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Maharashtra is home to blockbuster museums such as CSMVS in Mumbai and the Ajanta–Ellora galleries, but tucked between colonial façades and sleepy coastal towns are institutions that tell unexpected stories about money, manuscripts, migrant kings, and children’s inventions. Below are eight lesser-known museums and archives across the state, each described with its age, what it houses, where it is located and practical pointers on how to reach it.
The Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum in Pune grew from the obsessive collecting of Dinkar Kelkar and opened to the public in the 1960s; the museum today is generally dated to 1962 and now houses more than 20,000 objects that celebrate everyday Indian craft, including a celebrated tambool and musical-instrument collection, ornate doors, and a recreated Mastani Mahal room that offers a vivid glimpse of domestic material culture.
The museum sits in Shukrawar Peth on Bajirao Road in central Pune and is easy to reach by city bus or by tuk-tuk from Pune Railway Station or Swargate, with local guides and the museum’s own website offering current visiting information.
The Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Entry fees vary depending on age and nationality: Indian adults pay INR 100, Indian children (below 12) pay INR 40. Foreign adults are charged INR 350, foreign children INR 100. Entry is free for blind and differently abled visitors.
Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai began life in the nineteenth century, and its roots go back to 1857, making it one of the oldest civic museums in the region; after sensitive restoration, the museum now pairs ethnographic displays with contemporary curatorial programmes and archives that document Mumbai’s urban history, housing ceramics, maps, trade objects and photo archives. The museum stands beside Byculla’s botanical gardens and zoo and can be reached by a short taxi or bus ride from Mumbai CST or Byculla railway station. The museum publishes visitor details and exhibition information on its official site.
The Museum opens from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on visiting days. It remains closed on Wednesdays and on certain public holidays. Ticket prices for Indian nationals are INR 20 for adults, INR 10 for children (3–12 years); similar discounted rates (INR 10) apply to senior citizens, students, BMC employees, and serving armed forces/police. For international visitors, adult tickets cost INR 200 and children’s tickets INR 100. Some categories— for example, BMC school students, or persons with disabilities— get free entry.
The RBI Monetary Museum in Fort, South Mumbai, is a specialist numismatic and economic history museum that was established by the Reserve Bank and formally opened as a public resource around the turn of the century; its collections include ancient cowries, coins, early paper money and historic financial instruments that trace India’s monetary story from barter to modern banking. The museum is housed in the Amar Building on Sir Phirozsha Mehta Road in the Fort precinct and is a short walk from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus or Churchgate, with multiple bus routes and local trains serving the area.
The RBI Monetary Museum generally remains open from 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on days other than Monday (it is closed on Mondays and Bank holidays). Entry to the museum is free.
The Museum of Solutions, often called MuSo, is a new kind of children’s museum in Mumbai that opened in the mid-2020s and positions itself as a hands-on STEAM hub where visitors from toddlers to teens can prototype ideas about sustainability, water, and city life; it combines labs, maker spaces, an amphitheatre and programmes that invite young people to co-create exhibits. Located in Lower Parel, it is reachable by the Lower Parel railway station and local buses and has rapidly become a draw for school groups and family visits.
From Tuesday to Friday, babies up to twenty-four months enter free for both three-hour and full day visits, children between two and seventeen years pay INR 999 for three hours and INR 1399 for a full day, and adults pay INR 499 for three hours and INR 599 for a full day. On Saturdays and Sundays, babies remain free regardless of visit length. Children are charged INR 1099 for three hours, INR 1299 for five hours, and INR 1599 for a full day, while adults pay INR 599 for any of the available durations.
Thibaw Palace in Ratnagiri is both a peculiarity and a quiet museum: built in 1910 by the British to house the exiled Burmese king Thibaw and his family, the red-brick, three-storey building now functions as a local museum and heritage site where visitors can read about the king’s exile and admire the hybrid Burmese–colonial architecture. The palace stands on a small hillock roughly two kilometres from Ratnagiri bus stand, and the town is best reached by Konkan rail services or by road from Ratnagiri city, followed by a short taxi ride.
Thibaw Palace is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and has an entry fee of INR 10 for adults and INR 10 for children. It is closed on Mondays.
The Coin Museum at the Indian Institute for Research in Numismatic Studies near Nashik was founded in 1980 and remains one of Asia’s specialist numismatic repositories, showing the evolution of Indian coinage through original coins, moulds, replicas and interpretive displays that are ideal for students of economic and cultural history. The campus lies on the Nashik–Trimbakeshwar road at some distance from central Nashik and is usually reached by car or taxi from Nashik city; the institute runs visiting hours and research appointments for scholars.
The visiting hours are 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturdays through Fridays, and it remains closed on Sundays and public holidays. Entry is free.
The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune is an archival research powerhouse founded in 1917 that preserves one of the finest collections of South Asian manuscripts and rare books in the world; its library holds more than a hundred thousand volumes and upwards of 29,000 manuscripts in Sanskrit and related languages, and it has long been a magnet for philologists, historians and text scholars. Located on Law College Road in Shivajinagar, Pune, the institute is accessible by city bus, rickshaw or a short cab ride from Pune Railway Station and offers reading-room access to qualified researchers.
For visitors (researchers or members), the Institute’s library/reading rooms are open Monday through Friday, 09:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and on Saturday until 1:00 p.m. It remains closed on Sundays.
The Directorate of Archives, often referred to as the Maharashtra State Archives, traces its institutional beginnings to the early nineteenth century and lists its establishment as 1821 on departmental histories; today the Directorate runs the central repositories in Mumbai, Pune and Kolhapur and has expanded regional offices at Aurangabad and Nagpur, holding government records, pre- and post-1820 diaries, official proceedings, old maps numbering in the tens of thousands and a vast body of Secretariat and departmental files that are indispensable for administrative and historical research. The main office is in the Fort/Kala Ghoda area of south Mumbai, and researchers typically need to consult the Directorate’s website for access rules and appointment procedures; the Archives are best reached from Churchgate or CST by local transport.
Entry requires an application for access to the collections, and all inquiries must be submitted in writing with a clear statement of the researcher's purpose.
1. What are some lesser-known museums in Maharashtra?
Lesser-known museums include the RBI Monetary Museum, Coin Museum near Nashik, Museum of Solutions in Mumbai, and Thibaw Palace in Ratnagiri.
2. Are these museums suitable for casual travellers or only researchers?
Many museums are ideal for casual visitors, while archives like Bhandarkar Institute and Maharashtra State Archives are primarily geared towards researchers.
3. Is entry free at any of these museums?
Yes. Museums such as the RBI Monetary Museum and the Coin Museum near Nashik offer free entry to visitors.
4. Which museum in Maharashtra is best for children?
The Museum of Solutions in Mumbai is designed especially for children and teens, offering interactive STEAM-based learning experiences.
5. Do Maharashtra’s archives require prior permission to visit?
Yes. Archives like the Maharashtra State Archives usually require a formal application stating the purpose of research before granting access.
