India Guide
Haryana and Punjab
Government Museum
Address: Leisure Valley, Sector 10
Price: Rs2, camera Rs5
Opening time: Tues–Sun 10am–4.30pm
Chandigarh's Government Museum and Art Gallery houses a sizeable and informatively displayed collection of textiles, Harappan artefacts, miniature paintings and contemporary Indian art, including five original Roerichs and a couple of A.N. Tagore's atmospheric watercolours. The ancient sculptures are the compelling exhibits, notably the Gandhara Buddhas with their delicately carved "wet-look" lunghis and distinctly Hellenic features – a legacy of Alexander the Great's conquests.
Next door, the small but appropriately modernist City (Architecture) Museum (Tues– Sun 10am–5pm; free) illustrates the planning and construction of Chandigarh, with models and photographs in a concrete pavilion based on one of Le Corbusier's designs. Beyond that, the Natural History Museum (Tues– Sun 10am–4.45pm; Rs2, camera Rs5) has a few stuffed animals, some bits of fossilized mammoths and diorama depictions of early humans. The same cultural complex includes a Rose Garden and open-air theatre where free concerts are occasionally staged.