International Conference on IT, Architecture and Mechanical Engineering (ICITAME'2015) May 22-23, 2015 Dubai (UAE) Monument of the „Raj‟: The Administrative Building of National Institute of Technology Patna Anjali Sharma, and Ravish Kumar India (Table 1). Abstract— Every building is a manifestation of the era in which TABLE I it was constructed and has a history of its own. Established during the THE OLDEST ENGINEERING COLLEGES IN INDIA British Rule as a Survey School, the National Institute of Technology Patna is the 6th oldest technical institute in India. Its administrative building, designed by W.C. Wright in Indo-Saracenic revival architecture is over a century old, and is one of the finest and rare examples of the style in Patna. Hence, this historical monument is worthy of a detailed architectural study. The objective of this paper is to review the salient features of the architectural and structural elements of this building though a detailed study. Keywords— National Institute of Technology Patna, Patna, W.C. Wright, Indo-Saracenic revival LSS O‟Malley (1923) records in the Bihar and Orissa I. INTRODUCTION District Gazetteer that the Institute "owes its origin to a fund Y late Victorian era, the East India Company had greatly raised by the residents of Bihar to commemorate the visit of B shifted its focus from trade, to improving the quality of Prince of Whales to Patna in 1876". It was established as a life and education of the Natives. This paradigm shift was Survey School which was subsequently upgraded to Bihar a result of Lord Macaulay‟s famous memorandum on Indian College of Engineering Patna (Table 2). The college building Education in the British Parliament in 1835 and subsequent was constructed during 1898-1902 with contributions from expansion of the Indian Education system. According to Deb Nawab Lutf Ali Khan, a member of the renowned Guzri family Roy (1986), the British found it necessary to carry out of Patna city, and the Prince of Whales reception fund extensive surveys of various types over the territories which according to historians Kazimi and Kumar (2013) and is they acquired in India, particularly after the uprising of 1857, situated on the ground formerly occupied by Dutch factory at to have a complete geographical knowledge of the country for Afzalpur along the bank of the holy river Ganga. It was a their revenue and administrative purposes. College of constituent college of the Patna University till recent times. Engineering, Guindy was already established in 1794 as a Since 2004 it is an autonomous Institute. School of Survey. The first autonomous engineering college TABLE II established to supply a staff of engineers, started in 1847 in NIT PATNA: A BRIEF HISTORY Roorkee known as the Thomason College of Civil Engineering. In the mid-nineteenth century three universities were established in India in the Presidency towns. The buildings of Calcutta University constructed in Neo-classical style, Bombay University, in pure Gothic, and Madras University mostly in the Indo-Saracenic revival style were some of the most admired structures of British public architecture. A less publicized and little known architectural extravaganza of the Indo-Saracenic revival style in Patna is the administrative building of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Patna, the sixth oldest institute of technical education in Anjali Sharma, National Institute of Technology Patna, Bihar-India. Email ID - [email protected]) Ravish Kumar, National Institute of Technology Patna, Bihar-India . The administrative building of the NIT Patna, is a rare (Email ID - [email protected]). http://dx.doi.org/10.15242/IIE.E0515008 25 International Conference on IT, Architecture and Mechanical Engineering (ICITAME'2015) May 22-23, 2015 Dubai (UAE) example of the Indo-Saracenic revival style of architecture in of the exquisitely beautiful buildings in India, witnessed a Patna. revival. The Indo-Saracenic revival derived elements from the Indo-Islamic and Indian architecture, combined with the II. THE INDO-SARACENIC REVIVAL STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE Gothic revival and Neo-Classical styles, and superimposed on In order to understand and appreciate the emergence, European structural proportions and lay-outs common in adoption, propagation and culmination of this style of Britain. The buildings constructed in this style were built in architecture it is necessary to understand the various phases of accordance with advanced British structural engineering architecture in India. standards of the nineteenth century, which included structures Indian architecture, upto the medieval times, mainly composed of iron, steel and poured concrete, while comprised of palaces in Rajputana style, and richly decorated implementing the latest innovations in engineering supporting temples constructed according to Vedic planning principles such elaborate construction. Some of the characteristic features incorporating sculptures, ornate carvings, with either of this style are onion (bulbous) domes, overhanging eaves, pyramidal, convex or concave towers and gateways. pointed arches, cusped arches, scalloped arches, vaulted roofs, Constructed with grandeur were essentially columnar and domed kiosks, many miniature domes, domed chhatris, trabeated. Saracenic architecture, as per information provided pinnacles, towers and minarets, open pavilions, and pierced in Encyclopedia Britannica, derived from „Saracen‟, denoting arcades. nomadic tribes of Syrian borders of the Roman Empire and a Patna, strategically located at the point of confluence of five generic term for Muslims widely used in Europe in the later rivers (Ganga, Ghaghra, Gandak, Son and Punpun) on the medieval era, is an exotic style of architecture that evolved in southern bank of River Ganga, was an important trade centre Western Europe derived from Islamic and Moorish sources. since ancient times, lying on the route from northern India and According to the Gutenberg files on Indian Architecture, the Delhi to Calcutta, the port city close to the Bay of Bengal. It Islamic architecture in India, also known as Indo-Saracenic was home to Hindus, Muslims as well as European and style, which marked its beginning in the thirteenth century, therefore had buildings constructed in the typical styles of the introduced arches and domes as main features in their respective inhabitants. buildings. The Hindu architects employed by the rulers introduced elegant forms and superior ornaments, which gave III. AN ARCHITECTURAL ACCOUNT OF PATNA VIZ-A-VIZ THE rise to a style combining all the beauty and finish of the INDO-SARACENIC REVIVAL STYLE indigenous art with magnificence of conception of the Islamic Patna, ancient Pataliputra, and the present capital of the designs. With the Mughal dynasty established in 1526, the state of Bihar in eastern India is one of the oldest continuously combination of Hindu and Islamic features matured to a inhabited cities in the world. Ahmad (1988) and O‟Malley delicate elegance and refinement of detail, illustrated in the (1923) record that Pataliputra was established by Ajatasatru, magnificent palaces erected in Shah Jahan‟s reign (1627-1658) the king of Magadha in 590 B.C. and was the capital of the at Agra and Delhi. The most splendid of the Mughal buildings Mauryas (321-185 B.C.), the first and the greatest empire in is the Taj Mahal at Agra, built with extreme delicacy, richness ancient India, the Guptas (A.D. 319-550) and several other of its material, and complexity of its magnificent design. empires. The ruins of Mauryan 80-Pillared Hall excavated at According to Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash (2007), Kumhrar in Patna, the ancient Palace site of Pataliputra, although Englishmen had been living in India since the according to Firminger (1909), bear testimony to the “greatest seventeenth century but the only type of buildings they city on earth in its hay days”. However, in the words of Yang constructed initially were factories and houses, most of which (1998), Pataliputra's stars faded after almost a millennium of did not conform to a British style, indicating that they had brilliance. The Pala Empire, which according to historian come with the sole intention to trade. The growth of the East Sircar (1975-76) existed from 750-1199, was the last empire India Company in the eighteenth century necessitated purpose- of middle kingdoms whose capital was Pataliputra. made buildings designed to display British permanence and Ahmad (1988) states that after long years of obscurity, ruin, authority. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Neo- and desolation, the great Afghan Conqueror Sher Shah built a Classical style was favoured to assert their dominance in India. walled fortress at Patna in 1541with several gates, of which the As the British control over India strengthened after the eastern and the western ones are still marked. However, a uprisings of 1857, a fresh spur of construction of public mosque, built to commemorate his reign, still survives. The building took place. Since the Gothic Revival was the style Mughal‟s annexed and made Bihar a province (subahs), prevalent in the Victorian England at the time, it became the according to Sarkar (1947), in 1580 with Patna its preferred style in India also. However, Ching, Jarzombek and headquarters, when it emerged as an important political, Prakash (2007) conclude that by the late nineteenth century commercial, and cultural center, and several buildings architects started discarding the Victorian Gothic architecture including