Patna Secretariat
government building in Bihar, India
Patna Secretariat, also known as Patna Sachivalaya or Old Secretariat, is the administrative headquarters of the state Government of Bihar in India. It is located in Bihar's capital city of Patna. This building is situated between two iconic buildings of the city, Lok Bhavan in the west and Patna High Court in the far east.
Location, architecture and design
Patna Secretariat is a mighty Victorian construction located to the east of the Raj Bhavan in Patna. Built by the British in the Indo-Sarcenic style, it was completed in 1917. It is 716 feet long 364 feet wide and remains one of the largest government buildings of the city. A huge clock tower stands tall amidst the beautiful and green lawn of the place. Originally, it was 198 feet high, but a part of it fell down during the 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake. Currently, its height is 184 feet from the ground. A four-foot gap left between the concrete ceiling and the outer covering of tiles from Raniganj ensures a reasonable temperature in the interiors during the hot season.
“Patna Secretariat” enters the record as government building in Bihar, India. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Patna, Secretariat and government can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Patna Secretariat” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Patna, Secretariat and government provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15265680. Authority coordinates are 25.362, 85.659. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1917 and 1934.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Patna Secretariat”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Patna Secretariat primary sources, Patna Secretariat archive and Patna research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Patna Secretariat”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Patna Secretariat” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.