At a distance of 6 km from Agra Cantonment Railway Station, Taj Museum is one of Agra’s most famous museums and is located in West Naubat Khana’s ground floor, also known as Jal Mahal, with the Taj Mahal Complex.
The museum was opened in 1982. It is a double storied building with an outward quadrangle projection, and it is constructed on an elevated base. This is a large museum with two floors and three galleries along with the main hall.
The museum shows various exhibits mainly related to the building of the Taj Mahal and the time of its founders. Totally 121 antiques are on display, commonly categorized as Mughal miniature paintings, manuscripts, government decrees, examples of calligraphy, weapons, utensils, plans and drawings of the Taj Complex, sculptures, inlays, marble pillars, etc.
Shah Jahan’s and his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal’s paintings on ivory, set in an ornamental wooden case, are on display in the main hall, replicas of coins minted in Agra. Exhibits also include paintings from Firdausi’s famous Persian epic Shahnama, which is a Chaihl Majlis manuscript.
The first gallery includes plans and color sketches that display the salient characteristics of Tai Mahal’s architecture. The most important is a map of the site, the front elevation of the tomb and other details are documented in this map. The second gallery shows some jade and porcelain items such as Jade carved Quaran stand, a beautiful ornamented jade spout vase carve, a mirror placed on Celadon ware stone, bowl and dishes. Also on view are weapons such as swords, daggers and a world map showing the places from where stones were imported for Taj Mahal’s inlay work along with specimens of these semiprecious stones.
Two paintings of Taj Mahal by British artist Daniel in the year 1795 AD are displayed in the third gallery significant royal Farmans and documents, specimen of famous calligraphy of the time. Also displayed is an interesting order of General Perron of the Shah Alam II period, documenting the details of the fruit auction in the Taj ganj mausoleum garden.
Entry Fee: For Indians Rs.5
Timings: from 10 AM to 5 PM. Friday locked.
