Congress welcomes National Monuments Authority move to protect Ashoka site in Bihar

New Delhi, October 29

The Congress has welcomed the National Monuments Authority (NMA) move for the protection of an Ashokan site located at Kumhrar, a suburb of Patna, Bihar.

National Monuments Authority (NMA) has released the draft heritage bylaws for the centrally protected monument in Bihar – the supposed site of the Palace of Asoka – for conservation and periphery development.

Stumps of eight pillars found

• Excavations at Kumhrar have revealed cultural sequence of the site from Mauryan period to 600 CE
• Eight more stumps of pillars of the Mauryan pillared hall have been discovered by the researchers

Objections or suggestions to the proposed bylaws will have to be submitted by November 10.

According to the draft law, excavations at Kumhrar conducted by KP Jayaswal Research Institute revealed cultural sequence of the site from Mauryan period to 600 CE. Eight more stumps of pillars of the Mauryan pillared hall, in addition to those exposed in a previous excavation, have been discovered by the researchers.

Artefacts found at the site including potsherds and coins suggest existence of a hospital (arogya vihar), the NMA draft law said and added that the findings corroborated the fifth century Chinese monk Fa-Hien’s account which mentioned existence of a hospital at Pataliputra (modern-day Patna).

“This is great news,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said welcoming the NMA notification about the draft bylaws.

NMA, set up in 2010 for protection of endangered cultural heritage, has so far laid in both Houses of Parliament a total of eight heritage bylaws covering 34 centrally protected monuments, Ramesh wrote on X.

The Congress leader, however, accused the Modi government of trying to weaken the 2010 Act. The government has failed in doing so owing to the determined resistance of the Congress and other parties, the Congress general secretary claimed.