Wheeler Senate House decked up for Patna University's 105th foundation day tomorrow

The iconic Wheeler Senate House has been tastefully decorated to host the 105th foundation day of the Patna University, the country's seventh oldest varsity, on Friday.

On the eve of the celebrations, the university buildings and its senate hall stood illuminated in shimmering blue and white light in the evening, all set to welcome guests the next day.

Bihar Education Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary will be the chief guest on the occasion and gold medals will be awarded to 41 meritorious students from various departments of the university, PU Registrar Kamesh Kumar told PTI.

''The foundation day event will be hosted at the Wheeler Senate House, slated to begin at 11:30 am. As new COVID-19 cases have drastically reduced in Patna and rest of Bihar, so about 350 people have been invited. But, Covid-appropiate behaviour shall be maintained,'' he said.

Wearing of mask will be mandatory for all visitors, and staff will also use thermal guns to measure temperature of guests when they will enter the capacious hall, where arrangements for seating has also been made on its galleries on the first floor, the registrar said.

The celebrated institution, whose glory albeit has diminished in the last few decades, was set up on October 1, 1917 when the Patna University Act passed by the then Imperial Legislative Council, came into effect, turning the long-cherished dream of the Bihar province into a reality Patna University, established at a time when not a single girl student was studying in any college of the newly-created province, had completed its glorious 100 years in 2017 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had graced its centenary function, held on the premises of the legendary Patna Science College, a part of the university.

Since the establishment of the university is closely linked with the creation of the new province of Bihar and Orissa in 1912, its story is also the story of modern Bihar, both being inspirational.

The university indeed had scripted a new destiny for the province, shaping both academic and cultural life of the students, and in a short passage of time had assumed the aura enjoyed by Oxford and Cambridge universities.

And the iconic buildings of the university, sitting handsomely on the banks of river Ganga, does evoke a parallel with the famed British universities.

J G Jennings was PU's first vice-chancellor, and university's governing bodies -- the Senate and the Syndicate -- came into being in 1919.

The famed Patna University Library was set up in 1919 and a centenary bash was held to mark the occasion in 2019.

The venue of the foundation day event, the Wheeler Senate House is named after the then Governor of the province, and chancellor of the university, Sir Henry Wheeler, who had inaugurated it in 1926.