Salar Jung Museum

Listen for a moment before you go inside. Traffic hums along the road by the Musi River. Autorickshaws sound their horns. A vendor calls out somewhere near the gate. Then you pass through the doors, and the noise falls away. The air turns cooler, and you hear soft footsteps on polished floors. Somewhere ahead, a crowd is already waiting for a clock. We will come back to that clock soon.

You are standing in the Salar Jung Museum, on the southern bank of the Musi River in Hyderabad. The old city lies just behind you, and the Charminar stands only a short walk away. This museum holds one of the largest collections in India that was gathered mainly by one family. Most of it was collected by one man in particular. His story explains almost everything you will see in these galleries.

That man was Mir Yousuf Ali Khan, known as Salar Jung the Third. He came from a family of noblemen who served the Nizams. The Nizams were the rulers of Hyderabad State, then one of the richest princely states in India. Several men from his family became prime ministers of that state. He held the post himself for a short time in the early twentieth century. Then he stepped away from politics and gave his energy to collecting.

And he collected on a remarkable scale. For decades he bought paintings, manuscripts, carpets, ivory, jade, glass, furniture, clocks, and weapons. He bought from dealers in India, and agents brought him pieces from Europe and East Asia. Some objects came from his grandfather's earlier purchases. He did not marry, and he had no children. When he died in 1949, he left behind a palace filled with tens of thousands of objects.

Here is the first surprise. The museum did not begin in this building at all. It first opened in 1951, inside his family palace, Dewan Devdi, in the old city. Space soon ran out. In 1961, the Indian Parliament passed an act that named the museum an institution of national importance. Later in that decade, the collection moved here, to this purpose-built home beside the river.

Now, back to the sound that may be drifting through the halls. In one gallery stands a large musical clock made in England in the nineteenth century. Just before each hour, a small figure comes out from a door. He strikes a gong to count the hours, and a little tune plays. Visitors gather in front of the clock well before the hour. If you can, join them. It is a small moment, but the room always goes quiet to watch.

The most famous object in the museum is a marble statue called the Veiled Rebecca. An Italian sculptor, Giovanni Maria Benzoni, carved it in the nineteenth century. Rebecca is a woman from the Bible, and here she wears a veil over her face. Look closely. The veil seems thin enough to see through, yet it is solid marble. Salar Jung the First, the collector's grandfather, is said to have bought it on a visit to Italy.

The second surprise is a carved wooden figure that changes when you walk around it. From the front, you see Mephistopheles, the devil from the old German legend of Faust. Walk to the back, and a mirror shows a different figure — Margaretta, the young woman from the same story. The two characters are carved from one block of wood. The front shows one face of the legend, and the mirror shows the other.

Take your time in the Indian galleries too, because they carry the heart of this place. There are miniature paintings from Mughal and Deccani courts. Deccani means from the Deccan, the plateau of southern and central India where Hyderabad lies. The figures are small, the colours are bright, and the details are very fine. You can see single hairs in a horse's mane. You can see the pattern on a prince's sash.

The jade room deserves a slow walk. Here you will find daggers, cups, and boxes carved from pale green and white stone. Some are linked by tradition to Mughal emperors and their courts. Jade is very hard, so carving it this thinly took great skill and patience. Hold your hand near the glass and look at the light passing through a bowl. Some of the walls are almost as thin as a leaf.

The collection also reaches far beyond India. You will find European oil paintings and French furniture. There is Venetian glass and Chinese porcelain. There are Japanese lacquer boxes, Persian carpets, and Arabic manuscripts. Walking from room to room feels a little like reading one man's travel diary — except he rarely travelled himself. Most of the world came to him, piece by piece, through dealers and agents.

A few practical thoughts as you go. The museum is large, and the galleries spread across several wings and floors. It is easy to get tired before you reach the end. Choose a few galleries that interest you most, and give them your full attention. Weekends and school holidays bring big crowds, especially near the clock. Weekday mornings are usually calmer. Photography rules can differ between galleries, so check with the staff before you raise your phone.

When you leave, walk out slowly into the noise and the warm light again. Look across the river toward the old city, where Dewan Devdi once stood and where this collection first lived. The Charminar is close by, and the lanes around it are full of bangle shops and the smell of tea. One man spent his life filling rooms with beautiful things from many places. Now those rooms belong to everyone who walks through these doors.