History of Bihar, Patna to come alive with new laser show at Golghar

Patna: History of the East Indian state Bihar and its Patna will soon come alive at the historic Golghar here as the nearly 230-year-old granary is all set to host a daytime laser show for the first time on the inside walls of its iconic structure.

A veritable tourist landmark in the Bihar state capital, the colonial-era building known for its unique inverted beehive-shaped architecture attracts visitors from near and far.

Now, with a view to ramp up the footfall, the Bihar government has come up with this daytime laser show themed on the multilayered history and heritage of the state and its capital.

“For the first time, we will be hosting a laser show on the historic walls of Golghar. We already have a laser show running in the granary’s campus through projections on coordinated fountains, but this new show will be a truly unique experience for the visitors,” Director, Bihar State Archaeology, Atul Kumar Verma told PTI.

He said that all preparations have been done and the department was waiting for a “suitable date, some time next month, possibly mid-April” to open the show.

“We have arranged special recliner chairs, but keeping in mind the acoustics of the structure, there would be no regular commentary. Visitors would watch the visuals projected on the walls and listen to the commentary on headphones,” he said.

The Golghar structure lends itself to the “whispering gallery effect” and, therefore, the government has made all arrangements for the safety of the structure given the good turnout that is being anticipated.

“We have already carried out conservation work inside the building, including on the floor and, as a precaution, a maximum of 25 visitors would be allowed inside for each show,” Verma said.

The content of the bilingual show (English-Hindi) of “20- minute duration” would include the history of Bihar, from the ancient to the modern, and also portray the history and heritage of Patna, from its Mauryan past to British history.

Amid festive celebrations at the iconic Gandhi Maidan here, Bihar Sunday also marked its 103rd foundation day. Incidentally, the new laser show was initially planned to be inaugurated Sunday.

Commissioned in 1770 by the then Governor-general of India Warren Hastings to store grains in the wake of a severe drought in eastern India in the same year, the granary was completed in 1786 under Captain John Garstin.

The massive structure is 29m high and its walls are 3.6m wide at the base. A pair of stairways, with 144 steps each wind their way to the top of the building from where it offers a panoramic view of the city and the Ganges flowing by it.

The otherwise perfect design of engineer Garstin had only one flaw, the doors of the granary were made to open inward and, therefore, when filled to capacity, they could never be opened, lending the structure an unflattering nickname of ‘Garstin’s folly’.

Verma said that with the new laser show to be conducted inside the building and the conservation work being done on its outside, Golghar is “set to get its old glory back”.

“We are painstakingly removing all the cement covering from its outer surface and then we will apply the traditional ‘surkhi-chuna’ layering to give it the ochre finishing which it originally had.

“Besides, we are also planning to illuminate the granary with special colour-changing lighting like the one currently seen at Patna Museum,” he said.

Romanticised in a Robert Smith water colour dated 1814-15, the granary, historically also known as the ‘Gola’ or the ‘Bankipore Gola’, referring to the area’s name, has exercised great allure on writers, artists and travellers over time.

But its glory faded with the years before the government took steps to revive it and, in 2013, the fountain-based laser show was opened in its campus.

Verma said that the government, after acquiring the neighbouring ‘Hazeldel’, the colonial-era house of the late Anglo-Indian Mrs Morrison (as she was famously known), is also planning to open a cafe in that building and provide access to visitors to it through a passageway in the common boundary wall.

‘Hazeldel’, a British-era cottage bungalow with slanting roof, was acquired by the Directorate of State Archaeology about a year back.

Including Golghar, the department now has 39 structures and sites in the state under its official listing, he said.

Other entities in the states’ protected sites’ list include Begu Hajjam’s Mosque, Kamaldah Jain temple, Chhoti Patna Devi Temple in old Patna (Patna City), etc.

Outside the state capital, the government has on its list, among others, the historic ‘Arrah House’ in Ara, Vishnupad Temple in Gaya, Hazarimal Dharamshala in Bettiah in West Champaran.

The company ‘Prachin Bharat’, which has prepared and already tested the new show inside Golghar, would also be presenting a laser show on history of Bihar at the Gandhi Maidan on all three days of the ‘Bihar Diwas’ celebrations, which end on March 24. It has done similar laser shows on previous ‘Bihar Diwas’ occasions too.

— PTI