A national anthropological museum at Bhopal, spread across an open-air campus in the Shamla Hills.
Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya is a national museum of humankind at Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh. It covers about 200 acres of undulating terrain in the Shamla Hills and is one of the largest and leading anthropological museums in India. The grounds themselves are part of the story: the museum lies in a prehistoric landscape, with evidence of prehistoric human settlement within its premises.
Its subject is the story of mankind in time and space, told through 8 open-air exhibitions and 12 indoor galleries, alongside periodical and travelling exhibitions. The museum also runs education activities, workshops, seminars, lectures, artists camps and cultural festivals, and its reference library holds documents on anthropology, archaeology, museology, tribal study, pre-history, art and architecture for students and researchers.
Most of what makes this museum distinctive is outdoors, across 8 open-air exhibitions set on undulating terrain. Because the campus runs to about 200 acres, seeing it means walking it.
There are 12 indoor galleries, supplemented by periodical and travelling exhibitions on various topics. The reference library is open to students, researchers, designers and filmmakers working on anthropology, archaeology, pre-history and related fields.
This is a large outdoor campus as much as a museum building, so plan it like a walk rather than a gallery visit.
Since much of the museum is open air, a cooler part of the day and a cooler part of the year make for a far easier visit. Mornings are the practical choice.
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