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N C Mehta Gallery Ahmedabad

N C Mehta Gallery Ahmedabad

N C Mehta Gallery AhmedabadN C Mehta Gallery Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad is a UNESCO World Heritage City with many institutions to visit and things to do for visitors and locals. The presentation for places to visit in Ahmedabad includes archaeological sites, ancient structures, pol of old Ahmedabad city, ancient temples and mosques, museums, galleries and more. One such destination to visit in Ahmedabad is N. C. Mehta Gallery.

Exploring N.C. Mehta Gallery in Ahmedabad is amongst the best things to do in Ahmedabad. Inaugurated by the first prime minister of India, Shri Jawaharlal Nehru in 1963; this N. C. Mehta Gallery in Ahmedabad city is an exhibit collection of renowned N. C. Mehta’s miniature paintings. In the year of 1960 The Gujarat Museum Society was formed as a Public Charitable Trust with an ideology of exhibiting such creations. And for the same purpose the local governing authority of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has allot a place at the first floor of the famous Ahmedabad City Museum, also known as a Sanskar Kendra located at Paldi Ahmedabad. This beautiful building was designed by the famous French architect Le Corbusier.

Late N.C. Mehta or famously known as Shri Nanalal C. Mehta was amongst the pioneer of the miniature painting in India. He was also a member of reputed Indian Civil Service and had a creative touch of an aesthete and perception of an antiquarian. He was also having a sound knowledge in the language of Hindi and Sanskrit literature. His research publication and sever books written by him includes Vasanta Vilasa and Chaurapanchasika series of paintings documented on the information related to Indian Paintings. Such things are currently the exhibit articles at the N. C. Mehta Gallery at Ahmedabad Museum.

N C Mehta Gallery Image Gallery

At the time of it’s inauguaration this Ahmedabad museum of N. C. Mehta. Gallery was situated at the Sanskar Kendra, Paldi. This museum was housed at the same place till 1991. However, it was found latterly that some of the paintings were showing some marks of od-deterioration may be due to the building environment of water and plant or may be due to atmospheric pollution in surrounding areas. The Board of Trustees of the N. C. Mehta Gallery therefore decided against moving the location of the museum to an area away from such pollution. At that time another great and respected trust of Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad City came forward and offered a suitable structure for the valuable collection in their premises near Gujarat University.

To house this collection the new wind was designed inside the premises of Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute and it was designed by none other than famous Indian architect and Padmashree award winner Dr. B. V. Doshi. He has created a structure that can artistically and aesthetically present all the collection of N. C. Mehta. This new building of the N. C. Mehta Gallery, Ahmedabad was put inaugurated by historian Shri Karl J. Khandalavala in October 1993. At this new venue of Ahmedabad N. C. Mehta Gallery, special measurements have been taken like minimizing the damage due to environmental effects and also through the lightings inside the gallery. The intensity of lights inside the gallery scientifically measured to nullify the effects.

In realty it is important to understand the meaning of Indian miniature paintings. It includes some of the epic arts like illustrations of sacred and secular works, rangmala, darbar scenes, portraits of societies and poetic compositions. Such paintings were used and exchanged on special occasions between the royal personalities. These paintings were famously known as a miniature painting due to its small size and specially made from handmade papers and indigenous mineral colors.

Paintings and other artifacts inside the N. C. Mehta Gallery Ahmedabad are arranged chronologically and starts with the artifacts from the Western Indian culture and Sultanate Schools. Including the piece of papers from the Jain Kalpasutra are the earliest example of the Indian miniature paintings. The pre-Muhgal era paintaings are exhibited through the folios of Hamza-Nama and Sikandar Nama, the two Persian classics. Then comes the Chaurapanchasika series of miniature paintings composed by the Kashmiri Poet Vilhana in the 11th century. Among the other popular paintings of Indian miniatures exhibited at this Ahmedabad Museum are the love poems of Gita Govinda created by Jaydeva, the Rasikpriya series crafted by Keshvadasa, blind poet Surdas’s Sursagar and epic Bhagavata Purana. Amongst this all, the Gita Govinda series is a collection of more than 150 paintings that represents the early Western Indian culture including Gujarat and Rajasthan.

Visitors of this Ahmedabad museum can also find the large collection of Mughal, Rajasthani and Pahari miniature paintings inside the basement of the museum house. It includes some of the most noticeable articles like Basohli, Nurpur, Kangra, Guler, Kulu Mandi and others. The early Rajasthani culture is also presented including paintings from Mewar, Bundi, Kota, Bikaner and Malwa.

Amongst the great museums in Ahmedabad city, N. C. Mehta Gallery is one of the most interesting places for tourists to visit. This is surely one of the museums in Ahmedabad which serves the glimpse of exclusive range of miniature paintings from the history of Indian civilization.

N C Mehta Gallery 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: http://ncmg.ldmuseum.co.in/

N C Mehta Gallery Ahmedabad Location