State Museum

This museum is one of the best-designed in the country, and is located near the National Museum of Mankind on Shamla Hills. It has 17 spacious and well-lit galleries, which display sculptures, fossils, epigraphs, manuscripts, paintings, textiles, coins, arms and armour, musical instruments and postal stamps. The museum had its origins in the collections of Bhopal’s rulers such as Nawab Shah Jehan Begum and Nawab Sultan Jehan Begum. Its highlights include a collection of paintings, which are copies of the original murals found in the Bagh Caves near Mandu; as well the bronze and stone sculpture galleries which contain representative works from religious traditions such as Buddhism, Jainism, Vaishnavism, Shaivisim and Tantricism.