Archaeological Museum Red Fort

The story of Archaeological Museum Red Fort

You are standing inside the Mumtaz Mahal of the Red Fort, and this museum is here to show what survives of Mughal culture in Old Delhi. The most striking thing about it is that it holds only a small fraction of what once belonged to the Red Fort, because many of those objects were carried off long ago and later ended up in private collections and in London institutions.

This place began as the Palace Museum in 1911, when it was located in the Naubhat Khana. It was later moved here, into a building that had been used as a mess by British troops. Today it is under the aegis of the Archaeological Survey of India.

Inside, the collection includes paintings, artifacts, calligraphy, fabrics and other objects dating from the Mughal era. Delhi Tourism describes three galleries here: one with miniature paintings, manuscripts, royal orders and stone inscriptions of the 2nd and 3rd century; another with relics such as coins, bronze statues, upholstery, seals and rock edicts from the Indus Valley Civilisation; and a third with relics of the Great Indian Rebellion of 1857. It also mentions a special section devoted to Bahadur Shah Zafar, with some of his belongings, including his famous ghazals, inkpot, pen holder and a perfume sprinkler.

The reason the collection is so limited is tied to the Red Fort’s history. Much of the Mughal property and jewels were looted during Nadir Shah’s invasion of India in 1747 and again after the failed Indian Rebellion of 1857 against the British. Some of these objects were later sold on to private collectors or placed in the British Museum, the British Library and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Among the named pieces now in London are the Koh-i-Noor diamond, the jade wine cup of Shah Jahan and the crown of Bahadur Shah II.

If you want to see what the museum is trying to preserve, look first for the objects that speak directly to court life, then for the material from later periods that shows how the collection has widened beyond Mughal art. Delhi Tourism notes that the museum is open all days, from 9:15 am -4:30 pm, while the other listing gives Monday to Sunday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM. The building remains a small but telling fragment of the Red Fort’s longer story.