Folk Lore Museum

About Folk Lore Museum Mysore

Folk Lore Museum Mysore is located inside the Manasagangotri campus of the University of Mysore. The museum is housed in Jayalakshmi Vilas Mansion, a grand heritage building with domed towers and wide colonnaded verandahs. Once a royal residence, the mansion now houses an extensive collection of South Indian folklore and cultural artefacts.

The collection includes more than 6,500 objects related to traditional life in Karnataka and other parts of South India. Visitors can see toys, puppets, household objects, ceremonial costumes, masks, musical instruments and traditional crafts. Many of these objects reflect the daily life, customs and religious practices of communities across the region.

The Heritage of Jayalakshmi Vilas Mansion

Jayalakshmi Vilas Mansion was built in the early twentieth century as a residence connected with the Mysore royal family. The building follows the Indo-Saracenic style, which combines elements such as domes, arches and traditional Indian architectural details. Later, the property became part of the University of Mysore and found a new purpose as a centre for education and folklore research.

Today, the historic mansion and its collection offer visitors a different kind of heritage experience. Instead of being only a traditional tourist attraction, the Folk Lore Museum remains connected with academic study and the preservation of Karnataka's cultural heritage.

What Makes the Museum Special

The museum stands out because its collection focuses on real objects from traditional communities and everyday life. Visitors can discover items once used in homes, religious ceremonies, folk performances and village occupations. This makes the museum a useful place to understand the customs and traditions that have shaped Karnataka's cultural identity.

Photography of museum exhibits is not permitted inside the building. Therefore, visitors should plan their visit with this rule in mind. After exploring the museum, you can also spend time walking around the peaceful Manasagangotri campus and exploring other attractions in Mysore.

Collections

The Folk Lore Museum traces its beginnings to 1968. However, the University of Mysore had started studying folklore several years earlier. Scholars such as P.R. Thippeswamy, Javare Gowda, Jeesham and Paramashivaiah travelled through Karnataka to document traditional life. They collected wooden figures, costumes, cooking vessels, jewellery, tools, temple models, masks and festival headwear.

Traditional performance costumes form an important part of the collection. Visitors can see Yakshagana costumes from Karnataka and Kathakali costume pieces from Kerala. The collection also includes folk theatre props, masks, leather shadow puppets and dolls. These objects show how performers once carried stories and traditions from one village to another.

The museum also has an extensive collection of traditional musical instruments. String instruments include the kinnari, choudike and tambura. Percussion instruments include the dollu, sambala, gummate, chande, damaruga and nagari. Visitors can also see wind instruments such as the junjappana gane flute, kombu, kahale and pungi.

Other galleries focus on everyday and devotional life. They contain figures of gods, kings, queens, hermits and soldiers used in storytelling and worship. Visitors can also see ceremonial headwear and processional figures linked with village deities such as Soma and Maari.

The museum also documents traditional occupations and rural life. Its collections include tools used by farmers, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, potters, weavers, boatmen and cobblers. Lamps, baskets, measures and toys further show how these objects formed part of everyday life in rural Karnataka.