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Patna
Patna, the
busy and bustling the capital of Bihar State has a fascinating 2500 years old
past during which it has been variously named as Pataligram, Pataliputra,
Kusumpur, Pushpapura, Azeemabad and finally Patna. It is referred to in Greek
history as Palibothra. Some scholars believe that the present name, Patna, is
derived from the name of Hindu goddess, Patan Devi. Some other scholars have a
theory that the name is derived from Pattan, an important commercial port
referred to in Sanskrit ancient literature as being located at the confluence of
four major rivers. According to a popular legend its name is derived from a
mythological ruler called Putraka who created the city by magic to please his
queen, Patali, the word literally means Trumpet flower. Its original name
Pataligram emerged from Patali. In honor of the first born male heir to the
throne the city was renamed as Pataliputra that literally means the son of Queen
Patali. It is one of oldest continuously inhabited cities of the world. The
Ghagra, Son and Gandak join Ganga before it arrives at Patna and the river looks
more like a sea than a river at Patna. About one and a quarter million people
reside in this ancient historic city. Patna is the focal point to places sacred
to followers of Buddhist, Jain and Sikh religions. These places are associated
with Siddharth Gautam Buddha, the founder of Buddhism; Vardhaman Mahavir, the
twenty-fourth Tirthankar (enlightened teacher) of Jainism and Guru Govind Singh,
the tenth and last Guru of Sikhism who was born in this city. The city is not
only the administrative and political capital of Bihar State; it is an important
educational center that used to be well regarded in India. Unfortunately because
of caste based political infighting combined with apathy of the State and
Central Governments, its oldest and most prestigious institutions of learning
have fallen behind the rest of the country. The walled area of the city is
popularly called the Patna City by local people and it is a major trading center
of agricultural and industrial products.
Archaeological
and historical evidence of the existence of Patna is universally believed to
start in 490 BCE when Ajatshatru the Raja of Magath decided to place his capital
at a place that was advantageous from military point of view to confront the
rival tribe of Licchavis who dominated the Vaishali region. He fortified the
city for the first time. From this period onwards there is historical evidence
of Patna, Lord Buddha and Lord Mahavira both visited this city. It is said that
Lord Buddha had prophesized a great future for this place on the one hand and on
the other hand he said that it will face ruin from flood, fire and feud. The
city became the capital of a powerful empire when the Mauryan Emperor
Chandragupta conquered most of the Indian subcontinent extending from Bay of
Bengal in the east to Afghanistan in the northwest and also quite far south in
the Deccan peninsula. He ruled from 322 to 298 BCE. He was contemporary to the
great Macedonian conqueror, Alexander the Great (July 21, 356 to June 13, 323
BCE). Some scholars believe that the two had even personally met each other. The
original Pataliputra of the period of Emperor Chandragupta Maurya was built
mostly with wooden structures. Megasthenes, the Greek historian, accompanied
Alexander the Great in his Asian campaigns and remained behind to travel to many
places in India. Seleucus was the governor of Mesopotamia and Persia appointed
by Alexander when he returned to Greece. Selucus sent Megasthenes as his
ambassador to the court of Chandragupta Maurya in Pataliputra. Chandragupta
married a Greek princess to signify the diplomatic relations between the two
great empires. Megasthenes described the Pataliputra city for the first time in
history in his memoirs. The grandson of Emperor Chandragupta, Piyadasi Ashoka
the great, renovated the city with stone construction in about 273 BCE. In about
399 to 414 CE Fa-Hein, the famous Chinese traveler, also wrote a vivid
description of the city. The city remained an important center of political and
military power under later Gupta and Pala Dynasties but it never reached the
glorious peak that it witnessed under the Mauryan Emperors Chandragupta and
Ashoka. The ruin of the Patna came when the Islamic commander, Bakhtiar Khilji,
conquered it in twelfth century CE. He destroyed the great centers of learning
in eastern India making Patna an insignificant city of eastern India. The
glimpse of hope and development came to the city under the interim rule of Sher
Shah Suri. His sixteenth century fort did not survive but a mosque constructed
under his patronage reminds us of his efficient reign.
The third
Mughal Emperor Akbar led a campaign in 1574 to defeat the Afghan commander Daud
Khan. Abul Fazl, the official historian of Emperor Akbar described Patna as a
flourishing commercial and industrial city that was known for its paper, stone
and glass industries. He refers to the Patna rice that had become famous as far
away as Europe. The Mughal Prince, Muhammad Azim, the favorite grandson of the
sixth Mughal Emperor, was allowed to rename the city as Azimabad in 1704 when he
was the provincial governor of Bihar. After the sixth Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb,
the Mughal Empire dwindled very fast and provincial governors asserted their
influence. Bihar along with its capital city, Patna, fell under the territory of
the Nawab of Bengal. The industries of Patna city and Bihar still flourished
under Nawab of Bengal bringing fortune and affluence to its dwellers.
In 1620
already the British were able to get Mughal permission to build a factory in
Patna for trading in calico and silk. It was a major trading center for
saltpeter very soon and major European trading countries like the French, Danes,
Dutch and Portuguese were competing for this very lucrative business of that
era. In 1765 the British East India Company won the Battle of Buxar and
strengthened its stronghold on the region around Patna. In 1912 the British
government under its Viceroy Lord Curzon partitioned the Bengal Presidency
making Patna the capital of Bihar and Orissa provinces.
It soon
emerged as an important and strategic center. A number of imposing structures
were constructed by the British. Credit for designing the massive and majestic
buildings of colonial Patna goes to the architect, I. F. Munnings. Most of these
buildings reflect either Indo-Saracenic influence (like Patna Museum and the
state Assembly), or overt Renaissance influence like the Raj Bhawan and the High
Court. Some buildings, like the General Post Office (GPO) and the Old
Secretariat bear pseudo-Renaissance influence. Some say, the experience gained
in building the new capital area of Patna proved very useful in the subsequent
building of the imperial capital of New Delhi.
There are
several prestigious educational institutions in Patna like Patna College, Patna
Womens College, Patna Science College, Bihar National College, Bihar College of
Engineering, Patna Medical College (formerly, Prince of Wales Medical College),
Nalanda Medical College, Patna Dental College and the Patna Veterinary College.
Orissa was
created as a separate province in 1935. Patna continued as the capital of Bihar
province under the British Raj. Patna played a major role in the Indian
independence struggle. Most notable are the Champaran movement against the
Indigo plantation and the 1942 Quit India Movement (Bharat Chodhro Andolan).
Patna continued to be the capital of the state of Bihar after independence in
1947, though Bihar itself was partitioned again in 2000 when Jharkhand was
carved out as a separate state of the Indian union.
Golghar: Following a terrible famine in 1770, Captain John Garstin
constructed this huge and impressive beehive-shaped structure in July 1786 to
serve as a state granary. A flight of steps winds round this 95 feet or 29
meters high building to its top. One has a panoramic view of the river Ganga and
Patna City from the top of Golghar.
Patna Archaeological Museum:
It contains metal and stone sculptures of the Maurya and Gupta Periods,
terracotta figurines and archaeological artifacts from different excavation
sites in Bihar. Among its prized exhibit are the Ashes of Lord Buddha, the image
of Yakshi from 3rd century BCE, and a 53 feet or 16 meters long
fossilized tree. This museum is of great significance for Buddhists.
Harmandirji: This
shrine consecrates the birthplace of the tenth religious preceptor of the Sikh
faith, Guru Gobind Singh. Originally built by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, a ruler of
Punjab, Harmandirji is one of the holiest Sikh shrines. Standing in the Chowk
area of Old Patna, this dome-shaped structure contains Sikh scriptures and the
personal belongings of the last Guru of Sikh religion.
Khuda Baksh
Oriental Library:
Established at the turn of the 20th century, the library has a
distinguished collection of rare Arabic and Persian manuscripts, Rajput and
Mughal paintings and oddities like an inch wide Quran. It also contains the only
books rescued from the plunder of the University of Cordoba in Spain. It is one
of the most important national libraries of India.
Kumrahar: The site of the ancient city of
Pataliputra lies 3 miles or 5 kilometers from Patna Railway Station on the
Kankarbagh Road. Archaeological excavations here have revealed relics of four
continuous periods from 600 BCE to 600 CE and of a fifth period that begins from
1600 CE. An important find is the ruin of an 80-pillared huge hall from the
Mauryan dynasty period.
Patna has flights to Kolkata by Air Sahara and Air
Deccan as well as to New Delhi by Air Sahara, Air Deccan, Jet Airways and
Indian.
4-star hotels:
Maurya Patna Hotel – 75
rooms
3-star hotels:
Chanakya Patna Hotel – 67
rooms
Hotel Republic – 34 rooms
Hotel Pataliputra Ashok – 46 rooms
Hotel Samrat International – 68 rooms
Distance from Patna:
Bodhgaya: 181 kilometers or 113 miles
Gaya via Rajgir: 169 kilometers or 105 miles
Nalanda: 86 kilometers or 54 miles
Pavapuri: 89 kilometers or 55 miles
Rajgir: 102 kilometers or 63 miles
Vaishali: 54 kilometers or 34 miles
Varanasi: 235 kilometers or 146 miles
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