My Visit To A South Indian Culture & Arts Museum

Hi readers! Hope you are doing good. It has been a while since I had written anything on this blog. A lot of things have happened since the last time I published an article here, maybe I will write them one by one and publish them here someday. But keeping them aside for some day else, today I want to share with you my experience of going to a South Indian culture museum in Chennai. 

So, it has been about 9 months since I had moved to Chennai, and to be frank, it has been a roller-coaster ride so far with exploring new places, trying out new things, eating/drinking new dishes/drinks and so on. And one such experience is my day outing to Dakshinachitra, a museum located in the outskirts of the city on the ECR. This place had been in my bucket list for a long time now and today is the day I decided to give the place a try. And I am not disappointed at all. 

Fig: My motorbike a.k.a. the dark horse ‘Onyx’ somewhere on the way

Right from the very entrance, the place is being maintained very well by Indian standards and hygiene is up kept throughout the campus. Maybe that explains the ₹175 entry fee for a person? :P

I don’t know, but let us get moving. Just after the entrance was a crafts shop that sold artifacts like decoratives, sarees, T-shirts (yep, the odd one out, though they had some cool writings on them in Tamil), Cds, comics and other items as such. Though I did not find anything that attracted me so much that I wanted to spend dough on the expensive price tags that were put up, it is definitely a part of the experience and should be given a look when visiting. 

Though the museum pamphlet said that it was an Indian cultural museum with emphasis on the southern states, I felt that it was solely dedicated to the four states of Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradhesh, Karnataka and Kerala. Now, I am not sure why Telangana wasn’t a part of the state list, but I am more or less sure that the place would have been up long before the Great Telugu State Bifurcation. That would explain a lot of you politicos. Coming to the trip, the museum is laid in out in such a fashion that each state gets two or more houses, built in their state’s traditional ways, and in them, pictures and articles and displayed explaining different aspects of the corresponding culture. 

 Fig: A moderately sized bed placed in one of the Karnataka houses

In one of the Karnataka houses, I was able to spot the ‘Kantara’ fame deity and their history written and show cased with objects like brass masks, photographs and statues. Got through some houses of Andhra Pradesh region, and there were places to go in, sit down and read books; yes I am talking about a full scale library. I am not very sure as to why there is a library inside a place like this which makes you ₹175 poorer every time you try to enter, but to my surprise, there were a few people sitting down in the library, reading books and taking notes religiously. I was fairly confused, needless to say.

The Tamilnadu part of the museum was the largest and also had the most number of houses, starting from Chettiyar style houses to Brahmin style houses to those of potters and weavers. A good amount of history and culture of these communities have been recorded and placed in their houses, giving us an insight into them. I found them really intersting to read given my inclination to pastime ideas. I am 23 and I went to cultural museum all alone on a Saturday, I mean, what can you even say? :)

Fig: Chettinadu style house

There were photographs of some people of those communities hung on the walls, probably donated by volunteers. There were also different objects or art, mostly sarees of different types, displayed with their history and cultural place written in brief. By the time I had completed my tour of the place, it had only taken me 2 hours, and I was exhausted a good amount as it was a peak summer day in Tamilnadu. I am attaching a few more photos I had took of some infographics below. If you ask me if it was worth visiting the place, I would say yes, but only if you are into learning culture/arts. Even ones that aren’t, this could be a good way to spend a day on your weekend, picking up an information or two on the way. ;)

So, until next time, sayanora!