Darbar Hall Museum, Junagadh-Gujarat

Built in a beautiful old palace of Junagarh, the Darbar Hall Museum is amongst the finest museums in Gujarat as it preserves the treasures of the Junagarh rulers. Darbar Hall was the court for the erstwhile Nawabs of Junagadh and was later converted into a museum to preserve the possessions of Junagarh Maharajas. The splendid repository includes the 19th-century possession of the Nawabs that were found here years ago. Darbar Hall Museum houses different galleries exhibiting around 2900 artefacts- picture gallery, palanquin room, textile and costumes gallery, weapons gallery, etc. Picture gallery boasts a large collection of photographs and paintings of last Nawab with his numerous dogs. The artefacts like weapons, armour, palanquins, sparkling chandeliers, howdahs, diamond woven carpets, photos, gowns, silver items, jewellery and paintings that depict the lifestyles of the Nawabs are the major highlights of the museum. Owing to its exquisite collection of artefacts, the museum is visited by people in huge number.

There are 5 different categories of exhibits. In all there are nearly 2900 exhibits. They include arms, oil paintings, miniature paintings, photographs of historical importance, royal palanquins and hoddas, textile, carpets, royal furnitures belonging to the Babi rulers of Sorath (the Ex-rulers of the old Junagadh state). The museum is Famous for special collections like royal furnitures, silver thrones, silver chairs, carpets with gold embroidery, Various types of chandeliers (Zummar) mirror, silver art objects, etc. The most important gallery of the museum is the Darbar Hall which is a period room representing the royal assembly hall of the ex-rulers of the old Junagadh state (Sorath Native State). It has put on display the then “Darbar” in its original setting so that people may get an idea of the royal court and assembly hall of the pre-independence period. The museum is also noted for its collection of royal arms and the gallery especially created for their display is known as “Silehkhana” presenting different categories of daggers, swords, knives, Fine arms, spears, shield decorated with gold, precious and semiprecious stones. The collection of historical photographs are very rare and interesting and reveal the historical background of ex-rulers of Saurashtra.