Take a peek into the past with museums in Visakhapatnam

Explore the rich history of Visakhapatnam through museums, showcasing artefacts, sculptures, paintings, and a tribute to tribal freedom fighters.

Museums are original sources of information for those who have a penchant for knowing the little known or unknown past of a place, people, civilisation and the like. Besides taking visitors on an imaginary journey into the past, museums are a great source of education and research.

International Museum Day is being observed by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) on May 18 every year. The theme for this year is “Museums for Education and Research”.

Exquisitely carved ivory furniture, made in Vizagapatam (as Visakhapatnam was then called by the British rulers) have made their way to the Queen’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace. Similarly, brass ‘toy soldiers’ mounted on horses, made in Visakhapatnam, during the early 1800s, engraved ivory boxes and tea caddies are found in museums in Britain, says John Castellas, whose ancestors had lived in Visakhapatnam for five generations.

Mr. John is a keen history enthusiast, who has migrated to Australia with his family. “Sketches of the exquisitely carved stone pillars of Simhachalam temple in Visakhapatnam are found in the Mackenzie Collection at the British Library and a painting of Pir Masjid in Vizagapatam, by John Newman (1815) can be seen in the British Library,” he says.

The Tribal Freedom Fighters Museum (TFFM) coming up at Lambasingi in Chintapalli mandal, about 120 km from Visakhapatnam city, plans to take visitors through a journey into the past by making them visualise the scenes as they walk through the artefacts, crude weapons and other materials used by the revolutionaries in their fight against the British, its Curator P. Sankara Rao told The Hindu.

The ₹35 crore project is a joint venture of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India, and the Government of Andhra Pradesh.

The hills and valleys at Chintapalli and surrounding areas, in combined Visakhapatnam district, are mute reminders of the historic Rampa Rebellion, one of the important tribal freedom movements against the British rulers, led by the revolutionary freedom fighter Alluri Seetharama Raju.