Raja Dinakar Kelkar Museum at Pune

The Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum is the one-man collection of Padmashree Late Dr. D.G. Kelkar (1896 -1990). This Museum was dedicated by Dr. Kelkar in memory of his only son 'Raja' who died in an untimely tragic death.

Pune city is one of the most visited cities in Maharashtra State. Pune city is the second largest city in Maharashtra state. Pune city is also called as Deccan Queen and also called as 'The Oxford of the East'. The Raja Dinakar Kelkar Museum is one of the most attractions of Pune city located at Shukrawar Peth in Pune city.

Raja Dinakar Kelkar Museum was founded by Dr. Kelkar in the memory of his only Son 'Raja'. Raja Dinakar Kelkar Museum has 20,000 different articles, all these personally collected by Dr. Kelkar from all over the world over a period of 40 years. When his died at the age of seven years, Dr. Kelkar wanted to do something in the remembrance of his son. That is how the idea of building a museum was conceived by Dr. Kelkar.

There is an impressive collection of 21,000 articles which recall the historic Indian Culture and traditions which gently lead to more and more treasures. We can see the creations in stone, wood, metal, ivory, fabric and clay in this museum.

The Raja Dinakar Kelkar Museum houses the entire collection of Dr. Kelkar. The Museum’s highlight ‘Mastani Mahal’ reveals the mansion of ‘Mastani’, the famous concubine of ‘Peshwa Bajirao Ist’ - Kaka’s tribute to the grandeur of a bygone era. This museum on Bajirao Road is a marvel and a must see for tourists. It comprises of rare exhibits and artifacts from all over the country and dates back to the Mughal and the Maratha periods. Paintings, nut crackers, Ganpati's guns, carved palace doors, pottery and a number of musical instruments.

This museum was handed over to the Department of Archaeology of Govt. of Maharashtra in the year 1962. Now there are more than 20,000 articles in the collection in the museum. Most of the items are belonging to 18th and 19th century.

The ground floor the museum has arranged more valuable Ivory objects, namely Ink-Pots, House-Shrines, Toilet Utility objects, Games and Playing Cards.

We can see exhibits of bronzes, the lamps of different varieties and writing materials along with decorative ink-pots in the 2nd floor. There is a Sun_Lamp from Nepal and the Kadamba.

The first floor is having a beautiful collection of Musical instruments of different types. In a small section of the Musical Instruments Gallery, the Museum has displayed the Objects of Tribal art, Hubble-Bubbles and pipes.

In the second floor, we can see the gallery of Textiles. The textiles from different parts of India are exhibited here.

We can also see a library with books on different topics like Art, history, Architecture and so on.

The Museum now has a collection of 20,000 articles divided into 40 sections, among which prominently figure the attractive Lamps, Paintings, Tambool objects, Musical Instruments, Wood - work and so on, housed in a three storey building located at 1377 and 1378,Shukrawar Peth in Pune. The important exhibits in the various sections have been displayed in the properly illuminated show-cases in the different galleries.