Discovering Agra: Top Museums to Explore in the Heart of History

• Location: This museum is located inside the Taj Mahal complex, on the western side to the entrance of Taj Mahal.
• Inauguration: The museum was created between 1899 and 1905. Later, in 1982, the museum was modernized by Khan Bahadur Hussan.
• Timing: Museum is open from 9 am to 5 pm. It is closed on Fridays. The entry ticket to the monument includes the cost of museum visit too.

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Galleries Inside The Museum

There are in total, three galleries in the museum:

First Gallery

This gallery is dedicated to Calligraphic art. It is said that Shah Jahan was a fan of Calligraphy and you can find many carved jade articles with calligraphic art. You can also find household items used during Mughal region, in this gallery. This includes bowls, celadon dishes, lotus vase, jade articles, porcelain items and so on. It is said that the celadon utensils change their colors, when poison is served in it. On the final section of the display, you will find arms of Mughal era like dagger, swords and others.

Second Gallery

This gallery is dedicated to paintings, mostly of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. This gallery holds many paintings of different sizes and shapes, made on different objects. You can find paintings made on ivory too. Miniature painting collection is also found in this section.

Third Gallery

This gallery is also dedicated to drawings and paintings. However, these paintings and collections are related to the mausoleum. You can find paintings and photographs of Taj Mahal during different decades. There is also the site plan of Taj Mahal on display. Every step of the building process had been recorded during the ancient times. This section also contain coins gallery, which displays silver and gold coins of Mughal reign, which were minted in Akbarabad.

Main Room

This room holds many exclusive items like

• Manuscript of Chechel Majlis of 17th century, which holds signature of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and the royal seal of his reign.
• Royal documents of the court during the time of Shah Jahan
• Paintings of Taj Mahal made during 18th century
• Document related to the fruit auction of the produce from Taj Mahal garden
• Land grant documents
• Copies of documents explaining supply of Makrana Marble from Rajasthan
• Map, with indication of spots, where the stones used in the monument came from.
• A few samples of the stones used in decorating Taj Mahal