THE DR BHAU Daji Lad Museum in Bombay’s Byculla district is housed in a building with a neo-classical (Palladian) facade. However, within it there architecture is gloriously Victorian. Recently restored   its interior competes with the exhibits for the viewer’s attention.

 

The museum was opened in 1872 as ‘The Victoria and Albert Museum’. Like its namesake in London, its exhibits are form a display of applied arts, technology, and design. Some of them  are replicas of objects that were sent from India to London as exhibits in the Great Exhibition of 1851.

 

In 1975, the museum was given its present name, which honours Dr Bhau Daji Lad (1822-1874). He was an eminent physician and surgeon,  who researched cures for leprosy.  With a keen interest in archaeology, he did much to raise funds to pay for the establishment of the museum.

 

One of the men who donated money towards the founding of the museum was the Jewish businessman David Sasoon. The museum contains a tall statue of Victoria’s Consort Prince Albert. The base of this includes the words “dedicated by David Sassoon”, and beneath them, there are some words in Hebrew.  The base of the statue also has words in Hindi, Gujarati, and Urdu scripts. In front of the statue, there is a bust of Sassoon.

 

Like the much larger Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum contains a wide variety of beautifully crafted objects: too many to describe here. Some rooms of the museum are dedicated to housing temporary exhibitions. Behind the museum, there is a courtyard,  lined by another exhibition space, a café,  a small Hindu shrine, and a museum shop.

 

Of the many wonderful places that can be seen in Bombay, the Bhau Daji Lad Museum is one of my favourites.