Architecture, Monuments and Heritage Sites of Bihar

Bihar carries the oldest stone architecture in India. The Mauryas built their capital at Pataliputra and cut the first rock caves in the Barabar hills, the Guptas and the Palas raised the great monasteries, the Suris built in stone at Sasaram, and the colonial government added granaries, libraries and museums at Patna. BPSC, BSSC, Bihar Police and SSC papers ask this chapter as monument, place, district and builder, so those four should always be learnt together. Bihar has two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, both Buddhist.

The two World Heritage Sites

The Mahabodhi Temple Complex at Bodh Gaya, in Gaya district, was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2002. It stands where the Buddha attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, and the Vajrasana or diamond throne beside the tree marks the seat itself. The first shrine on the spot is credited to Ashoka in the third century BCE; the tall brick temple seen today belongs mainly to the Gupta age and was repaired in the nineteenth century. The Nalanda Mahavihara, the excavated ruins of the ancient university in Nalanda district, was inscribed in 2016.

The great monasteries

Nalanda is attributed to the Gupta ruler Kumaragupta I in the fifth century CE and was supported later by Harshavardhana and by the Pala kings. The Chinese travellers Xuanzang and Yijing studied there, Shilabhadra was its best-known head, and it was destroyed about 1193 CE during the raid of Bakhtiyar Khalji. The site today shows rows of brick monasteries facing a line of temples, the largest being the Sariputta stupa. Vikramshila, at Antichak in Bhagalpur district, was founded by the Pala king Dharmapala, and Odantapuri at Biharsharif is credited to Gopala, the first Pala ruler. Telhara in Nalanda district is a third excavated vihara of the same family.

Mauryan Bihar: caves, pillars and Pataliputra

The Barabar caves in Jehanabad district are the oldest surviving rock-cut caves in India, polished inside to a mirror finish; the Lomas Rishi cave with its carved chaitya-arch doorway and the Sudama cave are the best known, and the neighbouring Nagarjuni caves belong to Ashoka successor Dasharatha. Ashokan pillars stand at Lauria Nandangarh and Lauria Areraj in West Champaran, at Rampurva in the same district, where one pillar carries a bull capital and another a lion capital, and at Kolhua in Vaishali. At Kumhrar in Patna the remains of an eighty-pillared Mauryan hall of Pataliputra have been excavated, and the polished sandstone Didarganj Yakshi, found at Patna in 1917, is the finest Mauryan sculpture from the state.

Buddhist and Jain places

Rajgir, the old Rajagriha, keeps the Griddhakuta hill where the Buddha preached, the Saptaparni cave where the first Buddhist council met, the cyclopean wall, the Son Bhandar caves, the so-called Bimbisara jail and the marble Vishwa Shanti Stupa built on Ratnagiri hill in 1969. Vaishali has the Abhishek Pushkarni, the relic stupa and Raja Vishal ka Garh, and Kundagrama near it is held to be the birthplace of Mahavira. The Jal Mandir at Pawapuri in Nalanda district, a marble temple standing in a tank, marks the nirvana of Mahavira. The Kesariya stupa in East Champaran is among the tallest Buddhist stupas in the country.

Temples, tombs and the Sur architecture

The Mundeshwari temple at Ramgarh in Kaimur district is an octagonal stone shrine with an early inscription and is counted among the oldest temples in India still in worship. The Vishnupad temple at Gaya was rebuilt by Rani Ahilyabai Holkar in 1787. The tomb of Sher Shah Suri at Sasaram in Rohtas district is an octagonal domed tomb set in the middle of an artificial lake, built in his own lifetime and finished soon after his death; the Rohtasgarh fort on the Kaimur plateau in the same district passed into his hands as well. At Maner Sharif near Patna the Chhoti Dargah of Makhdum Shah Daulat was built by Ibrahim Khan in 1616, and Takht Sri Harmandir Ji at Patna Sahib marks the birthplace of Guru Gobind Singh in 1666.

Colonial Patna

The Golghar, the beehive-shaped granary beside the Ganga at Patna, was built in 1786 by Captain John Garstin after the famine of 1770, and its spiral stairways still give the best view of the river. The Padri ki Haveli, or St Mary Church, of 1772 is the oldest church in Bihar. The Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library was opened in 1891 and holds rare Persian and Arabic manuscripts; the Patna Museum dates from 1917 and the Bihar Museum is its modern successor, where the Didarganj Yakshi is displayed. Agam Kuan, a deep brick-lined well in Patna linked in tradition with Ashoka, belongs to the same city of layers.