Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum Ahmedabad

Showcasing arts and archaeology from the centuries-old culture, Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum is one of the finest museums in Ahmedabad. A few of the best things to see in this museum are the palm leaf manuscripts, 3rd-11 century sculptures, and pre-Mughal miniature paintings. Ahmedabad city holds a perfect balance between new and old. The city has so many historic places, heritage locations and museums to explore. It offers tremendous opportunities for tourists to learn about the history and culture of the city. One such museum in Ahmedabad is Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum; famously known as the LD Museum, the showcase of beautifully preserved artifacts.

Since its establishment in 1956, the museum has been busy collecting and showcasing rarest rare manuscripts and historical artifacts from the various parts of the country as well as from Nepal and Tibet as well.

History: The History of the Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum is very interesting. This museum in Ahmedabad is been developed under the vision of two significant personalities, Muni Shri Punyavijayji; the intellectual scholar-monk and Sheth Kasturbhai Lalbhai; the well-known industrialist of Ahmedabad. They set up a society called the Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute of Indology in Ahmedabad. Jain Muni Shri Puniyavijayji donated all his valuable collections of manuscripts, bronze paintings, cloth paintings and more to this institute. The collection grew further and need to safeguard the collection was immersed. It was the pioneering thought behind establishing LD Museum.

The entire museum is spread across different galleries including Madhuri D. Desai Gallery, Muni Punyavijayji Gallery, P. T. Munshaw Gallery, Shri Arvindbhai Collection and Shri Kasturbhai Lalbhai Collection. This is not all, the museum has its conservatory laboratory and a team of experts working hard for cleaning, maintaining, repairing and restoring the artifacts to preserve them for a longer period. There is an Art Reference Library also inside the LD Museum. The library and laboratory were developed with the assistance of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India in 2012 – 13.

COLLECTIONS

Muni Puniyavijayji Gallery: Muni Puniyavijayji Gallery is located on the first floor of the Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum. The main focus of the gallery is to display paintings of the Gujarati Jain community. He collection is from the era of 1940 and there is a manuscript written on palm leaf which is one of the main attraction of the museum. One can see the earlier version of the printed paper manuscript also at the museums. This manuscript is of Shantinath Charitra which was printed around the year late 14th century. It is about the life of 16th Jain Trithankara, Shantinath written in Sanskrit language. Another Jainism collection at LD Museum Ahmedabad includes wooden book covers called Patili, Cloth Painting of Jain Pilgrimage, Artwork parallel to Mughal Empire period and Mughal king Jahangir’s order of stopping animal killing during the holy period of Paryushan. Other things showcased at this gallery include Jain Siddha Chakra Yantra, Kalakcharya Katha in Mandu Style and more.

Madhuri Desai Gallery: Madhuri Desai Gallery displays sculptures from India, Nepal, Tibet and other South Asian countries. There is 11th century Chola style Natrajan idol and bronze Mandala collected from Tibet around the 18th century. There is a very large Buddha head made from stucco material which was dated back to Gandhara civilization. Also, other similar Buddha images are collected from Mathura, Nalanda, Tibet, and Nepal are showcased at this gallery. Other collection at Madhuri Desai Gallery of LD Museum Ahmedabad includes a beautiful image of Lord Adinath made from Bronze metal. This image was collected from Sirpur. Chhattisgarh. There is an image of Lord Ram made in around the 6th century and found in Deogarh, MP. Few more articles on display at this gallery of the Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum of Ahmedabad includes the image of Lord Shree Ram found in Deogarh, MP and figure of Matrika Indrani collected from Shamlaji in Gujarat. There is an amazing collection of miniature paintings of the 17th and 18th centuries depicting different scenes of Ramayana. Also, there is some beadwork collection to explore.

Priyank T. Munshaw Gallery: This gallery of the LD Museum is known for its coin collection. There are coins from the Akbar’s din – i – ilahi phase, Jahangir’s Zodiac series in silver coin and Adil Shah’s coin. There are artifacts of Hindu, Buddhist and Jainism crafted from stone, marble, bronze and other metals. Ther are some miniature paintings also to explore. Some of them are panels of Tirthankaras, 14 dreams of the lord, Ashtamangala, carvings on different pillars and more.

Over the years the collection grew enormously in number and size and the museum management decide to have a separate building for displaying the artifacts. As a result, a new building for Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum was built at the place of the existing building by the internationally acclaimed architect Mr. Balkrishna Doshi. The new museum building and collection were opened for the public in 1984. This L.D. Museum is methodically maintained by the institution called Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Bhartiya Sanskriti Vidyamandir.

The collection of this museum in Ahmedabad covers a wide range of topics including Buddhism, Jainism and it’s Darshans, literature grammar, tantra and poetics of religious Vedas, agama from the different twigs of Indian philosophy. The verities of preserved artifacts at the Lalbhai Dalpatbhai LD Museum includes an array of sculptures, centuries-old manuscripts, artworks, woodworks, beadwork, textile artifacts, contemporary paintings and molded metal coins. The museum has religious importance as well as it has the largest collection of Jain scripts including 75,000 manuscripts with more than 500 illustrated versions and 45,000 printed books. These books and manuscripts are into different languages of Sanskrit, Pali, Rajasthani, Hindi, Old Gujarati and Apabhramsa. Also known as an Institute of Indology, this Ahmedabad museum houses a library established in 1984. This library holds excellent compilations of miniature paintings, sculpture on stone, cloth paintings, bronze paintings, wood crafts, textile samples, terracotta, ancient coins, metal sculptures and few paintings from Rabindranath Tagore.

Amongst the collections, there is sandstone collected from the Madhya Pradesh dating from the 6th century AD, known as the oldest carved stone of the Lord Rama. The gallery inside the museum holds the exhibit of the largest head of Lord Buddha collected from Gandhara. There is also the cult image of Mother Goddess Aindri collected from Shamlaji and bronze sculpture of Lord Adinath collected from Sirpur. Here, visitors can also see bronze images collected from Ghoda, Sarnath, Mathura and Tamil Nadu. There is also a collection of Gujarati Jain style paintings that dated back to the Mughal period.

Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum Ahmedabad

Address: Gujarat University Clock Tower
L.D. Institute of Indology Campus
Opp. L.D. Engineering Hostel
Navrangpura, Ahmedabad
Gujarat 380009

Phone: 079 2630 6883

Website: www.ldmuseum.co.in

Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum Ahmedabad