The Meeras Mahal Museum in Kashmir is re-establishing its importance as a history-preserving landmark.
The Meeras Mahal in Kashmir Valley is a historical Museum preserving important cultural and historical symbols of the state’s past. Set up by the late Atiqa Bano, it strives to help people get familiar with Kashmiri culture and the heritage which has followed the place for a very long time.
It is the first and the biggest privately owned museum to grace the nation of India housing more than a thousand items on display. The collection, private to Ms. Atiqa Bano consists of terracotta, woodwork, wicker and grass ware, metal, (including jewelry), stones, manuscripts, ancient ornaments, coins, traditional dresses, and utensils. The items were collected by Ms. Bano for her life living in Kashmir.
The museum has a surge of tourists in peak season and observes tourists from all kinds of backgrounds who come down to explore the different items depicting the ever-evolving destination of Kashmir for themselves.
The museum has integrated 7000 artifacts which are an ethnographic and anthropological representation of Kashmir and its heritage and culture. There are jute-based clothes to protect from cold, slippers made from clothes, rattraps, handcuffs, and most importantly handloom machines to make clothes among other items of great interest.
Everyday items are displayed that played a major role in the living conditions of people in Kashmir during the past up and until the end of the twentieth century. These common items give us an idea of the lifestyle and growth which has been seen in the valley.
The Curator of Meeras Mahal, Mr. Imtiyaz Ahmad stated the importance of the place by highlighting how the future generation is losing touch with its heritage and culture, whose reestablishment is the aim of Meeras Mahal. Also stating that at least one place housing such an important cultural bunch is a start to people’s interest in indulging in the past and evolution of the valley.
Numerous numbers of writers, professors, and NGOs have helped to keep up preservation of said heritage and culture of Meeras Mahal over the past few years.
Meeras Mahal Museum is located in Sopore Town in Kashmir and was set up by the Late Atiqa Bano, an educator in Kashmir. She had collected rare and unique items to put up on display to call more tourists and throng to increase tourism as well as to help showcase the rich cultural past of the Valley of Kashmir to the world.
