Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, founded as the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India after the 1905 visit of the future George V, occupies a domed Indo-Saracenic building by George Wittet, the architect of the Gateway of India, completed in 1915 and opened to the public in 1922 after wartime use as a military hospital. Set in a palm garden off Mahatma Gandhi Road in Kala Ghoda, the museum holds roughly 70,000 objects arranged across three principal sections. The art galleries display Mughal, Rajput, Deccani and Pahari miniature paintings, one of the finest such collections anywhere, alongside decorative arts, arms and armour, jade, textiles and European painting. The archaeology section covers Indus Valley seals and terracottas from Mohenjo-daro, Gupta and Chalukyan sculpture, and an outstanding group of Gandhara Buddhist pieces showing Greek influence on Indian form. The natural history section, developed from the collections of the Bombay Natural History Society, includes dioramas of Indian wildlife. Newer wings house a Coin Gallery, a Karl and Meherbai Khandalavala collection, a conservation centre and a children's museum, and the institution has co-curated major international loan exhibitions in recent years. The building itself, with its tiled dome, arcaded galleries and marble floors, is among the most successful Indo-Saracenic designs in the country. Two to three hours covers the main galleries comfortably, and the air-conditioned halls make the museum an obvious choice in the heat or the monsoon.