Kerala Museum


Kerala Museum at Edapally, Kochi, India, is one of the oldest art and history museums in Kochi. The museum was founded by philanthropist and entrepreneur R. Madhavan Nayar in 1984. It is managed by the Madhavan Nayar Foundation, a registered charitable trust.
Kerala Museum has three galleries: the Museum of Kerala History, the Dolls Museum and the Gallery of Modern Art.

Museum of Kerala History

The Museum of Kerala History is the oldest gallery in the Kerala Museum. It recounts the history of the state of Kerala through 36 dioramas on key historical episodes and personalities from the region. A light and sound show is organised for all visitors to the gallery, with commentaries in English and Malayalam. Important historical personalities in focus in the gallery include including Ay Andiran of Pothiyilmala, Senguttavan and Ilango Venmani, St. Thomas, the Aryan immigration, Nannan of Ezhimala, Kulasekhara Alwar, Cheraman Perumal Nayanar and Shankaracharya. Sculptor Karamana Rajagopal of Thiruvananthapuram created the sculptures and dioramas in this gallery, and pre-eminent Kerala historian A. Sreedhara Menon extended advice on content.
Outside the gallery is a statue of Parasurama, the sage who is believed to have brought forth the land of Kerala from the ocean.

Modern Art Gallery

The Modern Art Gallery has a collection of nearly 230 works of art by some of India's leading modern masters, including Raja Ravi Varma, M.F. Husain, F.N. Souza, Jamini Roy, Benode Behari Mukherjee, Ramkinker Baij, Ram Kumar and K.G. Subramanyan, among others. The collection was assembled by Madhavan Nayar and his associates over a period of four years. Works were purchased from artists, art collectors and galleries while some were donated by the artists to the museum. The gallery was formally inaugurated in 19943 by then Chief Minister of Kerala, K. Karunakaran.
The Modern Art collection at the Kerala Museum is the only one of its kind accessible to the public in Kerala.

Dolls Museum

The doll museum has a collection of 150 dolls, depicting cultural groups and dance traditions of India.