What's inside Delhi's new Sanskriti Museum of Indian Textiles & Everyday Art

Step inside the Humayun's Tomb World Heritage Site Museum in Nizamuddin, New Delhi, to discover the new Sanskriti Museum of Indian Textiles & Everyday Art. The gallery features over 2,500 objects and 500 historic textiles. This immense collection was built by 97-year-old art patron and relocated from its former home at the Sanskriti Kendra Anandagram campus.

Instead of a regional layout, the section is uniquely arranged chronologically following the traditional human life cycle. It moves away from royal treasures to focus on everyday utility, housing bizarre and intimate everyday items from past centuries. From the Childhood era, spot intricately carved wooden walkers from South India, brass animal figurines and traditional toys. There are also learners' slates, inkwells, writing implements and vintage drawing tools.

On display are elaborate historic locks, trade equipment, old farming implements, aesthetically carved jewellery boxes, ornate paandans (betel leaf boxes), a silver hookah and brass lotas (water pots). The exhibits document nearly 200 years of Indian craft, design and daily life, organised into two distinct sections.

The textile wing displays 500 centuries-old, rare fabrics sourced from across undivided India, celebrating community weaving and domestic women's crafts. Expect Bengal's fine Jamdani and Kantha hand-weaving, Punjab's embroidered Phulkari and Rajasthan's tie-dyed Bandhani. A prized, century-old double-ikat silk Patan Patola sari from Gujarat featuring intricate elephant motifs is also on showcase alongside heavily detailed zardozi work from Benaras, traditional Kanchipuram textiles, temple tapestries and historic textiles originating from Dhaka and Sindh.

The Sanskriti Board of Trustees officially gifted this collection to India in 2023 through the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA). The current display at Humayun’s Tomb Museum is set for an initial timeline of five years. It highlights the collaboration between the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) and the IGNCA, which designed the displays and are managing future research and conservation.

Timing: 10 am to 6 pm

Ticket price: Rs 50

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