State Museum, Lucknow

The State Museum in Lucknow began in 1863 with the collection of Colonel Abbott, then commissioner of Lucknow, displayed in the Choti Chattar Manzil. It became the Provincial Museum in 1883, moved to Lal Baradari, the former coronation hall of the Nawabs of Awadh, in 1884, and was renamed the State Museum in 1950. Its present building, at Banarasi Bagh, surrounded by the Nawab Wajid Ali Shah Zoological Gardens, was inaugurated by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1963.

Archaeology forms the core of the collection, much of it from excavations the museum itself carried out, including at the Kankali mound in Mathura. Two galleries run from Stone Age tools and Bronze Age objects to plaster casts of Indus Valley figurines, Mauryan, Sunga and Kushana sculpture, Gupta terracottas and Buddhist pieces including Gandharan friezes. Medieval works include Pala art and Hindu images such as a Gajalakshmi from Bhitri. The museum also holds coins, paintings, manuscripts and textiles.