The Famous Historical Museum of Vadodara in the Gujarat State of India

If you are interested in the art, history, the ancient coins collection, and the rulers of Vadodara, which is situated in the Gujarat state of India, you will surely be interested in viewing the museum of Vadodara. This museum was established in 1894 and is flourishing since then. All the visitors who visit this cultural city of India make sure to visit this historical museum at Vadodara. One needs to spend around 3 hours to view it in detail with the reference and context of the history of Vadodara State. Around 800 to 1000 visitors visit this museum everyday.

This museum is situated in the Sayaji Garden, which is most commonly known as Kamati Baug among the residents of Vadodara. The entire museum building is made of red bricks and hence, gives a very outstanding external appearance to it. The museum has three floors in all. The museum remains open from 10.30 am to 5.0 pm on all weekdays except Wednesdays. It remains closed on all Wednesdays. There is a nominal entry fee of around Rs.5 (14 cents) per head. However, all the school students have free entry. As soon as you enter the museum, you come across the ancient coins section. There are coins as old as of the year 1768 in this museum. Each coin has been labeled nicely with its history and their present values. Some of the gold coins, published by Gaikwad rulers of Vadodara during various vital occasions like victory in war, birth of a child, are also stored here. The weapons like the swords and the hand knives used by the Vadodara rulers are also stored here. The ancient wall clock, which is around 180 years old and is still functioning properly, is also one of the worth seeing items. This wall clock is around 6 feet tall. Its pendulum is in the shape of the famous symbol of the Baroda State, consisting of the sun, moon, and the earth with full Indian map on it. The museum staff has to rotate its mechanism every twenty-four hours to keep the clock in tiptop running condition. As you move across to the second floor of the museum, you will enter the most beautiful picture gallery. The gallery consists the original wall paintings, painted by famous Bengali artist, Nandlal Bose. There are around 48 pictures in the gallery and each of them has a peculiar feature hidden inside it. You may need to hire the guide services to understand the said feature of each painting. There are couple of nude paintings also and they are said to be invaluable.

Next comes one of the most important specimen of the museum. That is an Egyptian mummy. This ancient Egyptian Mummy is said to be 5000 years old and belongs to a young woman of around 20 years old. The Mummy is preserved very nicely with its detailed history written clearly above it. The next comes the animal section. As the Baroda rulers were fond of hunting of wild animals, all kinds of wild animals like the tigers, lions, elephants, bears, and the leopards are stored here after stuffing them properly. After viewing this animal's section, you will have to get down the stairs and enter the basement floor of the museum. The most vital and important specimens are kept here. It is the full skeleton of the big whale, around 85 feet long. This whale was found at the sea shore of Dabka, which is situated around 25 miles away from the city of Vadodara, in the year 1945. One can get the real idea on the internal organs of the largest mammal on this earth by viewing this skeleton. The full skeletons of zebra and the African giraffe are also kept here. There is a museum shop on your way to get out of the museum. The duplicate statues and the wall paintings, stored in this museum, are sold here at this shop. The duplicate statues are in same size of the original but are made of plaster of Paris. The cost of such duplicate statues is in the range of Rs.40 ($1.0) to Rs.1000 ($25) depending upon the size and type of the specimens.

All the lovers of the ancient museums, the historical specimens, and the history of old Baroda State must make sure to visit this famous museum during their next visit to Vadodara in India.