Raja Mahal Museum

Raja Mahal Museum is an Archaeological Survey of India museum housed inside the Raja Mahal palace within Chandragiri Fort, about 15 km from Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. The palace exhibits Indo-Saracenic architecture from the Vijayanagara period and displays bronze and stone sculptures, temple models, and artifacts excavated from the region. It is notable as part of the historic Chandragiri Fort complex, once a Vijayanagara capital.

Visitors can expect to explore a two-storey stone palace with arched corridors, pillared halls and crenellated towers set inside the fortified Chandragiri Fort complex. Inside, galleries display Chola and Vijayanagara bronze idols, stone sculptures, coins, inscriptions, arms, and architectural fragments. The museum is surrounded by fort walls, the adjacent Rani Mahal, and hill views. Visitors walk through curated galleries with labelled exhibits and can view the fort courtyard and outer fortifications.

Chandragiri Fort was originally built in the 11th century by Yadava Naidus and later developed under Vijayanagara rulers in the 14th-16th centuries. It served as the fourth capital of the Vijayanagara Empire after the fall of Hampi. The Raja Mahal palace was built as a royal residence within the fort and exhibits Vijayanagara architectural features. In 1646, the Treaty of Chandragiri granting Fort St. George site to the British was signed here. The palace was later converted into an archaeological museum by the Archaeological Survey of India in 1988.

The museum preserves and displays the artistic heritage of the Vijayanagara and post-Vijayanagara periods, including bronze iconography, stone temple art and epigraphy that reflect South Indian religious and architectural traditions. It serves as a cultural repository for the Tirupati-Chandragiri region.