History Of Patna

PRELUDE

Patna, by its current name or any other name, finds no mention in the ancient Indian texts like the Vedas and the Purana s, or the Ramayana and the Mahabharata . The first references to the place is observed about 2500 years ago in Jain and Buddhist Scripture s.

Recorded history of the city begins in the year 490 BC when Ajatshatru , the king of Magadh , wanted to shift his capital from the hilly Rajgriha to a more strategically located place to combat the Lichivis of Vaishali . He chose a site on the bank of Ganges and fortified the area which developed into Patna.

From that time, the city has had a continuous history, a record claimed by few cities in the world. During its history and existence of more than two millennia, Patna has been known by different names : Pataligram, Pataliputra, Palibothra, Kusumpur, Pushpapura, Azimabad, Bankipore and the present day Patna.

Gautam Buddha passed through this place in the last year of his life, and he had prophesized a great future for this place, but at the same time, he predicted its ruin from flood, fire, and feud.

THE NAME

Etymologically , Patna derives its name from the word ''Pattan'', which means port in Sanskrit . It may be indicative of the location of this place on the confluence of four rivers, which functioned as a port. It is also believed that the city derived its name from ''Patan Devi'', the presiding deity of the city, and her temple is one of the Shakti Peethas .

One legend ascribes the origin of Patna to a mythological king, ''Putraka'', who created Patna by a magic stroke for his queen ''Patali'', literally Trumpet flower, which gives it its ancient name ''Pataligram''. It is said that in honour of the first born to the queen, the city was named Pataliputra. ''Gram'' is the Sanskrit for a village and ''Putra'' means a son.

THE MAURYAS

to 185 BC ), at its largest extent around 230 BC ]]

With the rise of the Mauryan Empire (321 BC-185 BC), Patna, then called Pataliputra became the seat of power and nerve center of the Indian subcontinent. From Pataliputra , the famed emperor Chandragupta (a contemporary of Alexander ) ruled a vast empire, stretching from the Bay Of Bengal to Afghanistan . Chandragupta established a strong centralized state with a complex administration under the tutelage of Kautilya .

Early Mauryan Patliputra was mostly built with wooden structures. The wooden buildings and palaces rose to several stories and were surrounded by parks and ponds. Another distinctive feature of the city was the drainage system. Water course from every street drained into a moat which functioned both as defence as well as sewage disposal. According to Megasthenese , Pataliputra of the period of Chandragupta, was "surrounded by a wooden wall pierced by 64 gates and 570 towers— (and) rivaled the splendors of contemporaneous Persian sites such as Susa and Ecbatana ".

250 BCE .]]

Chandragupta’s son Bindusara deepened the empire towards central and southern India. Patna under the rule of Ashoka , the grandson of Chandragupta, emerged as an effective Capital of the Indian Subcontinent .

Emperor Ashoka transformed the wooden capital into a stone construction around 273 BC . Chinese scholar Fa Hein , who visited India sometime around A.D. 399-414, has given vivid description of the stone structures in his travelogue.

According to Pliny The Elder in his " Natural History ":

"But the Prasii surpass in power and glory every other people, not only in this quarter, but one may say in all India, their capital Palibothra, a very large and wealthy city, after which some call the people itself the Palibothri,--nay even the whole tract along the Ganges. Their king has in his pay a standing army of 600,000 foot-soldiers, 30,000 cavalry, and 9,000 elephants: whence may be formed some conjecture as to the vastness of his resources."

Learning and scholarship received great state patronage. Patliputra produced several eminent world class scholars.

Scholars:

Aryabhatta , the famous astronomer and mathematician who gave the approximation of Pi correct to four decimal places.

Ashvaghosha , poet and influential Buddhist writer.

Chanakya , or Kautilya , the master of statecraft, described by Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru as Indian Machiavelli —he was the guru of Chandragupta Maurya and author of the ancient text on statecraft, ''Arthashashtra.''

Panini , the ancient Hindu grammarian who formulated the 3959 rules of Sanskrit morphology. The Backus-Naur Form syntax used to describe modern programming languages have significant similarities to Panini’s grammar rules.

Vatsyayana , the author of Kama Sutra .

It is believed that Pataliputra was the largest city in the world between 300 and 195 BC , taking that position from Alexandria , Egypt and being succeeded by the Chinese capital Chang'an (modern Xi'an ). {Link without Title}

THE GUPTAS

THE SULTANATE

With the disintegration of the Gupta empire, and continuous invasions of the Indian subcontinent by foreign armies, Patna passed through uncertain time like most of north India.

During the 12th Century , Muhammad Of Ghori ’s advancing forces captured Ghazni , Multan , Sindh , Lahore , and Delhi , and one of his generals Qutb-ud-din Aybak proclaimed himself Sultan Of Delhi and established the first dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate . By the mid-12th century, Ikhtiar Uddin Muhammad Bin Bakhtiar Khilji , one of the generals of Qutb-ud-din Aybak , conquered Bihar and Bengal , and Patna became a part of the Delhi Sultanate . He is said to have destroyed many ancient seats of learning, the most prominent being the Nalanda University near Rajgrih , about 120 km from Patna. Patna, which had already lost its stature as the political centre of India, lost its prestige as the educational and cultural center of India as well.

THE MUGHALS

The Mughal period was a period of unremarkable provincial administration from Delhi. The most remarkable period of these times was under Sher Shah, or Sher Shah Suri . Sher Shah Suri hailed from Sasaram , about 160 km south-west of Patna and revived Patna in the middle of the 16th century. On his return from one of the expeditions, while standing by the Ganga, he visualised a fort and a town. Sher Shah's fort in Patna does not survive, but the mosque built by Sher Shah in 1545 survives. It is built in Afghan architectural style. There are numerous tombs inside.

The earliest mosque in Patna is dated 1489 and is built by Alauddin Hussani Shah, one of the Bengal rulers. Local people call it the Begu Hajjam's mosque in honour of a barber who got it repaired in 1646.

Mughal emperor Akbar came to Patna in 1574 to crush the Afghan Chief Daud Khan. Akbar's Secretary of State and author of Ain-i-Akbari refers to Patna as a flourishing centre for paper, stone and glass industries. He also refers to the high quality of numerous strains of Rice grown in Patna that is famous as Patna Rice in Europe.

Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb acceded to the request of his favourite grandson Prince Muhamad Azim to rename Patna as Azimabad, in 1704 while Azim was in Patna as the Subedar . However, other than the name, very little changed during this period.

THE NAWABS

With the decline of Mughal empire, Patna moved into the hands of the Nawab s of Bengal, who levied a heavy tax on the populace but allowed it to flourish as a commercial centre. During 17th century, Patna became a centre of international trade.

The British started with a factory in Patna in 1620 for the purchase and storage of calico and silk. Soon it became a trading centre for saltpetre, urging other Europeans—French, Danes, Dutch and Portuguese—to compete in the lucrative business. Various European factories and Godown s started mushrooming in Patna and it acquired a trading fame that attracted far off merchants. Peter Mundy, writing in 1632, calls this place, "the greatest mart of the eastern region".

THE COMPANY RULE

of British East India Company .]]
After the Battle Of Buxar, 1764 , the Mughals as well as the Nawabs of Bengal lost effective control over the territories then constituting the province of Bengal , which currently comprises the Indian States of West Bengal , Bihar , Jharkhand , Orissa , as also some parts of Bangladesh . The East India Company was accorded the Diwani Rights , that is , the right to administer the collection and management of revenues of the province of Bengal, and parts of Oudh , currently comprising a large part of Uttar Pradesh . The diwani rights were legally granted by Shah Alam , who was then ruling Sovereign Mughal Emperor of Undivided India .

The Battle of Buxar, which was fought hardly 115 km from Patna, heralded the establishment of the rule of the British East India Company in East India .

During the rule of the British East India Company in Bihar, Patna emerged as one of the most important commercial and trading centers of the East India, preceded only by Kolkata .

THE BRITISH RAJ

Under the British Raj, Patna gradually started to attain its lost glory and emerged as an important and strategic centre of learning and trade in India. When the Bengal Presidency was partitioned in 1912 to carve out a separate province, Patna was made the capital of the new province of Bihâr and Orissa . The city limits were stretched westwards to accommodate the administrative base, and the township of Bankipore took shape along the Bailey Raod (originally spelt as Bayley Road, after the first Lt. Governor, Charles Stuart Bayley ). This area was called the ''New Capital Area''.

To this day, locals call the old area as the City whereas the new area is called the New Capital Area. The Patna Secretariat with its imposing clock tower and the Patna High Court are two imposing Landmark s of this era of development. Credit for designing the massive and majestic buildings of colonial Patna goes to the architect, I. F. Munnings.

By 1916 - 1917 , most of the buildings were ready for occupation. 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 building the imperial capital of New Delhi.

The British built several educational institutions in Patna like Patna College , Patna Science College , Bihar College Of Engineering , Prince Of Wales Medical College and the Patna Veterinary College. With government patronage, the Biharis quickly seized the opportunity to make these centres flourish quickly and attain renown.

After the creation of Orissa 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 Quit India Movement of 1942 .

INDEPENDENCE

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History Of Patna