Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya - the old name was easier for a westerner!

The Buddha

Ganesh

Painting of a challenge

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya

On Wednesday a few hours after arriving, and about four hours sleep, we lit out. I wanted to see the former Prince of Wales museum, now called the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya. It is a gorgeous old museum, with a stragely eclectic collection, spanning incredible Buddhist and Hindi sculpture and miniature paintings, an extensive collection of Chinese porcelain and jade (boring), and even a few galleries of western paintings by the like of William Gainsborough, Titian and Rubens' school, and even a painting of Lanky Abe Lincoln!

The museum has around 50,000 items from ancient Indian history and objects from elsewhere (Like Abe Lincoln). The museum is more or less divided into three parts: Art (largely western paiting), Archaeology and Natural History. The museum has thousands of Indus Valley Civilization artfacts, and other relics from ancient India from the time of the Guptas and Mauryas. As always, we were most interested in the archaeological artifacts--mostly scupltures, and the like. What we loved most were the ancient scupltures of Buddha and the various Hindu deities.

Since it was a holiday, the place was filled with Indians and only a small handful of tourists. One thing I found really heart-warming and amazing about Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya was how joyous and relaxed it was. The guards were smiling, and there was much talking and laughter--quite a contrast to our more staid and library-like museums. I bought a camera permit for a few dollars which allowed me to take all the photographs I wanted. I'll share as many as I can.

After much walking around town, we stopped for beers at the famous Leopold's (140 years old, a site where Indians, Africans, and Brit, German, and America tourists eat and drink together). Leopolds was the site of a terroist attack in 2008. You are wanded and your bags are checked before you enter. The beer and mint lime-ade was cold and cheap. Later Tuesday night, we had an awesoe vegetarian thalli, nan, and mineral water dinner down the street.

Back at the hotel, we chilled, drank much water, and fell out. I got in a few chapters of Rick Stieves Travel As A Political Act.
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