Old-timers rue loss of heritage in Patna

Several elections in Bihar have come and gone, both Assembly and Parliamentary, but old-timers in the capital city feel a sense of tragic loss of inheritance, amid all the real estate boom that Patna has experienced in the last few years.
For 90-year-old Lt Gen (retd) S K Sinha, the former Vice Chief of Army Staff, Patna still holds that special place in his heart but it pains him to see the history of the historical city disappearing, "brick by brick".
"I can tell you the city was so beautiful, especially the New Capital that the British had built after Bihar was carved out as a separate province in 1911. The beauty was unmatched in its architectural grandeur and the civility that people exhibited in public.The whole city was neat and clean and in order," General Sinha told PTI.

The former Jammu and Kashmir Governor, now based in Delhi, laments the tremendous "loss of history" the city suffered, both in terms of tangible and intangible heritage - the old buildings and folk songs and dances, now reduced to just occasional performances in cultural programmes.
Noted archaeologist K K Muhammed, who served as Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Patna Circle chief from 1997-2001 says, the ancient sites like Buldanibagh could not be preserved because after Independence, there "never were any concerted efforts either from the government or the civil society in that direction."
Post-independence, a haphazard housing colony had replaced the 1890s-era Bulandibagh excavation zone in eastern Patna, which was the first such unearthing exercise to offer evidence to archaeologists that this modern city indeed was the ancient capital of Pataliputra.

After Bulandibagh, the neighbouring ancient site of Kumrahar was dug up by D B Spooner in 1912-1915, about the same time the 'New Capital Area' was coming up in western Patna.
Bulandibagh was re-excavated in 1926-27.