From the world's museums
Paintings, arms, jewellery, textiles, photographs, maps, coins and sculpture of the Punjab, and its plants, animals and fossils, held in museums around the world. Each opens the museum's own record.
Galleries
14
The Sikh courts and the Gurus357 objectsPortraits of the Gurus and the Lahore court, janamsakhi pages and the Sikh chiefs.
Arms and armour109 objectsSwords, shields, helmets, quoit turbans and daggers of the Punjab.
Manuscripts and the written word97 objectsGurmukhi and Persian manuscripts, illustrated books and calligraphy.
Pahari painting from the hills1506 objectsThe painters of the hill kingdoms: Guler, Kangra, Basohli, Chamba, Nurpur, Mandi and Jammu.
Lahore, Multan and the Punjab1491 objectsMughal Lahore, Multan, the Sufis, the Anglo-Sikh wars and the life of both Punjabs.
Early photographs353 objectsThe first photographs of Lahore, Amritsar and the Punjab, from the 1850s on.
Shawls, textiles and embroidery315 objectsPhulkari and bagh, Kashmir shawls, carpets and embroidered dress.
Pottery, metalwork, woodwork and jewellery183 objectsMultan tiles and pottery, inlay, metalwork, enamel, woodwork and jewellery.
Music and the qissa legends15 objectsMusicians, instruments and the qissas: Heer Ranjha, Sohni Mahiwal, Mirza Sahiban.
Maps of the Punjab34 objectsThe Punjab as surveyors and travellers drew it.
Plants, animals and fossils of the Punjab89 objectsPlants and animals collected in the Punjab, and fossils from the Siwaliks and the Salt Range.
Coins77 objectsFrom the Indo-Greek kings to the Nanakshahi rupees of Lahore and Amritsar.
Gandhara and Taxila655 objectsBuddhist sculpture and reliefs from Taxila, Peshawar and Swat.
The Indus cities114 objectsSeals, beads, figurines and pottery of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.
By age
8
Stone and the first cities600,000 BP – 1900 BCE · 113 objectsStone tools on the Soan, the first farmers below the Bolan, and the brick cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.
Vedas, Alexander and Gandhara1900 BCE – 1000 · 768 objectsThe land of seven rivers, Persian satraps and Alexander, the Mauryas of Taxila and the Buddhist kingdoms of Gandhara.
Sultans and Sufis1000 – 1469 · 52 objectsGhaznavids, Ghurids and the Delhi Sultans; Data Ganj Bakhsh and Baba Farid, and the first poetry in Punjabi.
Gurus and Mughals1469 – 1708 · 362 objectsFrom Guru Nanak's birth to the Guruship of the Granth, under Lodis and Mughals, with Shah Hussain singing in Lahore.
Misls and Afghans1708 – 1799 · 491 objectsBanda Singh's rising, Nadir Shah and Abdali, the Ghallugharas, Bulleh Shah and Waris Shah, and the twelve misls.
The Kingdom of Lahore1799 – 1849 · 457 objectsRanjit Singh's kingdom from the Sutlej to the Khyber, with Muslim, Hindu and Sikh ministers, and its fall to the British.
Colonial Punjab1849 – 1947 · 1484 objectsCanal colonies and the army, Singh Sabha, Arya Samaj and Ahmadiyya, Ghadar, Jallianwala Bagh and the Unionists.
Two Punjabs1947 – today · 21 objectsPartition, two capitals, the Green Revolution, wars on the border, 1984, and Punjabis around the world.
Pictures from the collections of Art Institute of Chicago, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, Berlin-Dahlem Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum (via Europeana), Bhuri Singh Museum, Chamba, 65 more, found automatically: public domain or openly licensed, except the V&A's, shown for non-commercial use with the museum's credit. Titles and dates are the museums' own; each card names its museum and any licence. Updated 2026-10-26.