National Museum

The National Museum in Delhi holds one of India's most comprehensive collections of art and archaeology, spanning over 200,000 objects from the Indus Valley Civilisation through to more recent centuries, including sculpture, miniature paintings, textiles, arms and decorative arts. Its scope makes it an excellent single-stop orientation to India's vast artistic and historical range before or after visiting specific regional sites elsewhere.

Highlights include artefacts from the Harappan sites of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, an extensive gallery of bronze sculpture from South India, and a well-regarded collection of Central Asian antiquities acquired through early 20th-century expeditions, giving the museum a breadth that few other Indian institutions can match.

Established in 1949, shortly after independence, drawing partly on a collection first assembled for a major 1947-48 exhibition of Indian art in London, the National Museum was intended from the outset as a comprehensive showcase of the newly independent nation's cultural heritage.

On Janpath, near Central Secretariat metro station.