Patna, Mar 20 (PTI) Patna University’s historic Wheeler Senate House, the traditional venue of PU’s convocation ceremonies, which also played host to Nobel Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore in March 1936, turned 100 on Friday.
However, the landmark occasion passed like a blip in its centennial journey with no commemorative event scheduled to mark the milestone.
“Today is a holiday at Patna University. The Wheeler Senate House building is a pride of the university and the city, but no event is planned to be hosted in the Senate hall for today,” a senior official of the 108-year-old university told PTI.
The charming senate house with Doric columns framing its entrance was inaugurated on March 20, 1926 by the then-governor of Bihar and Orissa province and Patna University chancellor Sir Henry Wheeler, and named after him.
It was built using a generous endowment from Raja Devaki Nandan Prashad Singh of Monghyr (now Munger in Bihar). Sir Henry Wheeler had laid its foundation stone on March 16, 1925, according to archival records.
“Before a large and distinguished gathering Sir Henry Wheeler inaugurated today the new building of the Wheeler Senate House presented to Patna University by Raja Devaki Nandan Prashad Singh of Monghyr,” reads a report on the inauguration, published in a newspaper in March 1926.
An old marble plaque embedded on a wall in the entrance lobby area carries the inscription of the inauguration event.
After the opening ceremony, Singh hosted an “at home” for the guests.
This iconic landmark in Patna has been a venue for many historic events since its opening.
It traditionally hosted innumerable convocation ceremonies of PU before the function was moved out to a larger public auditorium, senate meetings, opening session of the Indian Science Congress in 1933, the All-India Oriental Conference in 1933, and the All-India Library Conference in 1940 and 1964.
Besides, several annual general meetings of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society (later Bihar Research Society) in the 1920s and 1930s, annual conferences of medical associations, among other key events, have been held at this capacious hall.
But, perhaps one event that lends it a different aura, is the felicitation of Tagore by a citizens’ committee on March 17, 1936, during his two-day visit to Patna 90 years ago, as part of his north India tour in aid of Visva-Bharati.
The senate house, facing the Ashok Rajpath in Patna, is adjoined to the university office building, also erected in the early 1920s, when PU, established on October 1, 1917, moved to its current location after operating from various sites since its inception.
Gopal Chandra Singh (49), a staffer at PU, who has been working at the university office since 2002, says the PU buildings and the Wheeler Senate House stand as a symbol of a glorious chapter in Bihar’s modern education history.
“There is also a concealed door in the wall facing the dais of the senate hall, which leads to the examination department of the university office and eventually to the VC Office on the first floor. It has not been used for a long time now,” he told PTI.
The senate hall, a prominent landmark, has enjoyed nearly an uninterrupted legacy in its 100-year journey.
However, in 2023 it was renamed ‘Jayaprakash Narayan Anushad Bhawan’ after socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan.
Days before the 106th anniversary of the university, a new plaque was installed on the right side of the senate house’s facade stating that it has been renamed after Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly known as ‘JP’.
While its name was officially changed in 2023, ‘Wheeler Senate House’ (in English) embossed on top of the facade of the building wasn’t removed until around the 108th anniversary of PU last year, when the old nomenclature on the frontage was erased and replaced with ‘Jayaprakash Narayan Anushad Bhawan’ (in Hindi) using metallic letter blocks.
Many heritage lovers and some members of PU’s alumni have criticised the renaming of the historic senate house, saying the move amounts to “erasing history”.
The senate house building was refurbished a couple of years ago, for which a sum of Rs 2.84 crore was sanctioned. However, a nearly two-km double-decker flyover cutting through the heart of Ashok Rajpath, and inaugurated in June 2025, has eclipsed its glorious facade from public view.
A few years ago, the pair of heritage gates of the Wheeler Senate House facing Ashok Rajpath, were replaced with new and tall gates — christened ‘Shatabdi Dwar’ — by the university administration to mark the centenary of PU. But, due to widening of the road to accomodate the double-decker flyover, they were again dismantled and rebuilt later with same design.
The then-Bihar Governor Rajendra Arlekar and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on September 5, 2023 unveiled a plaque embedded on the left side of the facade of the senate house to commemorate the reopening of the renovated hall.
In his address on the occasion, Arlekar had suggested renaming the Wheeler Senate House, saying it was a colonial-era name. Citing Tagore’s visit to the Wheeler Senate House in 1936, he had suggested that the hall could be named after the Nobel laureate. PTI KND MNK MNK
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