Salar Jung Museum

Salaam!

After the interesting day with the AP state museum and meeting our friend Hoshang Merchant we went to the Salar Jung museum the day afterwards!

It is a truly spectacular collection, made by the royal family of Hyderabad the Nizams! The collection covers artifacts from all continents and has spectacular collections from East Asia and also from a lot of colonial powers such as French, British and Dutch art as well as porcelain and ceramics from Germany, Poland and Italy.

It has spectacular collections of Persian and Middle eastern artifacts and also artifacts from all southern India. We spent the entire day in that museum and it sure was needed to see everything!
This shows the cosmpolitanism and the multiculturalism of the Nizam court and the spirit of Hyderabad as a place of mixing cultures to create it's own very cosmopolitan culture!

Andhra Pradesh State Museum

Salaam my friends!

After the hectic day of seeing the Charminar, Makkah Masjid and the Chowmahallah we went to see the Andhra Pradesh State Musuem. Andhra Pradesh was the first Indian state to be formed in independent India and is now called Telangana since the Teluguspeaking people are the majority here.

It is a very nice museum, especially for being India since it is very well run and the local state takes care of it's historical heritage. It even has an Egyptian deparment where they showcase Egyptian artifacts. However we are more interested in the Indian artifacts and to see how the museum portrays the state's history.

It is very interesting to see the diversity of art, culture and people in Telangana since it has more traditional southern artifacts such as Tamil, Telugu and Kannada cultural objects and statues but also the more recent Islamic heritage of Persian, Arabic and Nizam artifacts.

It also houses a wide selection of Jain and Buddhist artifacts since Buddhism and Jainism were culturally influential religions in the state and flourished for centuries. That legacy is now however an historical one.

After the museum visit we went to the Hussain Sagar (lake) of Hyderabad for some relaxation and some conversation with locals. From there we later on visited our beloved friend and professor Hoshang Merchant, a famous LGBTQI rights activist, author and poet! I always enjoy the time I spend with him! A true inspiration and a really good friend!
Here are some pictures from the visit and the dinner!