The Napier Museum is an art and natural history

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

situated in

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The Museum is grounds to the

Trivandrum Zoo The Thiruvananthapuram Zoo (also known as Trivandrum Zoo) is located in the city of Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala, India. It occupies of woodland, lakes, and lawns. History Thiruvananthapuram Zoo is one of the oldest zoos in India. ...

, one of the oldest zoological gardens in India. The zoo was established in 1857 over of land. It also contains the Sree Chitra Art Gallery, a separate art gallery established in 1935. The set of museums, along with the zoo, are managed by the Department of Museums and Zoos, a branch of the Department of Cultural Affairs of Kerala.

History

A building was constructed in 1857 during the reign of

Uthram Thirunal Marthanda Varma Uthram Thirunal Marthanda Varma (26 September 1814 – 18 August 1860) was the Maharajah of Travancore state in southern India, succeeding his elder brother Maharajah Swathi Thirunal in 1846 till his demise in 1860. Known for his progress ...

, and later demolished in 1874 to lay foundation for a new building, during the reign of

Ayilyam Thirunal Ayilyam Thirunal Rama Varma (1832–1880) was the ruler of the princely state of Travancore in India from 1860 to 1880. His reign was highly successful with Travancore gaining the appellation of "model state of India". Ayilyam Thirunal was ...

. The

Governor of Madras This is a list of the governors, agents, and presidents of colonial Madras, initially of the English East India Company, up to the end of British colonial rule in 1947. English Agents In 1639, the grant of Madras to the English was finalized b ...

in 1872 appointed Robert Chisholm, a consulting architect of the Madras Government to design a new museum. In 1880, construction finished and the museum opened to the public, bearing the namesake of its governor,

Francis Napier, 10th Lord Napier Francis Napier, 10th Lord Napier and 1st Baron Ettrick, (15 September 1819 – 19 December 1898) was a Scottish polyglot, diplomat and colonial administrator. He served as the British Minister to the United States from 1857 to 1859, Netherlan ...

. The

Indo-Saracenic Indo-Saracenic architecture (also known as Indo-Gothic, Mughal-Gothic, Neo-Mughal, or Hindoo style) was a revivalist architectural style mostly used by British architects in India in the later 19th century, especially in public and government ...

structure lacks an air conditioning system. Although it has never been an issue due to suitable natural ventilation, an annex built in 2016 was noted for various problems such as mold, insects and corrosion owing to the lack of windows and openings. Since 2017, the annexed museum depot has been under review and is being rebuilt. Furthermore, the Napier Museum itself is being renovated.

Design

Some of the building features include a

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

roof and minarets. The Napier Museum, a landmark of the city, is noted for its unique ornamentation and architectural style, which is influenced by Indian, Chinese, Kerala and Mughal Schools of Architecture. The museum has a

bandstand A bandstand (sometimes music kiosk) is a circular, semicircular or polygonal structure set in a park, garden, pier, or indoor space, designed to accommodate musical bands performing concerts. A simple construction, it both creates an orname ...

with concealed speakers and special acoustics. In the old days, the band of the Travancore Nair Brigade would play there every Friday. Later, the police band would play on Saturdays. The museum owns a garden which has many varieties of flowers and trees. It also shelters the oldest living rubber tree in Kerala. It was brought there in 1876 from Ceylon and planted in the museum grounds by Visakham Thirunal.

Collection

The museum houses a rare collection of archaeological and historic artifacts, bronze idols, ancient ornaments, a temple chariot and ivory carvings. Indian epics of

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the s ...

and

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...

are depicted in the museum, using Japanese shadow-play leather.

Timings

Visiting Hours: Open 10.00 – 16.45 hrs. Closed on Mondays, Wednesday forenoons, 26 January, 15 August, Thiruvonam and Mahanavami.

References

External links

{{authority control Art museums and galleries in India Museums in Thiruvananthapuram Archaeological museums in India Natural history museums in India Museums established in 1855 1855 establishments in British India British colonial architecture in India Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture State museums in India