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RETROSPECTIVE AT SALAR JUNG MUSEUM: EXPLORING THE INFLUENCE OF VISITOR PERCEPTION

Dr. PERUMALLAPALLY SURESH Post Doctoral Fellow (UGC) Ancient Indian History Culture and Archaeology , , , 500020 [email protected]

ABSTRACT This paper likewise gives short information on library the executive‟s arrangement of Salar Jung museum library. This paper shows a diagram of Salar Jung museum hall Hyderabad, and its chronicled significance. The primary motivation behind this examination is to discover the present status of Salar Jung historical centre library to be valuable the exploration researchers in getting the information about Salar Jung exhibition hall and it‟s Library.It also helpful in improving is services and status in this information to visitors. In fact, it is known to house the largest „one-man collection‟ in the entire world. In India there are hundreds of art libraries, along with museums, archives and other cultural forums that are playing significant role in increasing public understanding and approval of , research & documentation, classification of history, art & culture. Highlights the government‟s ongoing efforts to promote museum education and capacity building of Indian museum professionals, and offers suggestions to further develop museum instruction during a holistic manner. A deeper understanding of various educational and communication theories will help them develop programmes to meet the needs of target groups that museums want to serve in accordance with their mission. KEYWORDS:Salar Jung Museum, Visitors, Satisfaction. 1.0 INTRODUCTION Historical records, Traditional, Cultural and objects conservative need of time. Museums play a very important role in this field and now the museum today is not merely a repository of objects. It is apprehensive with the achievement of the object as essential components of specific programme of systematic investigate instruction, conservation and revelation of nationalized and cultural heritage. Museums are surrounded by the most victorious instructive and activity organization of our moment, if regular augment in presence and in numeral of new museums being recognized is a dependable assess of achievement. utilize of the word

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“museum” throughout the 19th as well as the majority of the 20th century represent a group of cultural substance to which the community have right to use. Later, the museum has been changed to represent the historic and artistic collection, open for public interest. With the invent use of ICT application, the museum is now being digitized. Salar Jung Museum of Hyderabad be a famous art museum in India. It have gain large attractiveness in hosting the biggest one-man anthology of exquisite antiques and art piece. The museum be measured like individual of the prominent visitor destination of Hyderabad, appealing tourist commencing all crossways India and out of the country. The exclusive character of the museum be toward protect the tradition of India by improvise on digital technique. It is a wonderful position for passionate lovers of art and history. It hosts several of the alien collection of art, journalism, and knowledge representative the special achievements of popular community beginning all over the humanity.Salar Jung Museum is basically a fortune residence with an massive repository of book, manuscript, art collection, valuable materials, statue from country of Europe, Asia and others. a number of seminar and workshops are conduct within the museum for development intellectual concentration sinthepeople.It collaborates with several International museums as well for hosting exhibitions. You be capable of significant quantity of minuscule painting of 14th and 15th century India. The museum is simply nearby from anyplace in the city of Hyderabad due to its immediacy to the further famous tourist spot. The museums have received accolades and fame due to its exclusive collections on the different fields of history. It is essentially the zeal and passion of the Salar Jung generation which resulted in the huge collection of artistic achievements from different countries of the world, especially of Europe and Asia. They had a special fascination with preserving the diversity of the rich old traditions and heritages dwelling among various eminent personalities of the world. The major contributor to the art collections in Salar Jung Museum is Mir Yousuf Ali Khan. He belongs to the Salar Jung dynasty and is popularly known as Salar Jung III. The trend of contributing innumerable artifacts had been started by his ancestors and he diligently carried out the noble act. He spent a substantial amount of effort and money on collecting exclusive objects from various parts of the world. The collections were stored securely in DiwanDeodi which was the ancestral palace of the Salar Jung dynasty. After he left for his heavenly abode, the then Chief Administrator of Hyderabad Sri M.K. Velodi created a museum with the innumerable collections.Dr. James Cousins, a world famous art critic, was entrusted with the responsibility to sort the items from the different Salar Jung palaces to be kept in the museum. It was

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opened on 16th Dec 1951 by PanditJawarharlal Nehru and is considered the third largest national museum in India. 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW M. K. Reddy (2012) Deterioration of art objects at Salarjung Museum has been noticed such as blackening of white and pink pigments of Indian miniature paintings and other objects like pigments, paints, varnishes, coatings, silver ware, zari works, textiles, which are displayed in museum galleries. The cause of deterioration of the artifacts is attributed to air pollution. The outdoor air pollution levels with respect to suspended particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, ammonia, aldehydes and oxidants are observed to be high when compared with background environment and ambient air quality standards for sensitive areas Subarna Bhattacharyya (2016) The objective of the study was to develop a fungal biodeterioration risk scale to suggest gallery wise management priority for the museum curators. Jorasanko Museum, Kolkata, India located in tropical climate had been selected for this study. This museum conserves exhibits of the family of first Non-Europian Nobel Laureate, MortenRyhl-Svendsen (2006) The calculation of pollution mass balances is explained with reference to the modelling of indoor air quality in museums, and the implication of pollution deposition indoors and on museum objects is discussed. A short overview of the key pollutants in the museum environment and their effect on materials is given Perumallapally Suresh, (2018),Majorly focused on overall observation of the total antique collection of Salar Jung Museum which is more or less from 42 countries of the world and discussedsegregation of the collectioninto organic and inorganic materialwise, countrywise as well as throws some light on the ancestry of The SalarJungs. 3.0 SALARJUNG MUSEUM OF HYDERABAD Salar Jung Museum is one of the three National Museums of India. This museum is the also the third largest museum in India and it houses a collection of ancient manuscripts, ceramics, metallic artifacts, carpets, sculptures, textiles, paintings and clocks. Most of the articles treasured in this museum, belong to different civilizations. Daggers belonging to Empress NoorJahan, Emperor Jehangir and Emperor are among the important historical antiques found in the museum. The ancient artifacts held in the museum belong to the Salar Jung family and these collections dates back to the 1st century. Under the Salar Jung Museum Act of 1961, the museum is maintained by the Board of Trustees with the Governor of Andhra Pradesh as ex-officio chairperson. Apart from the thirty eight galleries containing

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precious artifacts, the museum also has a library, cafeteria, sales counter and a reading room. The Salar Jung Museum is one of the best tourist attractions in Hyderabad and it attracts about ten lakh visitors every year.

Salar Jung Museum boasts of the artifacts collected by Nawab Mir Yousuf Ali Khan Salar Jung III, who was the former Prime Minister of the seventh . He spent an ample amount of money for almost thirty-five years for acquiring his collections. People believe that some of the Nawab's properties were misappropriated while the items were shifted from DewanDevdi, the palace of the nobles, to its current place. 4.0 REPOSITORY OF ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENTS The Salar Jung Museum of Hyderabad is a repository of the artistic achievements of diverse European, Asian and Far Eastern countries of the world. The major portion of this collection was acquired by Nawab Mir Yousuf Ali Khan popularly known as Salar Jung III. The zeal for acquiring art objects continued as a family tradition for three generations of SalarJungs. In 1914, Salar Jung III, after having relinquished the post of Prime Minister to H.E.H., the Nizam VII, Nawab Mir Osman Ali Khan, devoted rest of his entire life in collecting and enriching the treasures of art and literature till he lived. The precious and rare art objects collected by him for a period of over forty years, find place in the portals of the Salar Jung Museum, as rare to very rare pieces of art.After the demise of Salar Jung-III, the vast collection of precious art objects and his Library which were housed in "Dewan-Deodi" the ancestral palace of the SalarJungs, the desirability of organizing a Museum out of the Nawab's collection dawned quite soon and Sri M.K. Velodi, the then Chief Civil Administrator of the approached Dr.James Cousins a well known art critic, to organize the various objects of art and curios which were lying scattered in different palaces of Salar Jung III to form a Museum.With a view to perpetuate the name of Salar Jung as a world renowned art connoisseur, the Salar Jung Museum was brought in to existence and was opened to the public by Pandit , the then Prime Minister of India on 16th December, 1951

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5.0 ANALYSIS: The onsite surveys were conducted by Salar Jung Museum staff and volunteers or by the participants themselves. Copies of the questionnaire were available in the Salar Jung Museum for people to collect and undertake in their own time, alternatively people were approached by staff to undertake the survey face to face. The survey was designed to explore profiles of attendees and guests, information gathering sources and their experience. Intercept surveys were conducted onsite at the Salar Jung Museum and open to the general public and to Salar Jung Museum members. In total 253 participants completed the survey. People could undertake the survey if they attended theSalar Jung Museum during the data collection period. There was a small token of appreciation given for people's time and to encourage participation. A total of 253 participants completed the survey. The sampling process outlined herein is a self-selecting sample, which is a non-probability sampling technique. While this approach is more cost and time effective than a probability sampling (e.g. random sampling), there is likely to be a degree of self-selection bias in the results. This is especially true among broad community respondents who may choose to complete the survey because they have strong views on the topic one way or the other. Similarly, using a self-selection sampling technique may limit the representativeness of the sample. Participant Profile:  The most common age group to complete the survey overall was 25-39 years (34%) followed by 40-54 years (28%).  Most participants indicated that they live in India (99%), however, this percentage differs significantly when compared with previous years. Visitation Patterns:  59% of the respondents who have visited the Salar Jung Museum indicated they usually visit with 1-2 hours.  Most visitors continue to visit with children 15 years and under.  Groups of 3-5 people were the most common group size (48%).  61 percent of participants were repeat visitors. Planning the visit  The Salar Jung Museum website was the most popular way to find out information about the Salar Jung Museum (45%), followed by word of mouth (30%) and social media (25%).

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 For most participants the most common reason for visiting toSalar Jung Museum was to do something with family or friends. Visitor Experience:  When asked 'How likely is it that you would recommend Salar Jung Museums to a friend or colleague?' 66 percent of the participants said that they would recommend it.  Participants were asked how well the Salar Jung Museum was achieving its vision to be a centre for selected very or extremely well.  The aspects visitors were most satisfied with were customer service with a rating of 97 percent, followed closely by Salar Jung Museum exhibitions (96%) and events/activity (93%).  Satisfaction with the directional signs within the museum has increased significantly from 46 percent in 2017 to 92 percent in 2019. Participants were asked if they had visited the Salar Jung Museum before. There was an increase inrepeat visitors between 2017 and 2019 (61% up 13% from 2017).

Is this your first visit to Salar Jung Museum? 70% 61% 60% 51% 48% 50% 39% 40% 2017

30% 2019

20%

10%

0%

Is this your first visit to Salar Jung Museum? Participants were asked if they had visited the Museum before. There was an increase in repeat visitors between 2017 and 2019 (61% up 13% from 2017).

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Group size:

60% 52% 48% 50% 47%

40% 33% 34% 29% 30%

20% 14%13%13% 10% 6% 3% 4% 0% I visit the museum 1--2 3--5 6+ alone

2015 2017 2019

How many people visit Salar Jung Museums? Visiting the Salar Jung Museum with 3-5 people was the most popular group size in 2019 (48%), this isin line with the 2015 results. Visitor age group:

70% 60% 60%

50% 46% 39% 40% 36% 32% 34% 30% 24% 25% 25% 21% 19% 17% 16% 17% 20% 15% 15% 15% 13% 10% 7% 10% 3% 0% 0-6yrs 7-15yrs 16-24yrs 25-39yrs 40-54yrs 55-69yrs 70+yrs

2015 2017 2019

What is the age group of those visiting to Salar Jung Museum? Most visitors continue to visit with children under 15 years. This has increased since 2017. There has been a slight change to the ages of those completing the survey when compared with previous years. There has also been a growth in the 25-39 year age groups (34% up by 22% in 2019) this resulted in a decline in the 55-69 and 70+ age groups (see figure 4 for further information).

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Time spent at Salar Jung Museum:

70% 59% 60% 55%

50%

40% 36% 29% 30% 21% 22% 19% 20% 15% 13% 10% 10% 3% 2% 3% 0% 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% Under 0.5hr 0.5-1hr 1-2hr 2-3hr 3-4hr 4-5hr

2015 2017 2019

How long will spend at Salar Jung Museum today? 1-2 hours remains the most popular length of stay among visitors (59% in 2019, compared to 55% in 2017 and 36% in 2015) and the proportion of those spending 30min – 1 hour at the Museum has declined by eight per cent since 2017. Reason for visit:

2% Due to the weather, wanted to do something … 3% 4% Salar jung Museum visiting the area 10% 4% See a particular Museum exhibition/show 14% 5% Other (Please specify) 3% 5% Attend preschool age activities 10% 12% Learn more Salar Jung Museum 13% 13% For fun/entertainment 10% 15% For a museum event/activity 12% 38% Do something with friends/family 26%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

2019 2017

What is the main reason for your visit? While the Salar Jung Museum attracts visitors for a number of reasons, doing something with family and/or friends was the key reason for the visit (38% increase of 12% from 2017). The

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second most popular reason for the most recent visit was for a Museum event/activity (15%), followed by for fun/entertainment (13%). Travel to Salar Jung Museum:

80% 70% 68% 70% 66% 60% 50% 40% 30% 30% 23% 23% 21% 19% 20% 16% 10% 5% 5% 0% 0% By private vehicle By public transport Walk/cycle Other

2015 2017 2019

How do you travel to Salar Jung Museums? Most respondents (66%) continued to travel to the Museum by private vehicle. Public transport was the next most popular mode of transport for getting to the Salar Jung Museum with 23 per cent nominating this option (increase of 7% since 2017).

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Information source:

1% Radio advertising 8% 9%

2% Live 0% 0%

2% Television advertising 0% 0%

4% Visitor information centre 3% 4%

4% Council staff 5% 4%

4% Newspapers 15% 18%

4% Signage or brochures 13% 15%

11% Other 13% 11%

17% Social media(i.e. Facebook, instagram) 16% 11%

29% Word of mouth: friends and family, colleague 33% 42%

39% Museum website 31% 37%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

2019 2017 2015

When planning your visit, how do you get most of your information about Salar Jung Museums? In 2019 the Salar Jung Museum website was the most popular way to find out information about the Museum (39%), followed by word of mouth (29%) and social media (17%).

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Awareness of Council owned facility:

Are you aware that Salar Jung Museum is a service of City of Hyderabad?

yes No

32%

68%

Awareness of Council owned facility A new question was added to the survey in 2019, as we were interested to find out if visitors were aware that the Salar Jung Museum was a City of Hyderabad facility. A total of 68 per cent of participants indicated that they were aware. Visitor experience:

100% 98%

95%

90% 89%

85% 82%

80%

75%

70% 2015 2017 2019

2015 2017 2019

Overall satisfaction with Salar Jung Museum Overall satisfaction increased 16 per cent from 2017, with 98 per cent of visitors being satisfied with the Salar Jung Museum.

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Level of satisfaction with various areas:

78% Directional signs with in Salar Jung Museum 39% 64%

80% Accessibility (disability friendly) 76% 57%

82% Overall cleanliness 90% 92%

87% Informatation before visit 60% 59%

92% Directional signs with in Salar Jung Museum 46% 82%

93% Events/activity 72% 73%

96% Museum exbhitions 76% 83%

97% Customer service 84% 80%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120%

2019 2017 2015

Level of satisfaction with various areas The top three most satisfied areas were customer service (97%) followed very closely by Museum exhibitions (96%) and events/activity (93%). In 2015 accessibility had the lowest levels of satisfaction; however 2017 and 2019 have seen an increase in satisfaction (80% 2019). Directional signs within the Museum have a significant satisfaction increase from 46 per cent in 2017 to 92 per cent in 2019.

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Museum's Vision

50% 46% 45% 43%

40% 37% 37% 38% 35%

30% 27% 25%

20% 17% 15% 13% 10% 10% 8% 7% 8% 5% 5% 2% 1% 1% 1% 0% 0% Don't know Not at all Not very well Moderately well Very well Extremely well

2015 2017 2019

Salar Jung Museum’s vision is to be a centre for and about Hyderabad. How well do you think we are achieving this? The level of achieving Salar Jung Museum's vision has continued to improve since 2015, with 84 per cent selecting that the vision is being achieved very well or extremely well. 6.0 CONCLUSION: In the first stage of this study we thought implementing technological ways to collect data would be the most popular, yet we learned that site-specific needs were based on the desires of our visitors.In determining the best practice for evaluating visitors, we also suggest the government focus on what the visitors enjoy.Therefore, new innovated methods are always good to test; however, if they are not popular among visitors, we suggest that they are not used.We found that by seeing our visitors engaged and reading body language, we could determine what they enjoyed and preferred than some of the vague comments left on a survey.The well-travelled draw comparisons between museums abroad and in India, underlining the need for museums here to evolve. Ajay Gandhi of Manthan treasures the memories of visiting the Salar Jung museum on many occasions and talks about the sculptures, costumes, crockery and cutlery of the Nizam era, arms and ammunition, but feels the museum needs something more to engage visitors. A lot of things, which should be

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considered by the government and appropriate steps, should be taken for its further improvement in order to provide the best services to the visitors.The data helps organizations develop a baseline of information, which they can build upon. It also provides evaluators with tested surveys and activities. Furthermore, based on feedback from museum visitors and staffto develop the suggestions are that could improve visitors. REFERENCE 1. Corbeil, J.J. 1982. Mbusa: Sacred Emblems of the Bemba . Mbala, Zambia: Moto Moto Museum. 2. Yoshida, Kenji. 1993. Masks and Secrecy among the Chewa. African Arts 24(2): 34–45. 92. 3. Yoshida, Kenji and John Mack eds. 2008. Preserving the cultural heritage of Africa: Crisis or renaissance? Oxford: James Currey. 4. Coman, A., Pop, I. (2012). Entrepreneurship – the Keyfor a Successful Museum, International Conference:Entrepreneurship Education – a priority for the highereducation institutions, Bucharest, 2012, 60-65 5. Coman, A., Pop, I. (2012). Why do museums matter? A case study on the Maramures County Museums, TheInternational Conference in Economics and Administration ,Bucharest, 2012, 121-133 6. Gilmore, A., Rentschler, R. (2002). Changes inmuseum management. A custodial or marketingemphasis ?, Journal of Management Development , Vol. 21No. 10, 745-760 7. Griffin, D., Abraham, M. (2007). The Effectivemanagement of museums. Cohesive leadership andvisitor- focused public programming”, i n: R. Sandell, andR.R. Janes (eds), Museum Management and Marketing ,Routledge, London, 104-141 8. Hudson, K. (1998). The Museum Refuses to StandStill, Museum International, No. 197, January-March, p.43.[11] International Council of Museums 9. Sandell, R., Janes, R.R. (2007) Museum Managementand Marketing , Routledge, London, 101-102. 10. Steel, P. (2012). Closures hit museums across UK, Museums Journal, Issue 112/11, p. 5

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