The Golghar or Gol Ghar (गोलघर), ("Round House") is a large granary located to the west of the

Gandhi Maidan Gandhi Maidan is a historic ground in Patna, near the banks of the Ganges River, in Bihar, India. The Golghar falls to its west. During the period of 1824–1833, under British rule, it was used as a golf course and horse racing track and was ...

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, ...

, capital city of

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 ...

state, India.

History

According to a contemporary inscription at its base, the Golghar in Patna was intended to be just the first of a series of huge grain stores. In the end, however, no others were ever built. The granary was "part of a general plan … for the perpetual prevention of famine in these provinces". The beehive - shaped structure was designed by John Garstin of the Bengal Engineers, part of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

Bengal Army The Bengal Army was the army of the Bengal Presidency, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire. The presidency armies, like the presidencies themselves, belonged to the East India Company (EIC) until the Gover ...

. Its construction was completed on 20 July 1786. A drive to improve the appearance of the structure was begun in 2002.

Architecture

Built in the

Stupa In Buddhism, a stupa (, ) is a domed hemispherical structure containing several types of sacred relics, including images, statues, metals, and '' śarīra''—the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns. It is used as a place of pilgrimage and m ...

architecture, the building has a height of 29 m. It is pillar-less with a wall of thickness of 3.6 m at the base. One can climb to the top of the Golghar via its 145-step spiral stairway. The spiral staircase was designed to facilitate the passage of the workers who loaded and unloaded the grain in the granary, who had to carry grain-bags up one flight, deliver their load through a hole at the top, and descend the other stairs. The top of the Golghar presents a panoramic view of the city and the

Ganges The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary rive ...

. Golghar has never been filled to its maximum capacity and there are no plans to do so. Some have claimed that the reason for this is a flaw whereby the doors are designed to open inwards; thus, if it is filled to its maximum capacity, then the doors will not open. However, visitors have found that the doors open outwards. Presently renovation of this historical monument is underway.

In popular culture

Golghar was shown in 2019 Hindi film India's Most Wanted.

Gallery

File:Golghar, Patna, 1888.jpg, Golghar, Patna, painting of 1888 File:Golghar at Bankipur, near Patna, 1814-15.jpg,

Gol Ghar The Golghar or Gol Ghar (गोलघर), ("Round House") is a large granary located to the west of the Gandhi Maidan in Patna, capital city of Bihar state, India. History According to a contemporary inscription at its base, the Golghar in ...

, Patna, a 19th-century painting File:The great Gola on the Maidan at Bankipore - British Library Add.or.4706.jpg,

, Patna 19th century painting, by Sita Ram File:Golghar in July 2022.jpg, alt=, Golghar in July 2022

References

External links