Calico Museum of Textiles

One of the world's finest textile museums

The Calico Museum of Textiles is one of the world's great textile collections — five centuries of Indian fabrics, costumes, temple hangings, royal tents, and embroidered shawls displayed in a beautifully carved wooden haveli inside the Sarabhai family compound. Highlights include the 17th-century Mughal court hangings, the kalamkari painted hangings from Tamil Nadu, the gold-thread zardozi dress of the Maratha rulers, and a tented hall recreating a Mughal court reception.

Visits are by guided tour only and capped at 20 people. The morning tour at 10:30 focuses on religious textiles; the afternoon tour at 2:45 covers secular and court textiles. Reservations open at 10am the day before — call ahead. No photography is allowed and the no-bag policy is strict.

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A story
The museum was founded in 1949 by industrialist Gautam Sarabhai and his sister, the dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai, with the help of cultural historian Stella Kramrisch. Le Corbusier offered to design the building before they settled instead on a 19th-century carved haveli moved piece by piece from another part of the city.