A destination for books and journals of over 14,000 on South Indian arts, crafts, performance, anthropology and folklore. The Library includes the National Folklore Support Centre's collections. The Library also houses more than 1,00,000 photographs and a vast collection of DVD's, CD's and tapes.
Some of our prized possessions are old journal collections such as Marg, India Magazine, Lalit Kala, Sangeet Natak as well as other journal collections such as South Asian Studies, Art India etc. We also have in our shelves census reports on crafts, houses , festival and out-of-print books on crafts and arts.
We request donation of books pertaining primarily to art, craft and culture of South India and we also thank our donors without whose support this collection would not have been possible.
The collection consists of items of everyday life used in the Southern States. In the year 2014, the Museum Collection numbers 4220 artefacts, of which 3200 are objects, 950 are textiles and 70 contemporary works.
Our textile collection consists of mainly cotton and silk attires of male (dhoti, lungi, kurta, turban, cap, ceremonial attire), female (saree, blouse, half saree, full skirt, set mundu, veil, scarf), furnishings, yardage (Real Madras Handkerchief, Ikat, Kalamkari etc. ), Telia Rumal, decorative wall hangings and ritual textiles.