Sitapura, Jaipur · By prior appointment
2,500 objects, 3,000 years, one collector
Gyan Museum holds the collection of Gyan Chand Dhaddha across nine galleries in a building by Paul Mathieu, in Sitapura, Jaipur.
Before you travel
The museum opens for you, not to the street
Gyan Museum is open by prior appointment only. Please book before you travel.
There is no ticket window and no queue. A visit is arranged in advance, and a member of staff takes you through the galleries. Visitors who arrive without an appointment cannot be admitted, which is the one thing we would rather you read here than discover at the gate.
Monday to Saturday, 10am–5pm · By appointment only
The museum in figures
2,500+
objects
3,000
years
Nine
galleries
Paul Mathieu
designed the building
4.9
on TripAdvisor
The collection
Nine galleries
The collection is arranged by material and by discipline rather than by chronology, because that is how it was gathered. Each gallery below says what it holds.
- 01JewelleryGold, kundan, meenakari, polki, filigree and thewaNot yet catalogued online
- 02SilverwareWine decanters, hookahs, rose-water sprinklers — and some 250 antique silver hookah mouthpieces, shown over an in-built pondNot yet catalogued online
- 03Textiles & CostumesEmbroidered prayer mats, woven carpets, Kashmiri shawls, Persian carpets and vintage footwearNot yet catalogued online
- 04Paintings & ManuscriptsRajasthani royal miniatures, epic scenes, and manuscripts on palm leaf and wasliNot yet catalogued online
- 05Decorative ArtsBidri-ware, wooden inlay, glassware, jade carvings and traditional gamesNot yet catalogued online
- 06NumismaticsMauryan to the British Raj, including the minuscule gold coins of the Hoysala and Vijayanagara empiresNot yet catalogued online
- 07Arms & ArmouryDaggers, arrows, hunting knives, guns and shields, from the seventeenth century onwardNot yet catalogued online
- 08JainismEmbroidered textile scrolls, illustrated manuscripts and miniature paintings, from the seventeenth century onwardNot yet catalogued online
- 09AccessoriesVintage watches and clocks, and nineteenth- and twentieth-century eyewearNot yet catalogued online
Highlights
Objects to begin with
The catalogue is being photographed and written object by object, and nothing is published here until it has been checked against the register. Until then, the nine galleries above describe what each room holds, and a visit shows you the rest.
The collector
Gyan Chand Dhaddha, 1940–2004
Gyan Chand Dhaddha was a naturalist, a collector and a gemmologist. At sixteen he was given two jewelled silver hookah mouthpieces; he kept them, and then he kept looking. For five decades he bought what held his attention rather than what the market valued — silver, jewellery, textiles, miniature paintings, manuscripts, coins, arms, watches. The two mouthpieces became some 250. He died in 2004, and the collection he left runs to more than 2,500 objects across 3,000 years. His family opened it to the public in 2016. Nothing here was bought to complete a set.
The building
Designed by Paul Mathieu
The museum is built as a set of concentric rings in white marble. You enter at the outer edge and move inward, one gallery opening into the next through curved doors, so the plan of the building is also the route through the collection. The silverware gallery is arranged above a pond built into the floor, and the hookah mouthpieces are shown over the water.
Film
Five minutes inside the museum
The museum's own film, shot in the galleries. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play.
Who has been through it
A private museum, and a well-travelled guest list
Albert II, Prince of Monaco
Prince of Monaco
Princess Diya Kumari
Princess of Jaipur
Vasundhara Raje
Former Chief Minister of Rajasthan
Maria Grazia Chiuri
Creative Director, Dior
Lucia Silvestri
Creative Director, Bvlgari
Sharmila Tagore
Actor
Amrita Rao
Actor
Shobha De
Novelist
Katerina Perez
Jewellery writer
Jayasri Burman
Artist
Lekha Poddar
Founder, Devi Art Foundation
Usha R. Balakrishnan
Jewellery historian
Journal
From the galleries
Craft history, object notes and what else is worth seeing in Jaipur.
Amber, Nahargarh and Jaigarh take a day. This is what the city has for the days after — craft, water architecture, printing, astronomy and the collections nobody queues for.
By Gyan Museum · 26 August 2026
An itinerary that assumes you arrived last night and leave the day after tomorrow. Ordered by heat, traffic and opening times rather than by importance.
By Gyan Museum · 26 August 2026
Four words used constantly in Jaipur and almost always loosely. Each names an operation performed by a different hand, in a fixed order, and none of them is a style.
By Gyan Museum · 26 August 2026
Visit
Sitapura, Jaipur
Visiting
Gyan Museum is open by prior appointment only. Please book before you travel.
- Address
- G-1/21-23, Gems and Jewellery Zone, EPIP, Sitapura Industrial Area, Jaipur, Rajasthan 302022, India
- Opening hours
- Monday to Saturday, 10am–5pm · By appointment only
- Telephone
- +91 72298 88866
Gyan Museum, Sitapura
Gyan MuseumG-1/21-23, Gems and Jewellery Zone, EPIP, Sitapura Industrial AreaJaipur 302022Nothing is requested from Google until you press this.
Also from the family
GYANJAIPUR
“Combining timeless designs with a discerning modern style and a Western aesthetic, GYAN Jaipur draws its inspiration from the beautiful city of colours — Jaipur, one of the creative capitals of the world.”
The family that assembled this collection has made jewellery in Jaipur since 1988, first as Gem Plaza and, since 2017, as GYAN Jaipur — a contemporary collection drawn from the objects in these galleries. It is a separate house with its own shop, and the only place on this site where anything is for sale.