebecca’s statue is so amazing that one can look at the statue for hours and
admire her beauty.

Gallery 28 is the clock room is one of the best galleries displaying more than 300 clocks
in various sizes ranging from Sandiers to modern day huge pieces. There are tiny pieces
set in magnifying glasses to huge and stately grandfather clocks from France, England,
Germany, Italy and Switzerland. An interesting exhibit here is a musical clock from
Cook and Kelvy of England with a toy figure of a watchman, who pushes open the door
every hour in a great hurry, to beat the melodious gong and indicate time.

When we gathered in lobby, there were more than 100 people sitting to watch, watchman
coming out. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… and here it goes Tring Tring!!! (Two Trings,
because time was 2p.m). And this is how the clock show ended!!!

*pictures showing sculptures or any related thing which is part of museum have been taken from internet as
photography is prohibited inside.
There is a food court within the museum, where you can have different snacks and a light lunch also. Apart from all
this, there is a book shop from where you can buy books or pictures or posters of the artifacts available inside the
museum. This was especially helpful because photography is not allowed inside the museum. I bought a poster of the
‘Veiled Rebecca’ for my own personal collection – it was so impressive that I had to take one as a memoir. My friend
bought a postcard book containing photographs of many other artifacts of that museum.

After the museum, we went to Charminar. It is walk-able distance from the museum – approx 15-20 mins of walk
through a busy market road. I would suggest not to take an auto rikshwah, but walk down and enjoy the Chandni
Chowk type market place on your way. Bargain around and you might actually get good deals to buy that pretty kurta
or a stole, or that spacious suitcase for a throw away price. This is the part of Hyderabad where you will find people
talking in the Hyderabadi accent.

The entry fee for Charminar is Rs. 5 per head, and it is open only till 5:00 PM in the evening. The walk up the
charminar is little difficult because of the steep stairs, but once you reach the top the gentle breeze will make you
forget all the tiredness of the whole day. From there we could see Mecca Masjid, Laad Bazaar, bird eye’s view of the
Golconda fort, and a large part of the city.
From the Charminar, we also went to the Laad Bazaar and explored the bangles made of ‘Laad’. They were available
in beautiful designs and colors, and all possible sizes also. The shop keeper will be too eager to show you almost the
whole collection he has, because he was quite sure, we will end up buying at least some bangles!!! Finally we zeroed in
on 2 bangles and then started the rounds for bargaining on the price. We got the price reduced by 50% so came back
home happy and content with the shopping :), and a day well spent.

- Rajesh Rawal / Jyoti Arora