The State Museum, located in a modern three-storeyed building at Banarasibagh in Lucknow was once situated in the historic Choti Chattar Manzil and the Lal Baradari, the erstwhile Coronation Hall of the Nawabs of Avadh.

Moved in 1963 to its new premises, situated incompatibly in the Prince of Wales Zoological Gardens, the State Museum initially had a splendid collection centered on the arts of Avadh and objects related to the customs, habits and mythology of India. Gradually, it expanded to include excavated antiquities from Piparahawa, Kapilavastu, where the Buddha grew up.

THE PRICELESS POSSESIONS
A multipurpose museum, it houses valuable and prized collection of sculptures, bronzes, paintings, natural history and anthropological specimens, coins, textiles and decorative arts.
The exceptional invaluables include:
· an inscribed wine jar bearing the name of Aurangzeb Alamgir (1 7th century)
· A jade chamakali with the name 'jahangir' and the date 1036 AD.
· A 16th century painting of a scene from the Kalpasutra, depicting an elephant rider and a Jain muni.
· A 16th century copy of the Harivansha in Persian with nine illustrations.
· Rare silver and gold coins, a prehistoric anthropomorphic figure.
· A fossilised plant.
· The Egyptian mummies.
· The wooden sarcophagus, dating back to 1000 BC.

Among the rare stone sculptures is the earliest image of Balarama and a 'panchmukhi shivalinga' (both 2nd century BC), and a statue of Saraswati, reputed for the earliest depiction (2nd century AD). The coin collection dates from 6th century BC onwards. Two recent acquisitions are Jahangir's silver zodiac coins made at the Ahmedabad mint.

The archaeology section, the Lal Baradari in the Kaisarbagh unit of the museum, has on display the excavated antiquities from Uttar Pradesh.

The State Museum is open all days except Monday, from 10.30 am to 4.30 pm.

Bharat Kala Bhavan started in 1950, as a university museum is famous for its unique collection of paintings. It lies within the sprawling grounds of Banaras Hindu University. Its outstanding collection of sculpture, paintings and textiles began with the private collection of the enlightened Rai Krishnadasa.

It has a rich collection of Rajasthani paintings, 'pichhwais' and 'pahari' paintings. It also houses exquisite specimens of Nepalese and Tibetan 'thankas', company paintings as well as paintings of contemporary artists. Illustrated 'mrigavati', 'kalpa sutra', 'chopra-panchsika', 'Laura chanda', 'shahinama' and some pages of 'hamzanama' are the prized possessions of this museum.

The sculpture collection includes terracotta and clay objects, stone and bronze and cast metal objects. Ancient terracotta varying from ritual icons to toys to utilitarian objects date to the Indus Valley civilisation, Mauryan, Sunga and Gupta periods. Among the stone sculpture are red sandstone reliefs from the 2nd century BC, Buddhist stupa at Bharhut and rare images and statues from well known schools like Gandhara, which witnessed the synthesis of Greek and Indian styles. Mathura, a powerful art centre during the Kushana period also flourished during this period.

The Textile section has the most impressive collection of Banaras silks and brocades, embroidered shawls from Kashmir and the rare Chamba rumals, once used to wrap ceremonial gifts. The Mughal, Rajasthani and Pahari miniatures are exhibited here with main themes revolving around the various aspects of the life of Krishna.

The museum is open all days except Sundays and university holidays. From July to April, the museum opens at 11o'clock in the morning and closes at 4.30 pm. From May to June, it remains open from 7.30 am to 12.30.

The Allahabad Museum has an impressive collection of Sunga, Gupta, late Gupta and early medieval period sculptural masterpieces, discovered at different places around Allahabad. During the last twenty-five years a sizeable number of sculptures, mostly pertaining to the early medieval and medieval art styles have been added to the collection of the museum.

Nearly 400 sculptures broadly classified sect wise starting with the various categories of brahmanical gods followed by deities of the Buddha and Jain pantheon and terminating with secular and miscellaneous themes including architectural members have also been included.

Comprehensive selection of of objects from 3rd century BC, first through 3rd century AD, 4th through 7th century AD and 8th through 14 th century AD. These periods roughly correspond to the Maurya, Sunga, Kushan Gupta and medieval periods of Indian history. The museum is open all days except Monday from 10.30 AM to 4.30 PM.

The rich treasure of antiquarian values unearthed by Cunnigham, Growse, Fuhrer and others formed the nucleus of this museum. The museum was founded by F.S. Growse in 1874. The collections were shifted to the present building in 1930. Regional in character its scope was limited primarily to the archeological finds from the Mathura region.

The vast collection includes stone sculptures, bas reliefs, architectural fragments, inscriptions of various faiths and creeds, coins, terracotta, inscribed bricks, pottery pieces, clay seals, bronze objects and paintings. The museum has the richest and by far the most important collection of the Mathura School of Sculptures of 3rd century B.C - 12th century A.D.

The museum can be visited everyday except Monday, on the second Sunday of every month and other government gazetted holidays.

Timings:
1st July to 30th April: 10.30 am to 4.3o pm.
1st May to 30th June: 7.30 am to 12.30 pm.

The museum at Sarnath has an excellent collection of figures and sculptures from Sarnath's Mauryan, Kushan and Gupta periods. Among them is the earliest Buddha image found at Sarnath and many images of Hindu gods dating from the 9th to 12th centuries.

The main attraction of this Archaeological Museum is the superb capital from the Ashokan Pillar. It has the Ashokan symbol of four back-to-back lions, which has been adopted as the state symbol of modern India. Below this are representations of a lion, an elephant, horse and the bull.

The lion is supposed to represent bravery, the elephant symbolises the dream Buddha's mother had before his birth and the horse recalls that Buddha left his home on horseback in search of enlightenment.

The stone sculptures from the site of Sarnath are divided in several museums, the major chunk being in the local museum. The Director General of Archaeological Survey of India has loaned some pieces discovered from Sarnath to this museum. They represent deities of the Buddhist and Brahmanical pantheons.
The museum is open every day except Friday from 10 am to 4.30 pm. Entry fee is Rs. 2.