National Library

The National Library is the biggest and one of the oldest libraries of the country. Located nearby the Alipore Zoo, the building was the residence of the former Lieutenant Governor of Bengal. The library has a collection of over 2 million books and nearly half a million rare and old documents. Attracting thousands of readers throughout the week, this place is mainly flocked by graduate, post graduate and doctorate students.

There are various regional language divisions in the library. One can find books primarily in languages like Bengali, Assamese, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, Sindhi, Kashmiri, Marathi, Sanskrit and Urdu. One of the divisions of the library has a major collection of books written in Pali and Prakrit.  

There are a vast collection of books on all possible subjects from Mathematics to Literature. Eminent personalities like Surendra Nath Bonnerjea and Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee have made huge donations in respect of books as well as money, which have made National Library the second largest in Asia.

Besides books, the library also has on display age old manuscripts, original letters and notes written by renowned personalities, 16th century books and paintings and even writings on palm leaves.

Timing: 9:00 am to 8:00 pm