Exploring Patna’s Heritage in 3 days

Forget Buddha Smriti Park, PnM Mall and 3^rd Class fake Goa called Diyara. Patna has long list of Heritage sites that have been ignored for a long long time by administration and its own people. Staying in Patna for 3 years I have seen most of these places as ignored as a Bihari groom candidate who is not into sarkari naukri (That will be me in near future). As a travel blogger who has travelled around the country praising those faraway lands it makes me wonder why I am not able to do the same for my own hometown. So this time when I was in Patna I decided to take a walk around old ignored buildings and monuments of Patna that should be on travel map but is not around thanks to our own people who themselves don’t know that something like that exist in their own neighborhood.

Day 1

I started early morning and walked behind NIT Patna passed two small temples and reached Gandhi Ghat, Boatwalas were offering a ride and back to Mini Goa in just 30 rs. Having heard a lot about Diyara that was being developed as a popular tourist destination I took an innocent ride towards the sand dunes. Although I had no expectations with this places but still with whatever I had thought about this place shattered into pieces looking at the condition of this place. The beach was filled with cow dung and dog shit and there were couples hiding in individual bushes that were spread at distance. I always wonder why hiding in bushes is so much popular among Patniya couples, why can’t they get a room. Well this place was disgusting so I left.

Rest of the day was spent at Patna museum that has some real precious artifacts from Magadhan and Pre-Mauryan era. I walked around noting down stuff and wonder when 3 hours passed. I spoke to the curator of this museum who said that they don’t get much local visitors and their work is no even covered by local media on extensive scale. Although they are visited by foreign nationals every now and then.

From here I took a walk for Gol Ghar, built in British Era this used to be highest points in Patna that was recently overshadowed by Biscoman Bhawan and other multistory buildings. Today it stands facing towards the running developing modernizing Patna. I forgot how many stairs I climbed but the top of the building gave a very serene view of Ganga that is now slowly being obstructed by buildings of housing societies.

It was around 2 PM, sun was shining right above my head so I decided to return home.

Day 2

I have been to Maner Shareef before but never been to Fulwari Shareef that is said to be a smaller but no less in beauty and architecture like the Magnificent Maner Shareef is. I took an auto rikshaw to Fulwari Shareef that dropped me right near Lal miyan ki dargah, next to this Dargah is Sangi Masjid built in red sandstone by the Mughal Emperor Humayun. If you start early morning you’ll need atleast half of the day to complete two of these places. The Dargah and Masjid have some unique designs and architecture style also there are a lot of broken structures around lost with time.

Day 3

Today I was accompanied with a friend, she took me to Agam Kuan that is knowns as the bottomless well. This is the dreaded well where Ashoka killed his step brothers and threw them in this pit. They say that the water is still red due to the violence but well there was no proof so we moved ahead. We reached Kumharar, site of Mauryan and Magadhan historical glory today is filled with chips packets and water bottles thrown everywhere. There was no one to guide us around so we decided to take a walk around. There are remains of Ashoka’s pillar found in excavation and ruins of ancient buildings protected by The ASI. There is a museum in the premises showcasing whatever they got in excavations.

After a bit of hopping around this place we left for Kumharar and reached Patna city. This place is of equal religious importance for Sikhs, Muslims and Christians. Our first stop was Patna Sahib followed by Patthar ki masjid and ended with Padri ki Haweli all three of them holding strong religious and historical significance.

It was evening we returned to Patna with a satisfaction of having an attempt to revive the lost architectural glory of Patna.