In a first, the Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum in Pune will be made available to visitors in the metaverse. The museum will be present on BharatVerse, a metaverse platform that aims to create “digital twin places of special interest.” The platform will be curating several metaverse experiences for users to explore the museum. The idea is to encourage more visitors to come to the museum in real life after showing them what the place has to offer on the metaverse.
“We will provide immersive experience of metaverse so that virtual visitors can get a feeling of being present in real-time inside the Museum,” Museum Director Sudhanva Ranade said.
Those keen will be able to visit the museum through head-mounted devices, mobile phones, web browsers. They will be able to take a 3-D tour of the museum, which has been created through the help of renowned ophthalmologist Dr Shreekant Kelkar.
“We envision BharatVerse as a collaboratively-built virtual Bharat where every square metre of the real Bharat can be showcased as it exists. We are building the platform on the three-pronged principles of collaboration, creativity and contribution,” said Rohit Srivastwa, Founder-Director of BharatVerse, in a press release.
The Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum contains items from noted Indian art collector and historian Dinkar G. Kelkar. The museum’s collection includes traditional lamps, palanquins, carved woodwork, tin ware, combs, bowls, stones, hookahs, locks, spittoons, musical instruments, miniature paintings, glass paintings, lime containers, intricately carved wooden doors and windows, ancient dwellings, nut-cutters, figurines, bronzes, arms and armours, ivory objects, kitchen utensils, textile among other artefacts.
