Raj Bhavan (from

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

: ''Government House'') is the

official residence An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (either their own or that of th ...

of the

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

of the

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, for a total of 36 subnational entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into 800 districts and smaller administrative divisions by the respe ...

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

. It is located in the state capital of

Patna Patna (; , ISO 15919, ISO: ''Paṭanā''), historically known as Pataliputra, Pāṭaliputra, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, ...

. Construction started in 1912 and was completed in 1917. It was designed by New Zealand-born architect Joseph Fearis Munnings. Prior to the

Independence of India The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic ...

, the building was known as Government House and was the official residence of the lieutenant governor of Bihar and Orissa from 1917 to 1920 and then the governor of Bihar and Orissa from 1920 to 1936. Later on with the division of Bihar and Orissa in 1936, it became the official residence of the governor of Bihar. It is currently known as Raj Bhavan or Governor's House.

History

Bihar and Orissa were part of the

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal until 1937, later the Bengal Province, was the largest of all three presidencies of British India during Company rule in India, Company rule and later a Provinces o ...

till 1912. At the Delhi Durbar of 1911 King

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. George w ...

announced the creation of a new province of

Bihar and Orissa Bihar and Orissa was a province of British India, which included the present-day Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, and parts of Odisha. The territories were conquered by the British in the 18th and 19th centuries, and were governed by the then ...

under a lieutenant-governor. The capital for the new province was chosen as the city of Patna. An old city already existed, but the British government decided to build a new city west of old Patna. The new city was to be known as New Patna and covered an area of approximately three square miles. The site chosen was above an abandoned meander of the

Son River Sone River, also spelt Son River, is a perennial river located in central India. It originates near Amarkantak Hill in Pendra (Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi district), Chhattisgarh and finally merges with the Ganges river near Maner in Patna, Biha ...

. Mr. Munnings was appointed as Consulting Architect to the Government of Bihar and Orissa in the year 1912 and was tasked with the planning and development of New Patna. He planned and oversaw the construction of several buildings in the area - notable buildings being - Government House,

Patna Secretariat Patna Secretariat, also known as Patna Sachivalaya or Old Secretariat, is the administrative headquarters of the state Government of Bihar in India. It is located in Bihar's capital city of Patna. This building is situated between two iconic buil ...

, General Post Office, Patna, Commissioner's Court and

Patna University Patna University is a public state university in Patna, Bihar, India. It was established on 1 October 1917 during the British Raj. It is the first university in Bihar and the seventh oldest university in the Indian subcontinent in the modern e ...

campus. Lord Hardinge laid the stone of new buildings in Patna on 1 December 1912. The construction of Government House started in 1912 and was completed in 1917. The building was placed opposite the secretariat and the two buildings were connected by a 200 ft wide road known as King George's Avenue. The avenue was 1 km long and is currently known as Desh Ratna Marg.

Building and architecture

The building is a three storied building set out in

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

form and is constructed in a stripped neo-classical style of architecture with its longitudinal axis running north and south directions. It is constructed in brick and then plastered and also features a hipped Allahabad tiled roof. The ground floor accommodates the offices and the Durbar Hall also known as council chamber, while the first floor has reception rooms. The drawing and dining rooms are also located on the first floor with each measuring 43 by 33 feet. The

Durbar Hall Durbar is a Persian-derived term (from ) referring to the noble court of a king or ruler or a formal meeting where the king held all discussions regarding the state. It was used in South Asia for a ruler's court or feudal levy. A durbar may be ...

and

Ballroom A ballroom or ballhall is a large room inside a building, the primary purpose of which is holding large formal parties called ''balls''. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions and palaces, especially histori ...

lies on the west of the main block with an area of 65.5 by 43 feet and rise through two floors of the building. The hall is overlooked by colonnaded balconies of the first floor and has a large widening staircase. Both the north and south ends of the main block accommodates the guesthouse block and kitchen. The main block of the house is connected to the kitchen by a connecting bridge. Munnings designed the house with each floor having distinctive functions - ground floor for offices, first floor for reception rooms and second floor for main bedrooms. The top floor consists of bedrooms - 15 in total - each having its own bathroom and furnished with electric ceiling fans, a luxury item at that time. Munnings also installed lifts at both ends of the main building. The notable design features of the building are decorative plaster work in the drawing, dining rooms and the Durbar Hall. The expanded metal plastered ceilings and

jack arch A jack arch is a structural element in masonry construction that provides support at openings in the masonry. Alternate names are lintel arch, flat arch and straight arch. Unlike regular arches, jack arches are not curved in form. Instead, they ...

flooring are also distinctive features inside the building. The floor of Durbar Hall is made up of teak planking supported on springs which also doubled up as a ballroom. The house also features highly decorative marble fireplaces and mouldings.

Compound

The Government House at Patna was planned on a compound of 100 acres in area. The campus contained a number of lawn tennis courts between the two main approach drives. A compound wall surrounds the house and Munnings also designed the main gate piers and police barracks to guard the entrance. The gardens in the campus was designed by Munnings and Mr. Head - then Superintendent of the Government Parks and Gardens,

Allahabad Prayagraj (, ; ISO 15919, ISO: ), formerly and colloquially known as Allahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi, Varanasi (Benar ...

- in 1916.

Donation of land to Patna Zoo

In 1970, then Governor of Bihar -

Nityanand Kanungo Nityanand Kanungo (4 May 1900 – 2 August 1988) was one of India's prominent politicians from the state of Odisha, who held successive high-profile portfolios in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet. Early Life Nityanand Kanungo was bor ...

- donated 34 acres of land from the Governor House campus for the establishment of a Botanical Garden.

Location

Raj Bhavan is located in Rajbansi locality of Patna. The roundabout in front of the main gate of Governor's House has a statue of

Rajendra Prasad Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, journalist and scholar who served as the first president of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian National Congress during the Indian independen ...

- the first President of India. Desh Ratna Marg - Desh Ratna is an

honorary title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify their generation, official position, military rank, professional or academic qualification, or nobility. In some languages, titles may be ins ...

given to Rajendra Prasad - connects the Raj Bhavan to Patna Secretariat, while Anne Marg at approximately an angle of 45 degrees in south east direction connects to the residence of

Chief Minister of Bihar The chief minister of Bihar serves as the head of the Government of Bihar, overseeing its administration and governance within the constitutional framework of India. While the Governor of Bihar holds the ceremonial role of the constitutional h ...

- 1 Anne Marg. Raj Bhavan is around 3 km from

Patna airport Jay Prakash Narayan Airport is a domestic airport serving Patna, the capital of Bihar, India. It is named after the independence activist and political leader, Jayprakash Narayan. It is the 20th-busiest airport in India. To meet demand, the A ...

and around 5 km from

Patna Junction Patna Junction (station code PNBE) is a major railway station located in the capital city of Patna in the Indian state of Bihar. It is the main railway station serving Patna . It maintained under the Danapur division of the East Central Railway ...

References

External links

Governor of Bihar
{{Patna Government buildings in Bihar Governors' houses in India Buildings and structures in Patna Government of Bihar Houses completed in 1917 1917 establishments in British India 20th-century architecture in India