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The State Archaeology Museum is located in
the Public Gardens
towards the north of the
Hyderabad railway
station. It houses an independent collection of early Buddhist
antiquities. These represent art traditions of Andhra
Pradesh during 1st Century-4th Century Satavahana and Ikshvaku
periods.
A Varied Primitive Collection
It
has few large exhibits like a stone shrine --polished black dolerite
pillars, fine carvings, and a wooden chariot used in temple parades. This
museum has some archaeological finds of the area and a copy of paintings
from the Ajanta caves in
Maharashtra
.
It also has few bronze collections, which includes a Chola age 'Nataraja'
found in Prakasam district, some finely cast bells which were found in
Jain ruins, assorted little bronze figurines and "copper plate grants".
There are also Bhutanese or Tibetan bronzes acquired over the years.
Stone tools which the ancient Hyderabadis used to bash animals, the
earliest ones being Palaeolithic tools from river deposits in the
Srisailam area,
crude "hand axes" or "choppers" of reddish brown fine
grained quartzite are displayed in the museum. There are two "Antenna"
swords of copper of the 4th century BC and a small arms collection
displaying mainly medieval and recent swords and "kataars" a
kind of dagger, on display.
The coin collection is immense ranging from silver punch marked coins of
the Janapadas of Old India (700 BC), to Sassanian, Satavahana (100 AD),
Ikshvaaku, Vishnukundin (500 AD), Chalukyas, Vijayanagar (1400's), Rajput,
Delhi sultans (1300's) and more recent ones of Qutub Shah (1500's),
Mughals, Nizam's (1800's) and British too. The ancient textile section
shows mellow but bright 'Kalamkari' and silks.
Timings: 10:30am to 5pm
Close: Fridays
Photography: by permission
Air: Hyderabad being the capital city is well connected by air
from all the important cities of the country.
Rail: Hyderabad has got its own railhead and is connected with all
the major cities within the state and outside.
Buses: Regular bus service connects Hyderabad with all the
important places within the country. For city transportation city buses,
taxis, and auto rickshaws are also available.
For accommodation purpose tourist can check out the various budget and star hotels in Hyderabad .