Sanskriti Museum of Indian Textiles

The genesis of the Sanskriti Museum of Indian Textiles is rooted in what started as a small private collection built over the last three decades by Shri O.P. Jain, the founder president of Sanskriti Pratishthan. Prof. Jyotindra Jain then joined him in conceptualising and curating the exhibits in the Museum galleries. The unique feature of this collection is that it stems from one individual’s aesthetic and cultural vision, which makes it a harmonious, unified whole.

As the collection grew, the idea of turning it into a museum began to develop. There are several museums and collections of Indian textiles in India and abroad which may be more comprehensive and of greater historical value. The Sanskriti Museum of Indian Textiles does not compete with these but endeavours to complement them.

The Sanskriti Museum of Indian textiles was inaugurated on the 4th January 2009 by the Hon Chief Minister of Delhi Mrs Sheila Dikshit.

The Museum intends to serve as a resource for the study of Indian textile traditions. It moves away from the ‘masterpiece’ culture as much as from creating an exhaustive inventory of textile genres, as is often the case with many museums of the kind. Its objective is to display representative examples of selected traditions of Indian textiles, and to create a pool of information around these that will eventually serve as an academic resource for study and research.