With its old parquet floors,
spiral staircases, wrought iron loggias, and exquisite marble statues
of forgotten city fathers, the colonnaded Town Hall is perhaps the most
regal and elegant of Mumbai's heritage buildings. It houses the Asiatic
Society, a library with a collection of 800,000 antique volumes. One of
them is a priceless first edition copy of Dante's "Inferno." There is
also an impressive numismatic collection of over 1,000 ancient coins and
a rare gold mohur belonging to the Mughal Emperor Akbar. You need permission
to look at these treasures, but the public library is open to all and
usually draws a large number of senior citizens who pore over the local
newspapers in the fading grandeur of its reading room.
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