Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A museum on Lord Ram and his life will soon come up in Shyamala Hills area. Shri Ram Sangrahalaya will be built on the premises of Manas Bhavan on 15,000 sq ft at a cost of Rs 15 crore. The façade of the three-storey building will be designed like Sri Ramraja Temple in Orchha.
Tulsi Manas Pratishthan will provide land for the museum with funding from the state culture department. Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation (MPSTDC) will implement the project.
The ground floor will house a model depicting Lord Ram’s life during his 14-year exile. It will include a model of Ayodhya and the royal palace where Ram lived as a prince and from where he departed for forest.
It will also show Ram’s stopover at Saryu River followed by his visit to Kishkindha where he befriended Sugriva and met Hanuman. It will further show Ram building a bridge to cross the sea to reach Ravan’s Lanka. A flowing Saryu River, the mountains of Kishkindha, the sea and replicas of trees that grew in India at the time will be part of the model.
Suyash Kulshreshth of Shilpi Engineer, Architect and Planner, consultants for the project, told Free Press that the museum would also have audio, video and mukhauta galleries. The audio gallery will contain recordings of songs, bhajans and recitals of Ramayana from across the country. The video gallery will feature recordings of Ramlilas staged at various locations in India and abroad including Cambodia, Malaysia and China.
The mukhauta gallery will display masks worn by actors portraying Ramayana characters in Ramlilas in India and abroad. The museum will also include a 50-seater mini theatre for presentations. Kulshreshth said that stones found around Orchha would be used in the construction of the building. The detailed project report has been submitted to state culture department by MPSTDC and construction will begin once approval is received, he added.
