Indore Central Museum is a Momentous Walk to a 10th Century Podium

Without any doubt, Indore Central Museum tops our city sightseeing list for various reasons. Also, this museum is a 5-minute stroll from the Kamla Nehru Zoological Park. Therefore, we highly recommend, you to visit both the landmarks one after another. Coming back to the Central Museum, when we first drove inside this quiet (and almost empty) house of heritage; it wasn’t any different than walking into a scene of a 10th-century stage.

Built in the early 19th-century, Indore Central Museum features a rare collection of sculptures, coins and miniature-models from the period from 901 to 1000 BC. The Museum itself is a small building displaying ancient sculptures and coins encased in wooden boxes; however, it’s the courtyard that will take you to a different era. 

Indore Central Museum is a Momentous Walk to a 10th Century Podium

We bought the entrance tickets for INR 20 per person and paid an additional INR 50 for a professional camera. From the ticket counter, we saw the museum essentially as a small vertically-built building with a small courtyard. Almost immediately, our instincts prompted us to wander around this open arena to get an up and close look of the medieval Hindu sculptures.

Starting with the Red terracotta model of an ancient Vishnu-Temple which symbolises the principles of the 13th-century Jain Tirthankara Adinath. (Look closely, and you will see a small figurine of reclining Buddha on the main door of this red brick modelled temple) To, finishing it by appreciating stone figures and the sculptures from the Parmar Dynasty!

In all honesty, watching such precious artwork laying astray is not a pleasant gateway of thoughts. But, the fact they exist sufficed at the moment.

Inside the Indore Central Museum, there are about 2-3 galleries which showcase tools, miniature models, seals, coins, armour, and copper inscriptions from medieval to the modern era. Most, of which, is an ‘irreplaceable’ 10th-century-collection ideally, to be confined to high security.

They say, the armour, in particular, represents the time of the Holkar Raj when the Kings surrendered to the British. Today, the Holkar Dynasty arms and ammunition are up for a virtual grab at the central museum.

The museum also houses an office where you can purchase the replicas for a price tag. Nevertheless, the central museum didn’t score full marks on our upkeep register. Malwa region’s remarkable antiquities, however, certainly deserve a visit. The museum stays closed on Mondays, therefore plan your trip on any other day of the week.