The state archaeology museum gets about 3,000 visitors per month, of whom 50-100 are foreigners
Ancient arms on display at the State Archeology Museum. (Photo: Deccan Chronicle)
Hyderabad: Shah Jahan’s shield, Tipu Sultan’s rifle, daggers belonging to the Tughlaq dynasty, a Quran handwritten by Aurangzeb etc. are some of the rare antiques languishing in the storerooms of the archaeology and museums department.
These can be used to pull more crowds to the museums. The state archaeology museum gets about 3,000 visitors per month, of whom 50-100 are foreigners. The situation is worse at the Archaeology Museum at Gunfoundry, which gets about 1,000 visitors, most of whom are students on field trips.
The Archaeology Museum has a wider collection of artifacts than even the Salar Jung Museum, but they are lying locked in storerooms.
About a decade ago, the arms and weapons gallery was removed along with the coins and manuscript library.
This was in spite of the fact that the State Archaeology Museum, with nearly 2.5 lakh coins has one of the largest collections in the world.
Its manuscript collection ranges from Vedic literature on palm leaves to firmans of the Nizam and Mughal periods.
Security at the museum is also poor with just 15-20 guards, compared to nearly 300 at the Salar Jung Museum.
A common complaint of the archaeology department officials is that the department is always headed by an Indian Forest Service official and not by an expert archaeologist.
“How can we expect any innovative and technically sound decisions from someone who has no academic knowledge of archaeology,” an official said.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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