About Museum
The museum is divided into two sections. The first section has been
adorned by a diorama of local tribal hut with their usual living style
by adding a gallery of weapons, musical instruments, ladies ornaments
like barly, damani, karna, guthma toda, gaga wala thoomar, kanksi berla,
various type of earrings and garments etc. belonging to hill dwellers.
The second section has a series of miniature paintings based on
raga-ragnis, lain images from Sirohi, medium sized shields, a small
canon called 'Topdi' and some pieces of carvings on local wood.
The notable collection of this museum, is the finely carved out statues
of Devdasi or Nartakis (Dancer) ranging from 6th century A.D. to 12th
century A.D. procured from an ancient township called Chandravati, 7 kms
away from Abu. There is an image of the Chakrabahu Shiva having a
trishul in one hand and a khadag in the other and sitting on Nandi, the
bull. On each side of Shiva are dancing girls.
In the Abu collection consisting of 404 sculptures, the most
distinctive exhibit is the Vish Kanya (snake goddess) which is 3 feet
high. It is shown breast-feeding a snake. The figures are well executed
and the attitudes are impressive and natural. It also has the Surya (8th
century A.D.) found in Achalgarh, the Shiva (10th century A.D.) brought
from Delwara temple. The Chanvar Vahini and Laxmi (12th century A.D.)
also from Chandravati and the Chanmunda (8th century A. D.).
The Sculpture Gallery has some memorial inscriptions collected from
nearby areas e.g. Chapa's inscription, (local heroine of Achalgarh).
