The many museums of Bhopal

Bhopal is a city of museums &mdash the terrace garden-styled Bharat Bhavan which is a centre for performing and visual arts, the Museum of Natural History as well as an anthropological museum. And then there is the State Museum located in the Shyamla Hills, definitely the best of the lot.

Most Indian museums lack a coherent and interesting display of objects of artistic and historical importance. It is only too often that you find sculptures scattered around the premises. But the State Museum, whose artefacts were largely collected during the turn of the last century, is outstanding.

It is an enormous complex of several well-lit and displayed galleries of sculptures, fossils and excavated objects from pre-historic sites, manuscripts and miniature paintings, textiles, coins, heritage of former princely states and even rare musical instruments. Take a day out, wear walking shoes and amble along its maze of wide limitless galleries that lead in to one another. If you are tired, then relax in the spacious sky-lit courtyard. The bronze and stone sculpture galleries go through the different periods of Buddhism, Jainism, Vaishnavism and Shaivism, as well as Sakti and Tantricism in Madhya Pradesh. Yakshis and Shalabhanjikas straddle alongside the sensational Dwilingi Lakulisha and there is simply never enough time to see all of it.