The Wheeler Senate Hall is a convention centre of the

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 ...

situated in the heart of

Ashok Rajpath Ashok Rajpath is a road in Patna, the capital of Bihar. It is named after Ashoka, an Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from ca. 269 BCE to 232 BCE. It connects Patna with Patna city or Patna Sa ...

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

History

The structure was built to host Patna university meetings, convocations and other functions. Raja Devaki Nandan Prasad Singh of Munger had offered to meet the entire cost of building the senate hall in 1925 and had spent nearly 1.75 lakh on the hall. It got ready in 1926 and was inaugurated the same year by the then Governor of Bihar and Orissa province and Chancellor of the University Sir Henry Wheeler. Before the construction of the senate hall, meetings, conferences and convocations of the Patna University were held at different places in the city. During the first five years of PU's existence from 1917 to 1922, it was allowed to use a wing of the

Patna High Court The Patna High Court is the High Court of the state of Bihar. It was established on 9 February 1916 and later affiliated under the Government of India Act 1915. The court is based in Patna, the administrative capital of the state of Bihar, ...

as its temporary office. Meetings of the faculties were held in the hall located at the new college, now known as

Patna College Patna College is a constituent state aided College of Patna University which is established in 1863 during the British Raj, is one of the oldest colleges in the state of Bihar, India. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in science, ...

, while senate meetings were held in the conference room of the Patna Secretariat. University convocations were held in the Durbar hall of the Governor House, present day

Raj Bhavan Raj Bhavan () is the common name of the official residences of the governors of the states of India and may refer to: List of Raj Bhavan See also * Raj Niwas *Rashtrapati Bhavan The Rashtrapati Bhavan (, rāsh-truh-puh-ti bha-vun; ; o ...

building prior to wheeler Senate hall. The aesthetically designed spacious structure with magnificent pillars and high ceiling hall has witnessed such eminent personalities as Lord Mountbatten,

Sarojini Naidu Sarojini Naidu (''née'' Chattopadhyay; 13 February 1879 – 2 March 1949) was an Indian political activist, feminist and poet. A proponent of civil rights, women's emancipation, and anti-imperialistic ideas, she was an important person in Ind ...

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel (; ; 31 October 1875 – 15 December 1950), commonly known as Sardar, was an Indian lawyer, influential political leader, barrister and statesman who served as the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of I ...

, C. D. Deshmukh, V. K. R. V. Rao,

Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (''née'' Swarup Nehru; 18 August 1900 – 1 December 1990) was an Indian diplomat and politician who was the 6th Governor of Maharashtra from 1962 to 1964 and 8th President of the United Nations General Assembly from 19 ...

and

Jayaprakash Narayan Jayaprakash Narayan (; 11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), popularly referred to as JP or ''Lok Nayak'' ( Hindi for "People's leader"), was an Indian independence activist, theorist, socialist and political leader. He is remembered for l ...

, who addressed university convocations here. Scientists like Jagadish Chandra Bose, Sir

C. V. Raman Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (; 7 November 188821 November 1970) was an Indian physicist known for his work in the field of light scattering. Using a spectrograph that he developed, he and his student K. S. Krishnan discovered that when ...

Meghnad Saha Meghnad Saha (6 October 1893 – 16 February 1956) was an Indian astrophysicist who developed the Saha ionization equation, used to describe chemical and physical conditions in stars. His work allowed astronomers to accurately relate the spe ...

Satyendra Nath Bose Satyendra Nath Bose (; 1 January 1894 – 4 February 1974) was a Bengali mathematician and physicist specializing in theoretical physics. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, in developing the foundation for ...

and

Sisir Kumar Mitra Sisir Kumar Mitra (or ''Shishirkumar Mitra'') MBE, FNI, FASB, FIAS, FRS (24 October 1890 – 13 August 1963) was an Indian physicist. Early life and education Mitra was born in his father's hometown of Konnagar, a suburb of Kolkata (then C ...

once addressed university students and faculty members. It is in this hall that poet

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

was felicitated on 17 March 1936 soon after he won th Nobel prize. Besides, many historic public meeting held here in 1946 in which

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

, the first prime-minister of India, had to face embarrassment owing to then communal disturbances in the state.

Present day

The Wheeler senate hall located at

in the state capital is engaged these days mostly for university examinations. Some senate meetings or exhibitions are also held. With a seating capacity of 1,000, the senate hall has undergone numerous renovations.

References

{{coord missing, Bihar Patna University Buildings and structures in Patna Convention centres in Patna 1926 establishments in India Buildings and structures completed in 1926 20th-century architecture in India