The Department of History, Patna University is one of the most renowned Departments of Social Sciences all over India. It is well known outside India also. It has had a glorious tradition. The post-graduate teaching in History started in Patna College in 1910. In the year 1952 the Post-Graduate History Department was split into two Departments viz. The Department of History and the Department of Ancient Indian History and Archaeology. The Department of History shifted from the Patna College in 1952 under the headship of Professor KK Datta and the Department of Ancient Indian History and Culture under the headship of Professor A.S. Altekar. The teachers of the Department attained international fame. Prof. KK Datta, Prof. S.H. Askari, Prof. R.S: Sharma, Prof. J.N. Sarkar, Prof. Yogendra Mishra, Prof. B.P. Mazumdar, Prof. Qeyamuddin Ahmad, Prof. V.N. Narain, Prof. J.C. Jha, Prof. S. Gopal and Prof. Sumant Niyogi enhanced the prestige of the Department. Their teaching and research contributed immensely to the development of historiography of Indian History. Prof. Bimal Prasad, Prof. Subira Jaiswal, Prof. R.L. Shukla and Prof. D.N. Jha of this Department later joined the faculty of the Jawaharlal Nehru University and Delhi University. Prof. R.S. Sharma enhanced the prestige of the Department as the Department touched its pinnacle during his headship. He later joined the Delhi University as Head of the Department in 1973. He became the founder Chairperson of the Indian Council of Historical Research. The Department also had on its faculty, scholars like Prof. Papiya Ghosh and Prof. V. K. Thakur. Thus the Department can boast of being an excellent center of research and teaching of history of different areas. The achievements of the Department was duly acknowledged by the University Grants Commission. The Department was granted Special Assistance Programme by the U.G.C. in 1972 to promote research in regional history and other academic activities. The programme was renewed twice. Under this programme various projects were completed and a host of nationally and internationally reputed scholars visited the Department. Mention may be made of Prof. A.L. Basham, Prof. Nil Kanth Sastri, Prof. D.C. Sirkar, Prof. Syed Nurul Hasan, Prof. Bipin Chandra, Prof. Irfan Habib and Prof. Romila Thapar in this regard. Prof. E.T. Embree, Prof. A.S. Walport and Prof. Walter Hauser also visited the Department. The “Journal of Historical Studies” was published under auspices of the SAP. Prof. Bharti S. Kumar became the first woman Head of the Department in 2009 the second being Prof. Padmalata Sharma (Thakur) in September 2017. The Department of History, Patna University, offers Master of Arts Curriculum in History with five specializations namely- Ancient Indian History; Medieval Indian History, Modern Indian History, International Relation’s and Peninsular Indian History. The Department follows the Semester System spread over four semesters. The first three semesters contain core papers which are common to all the students while the last semester is for optional specialized papers as well as a dissertation paper. Continuous Internal Assessment (CIA) has also been incorporated to rationalize students’ performance. The Syllabus has also been upgraded with addition of few new papers like Science and Technology in Indian History, Contemporary India and South Asia and Feminist Historiography The Department started Post-Graduate Diploma course in Women’s Studies in 2007 which has been finally upgraded as an independent Department of Women’s Studies under the stewardship of Prof. Padmalata Sharma (Thakur) who is also Director of the only UGC Women’s Studies Center in Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa. Under her Headship the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the Govt. of India, empanelled the Department of Women’s Studies for Training of Trainers (TOT) programmes under Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. Prof. Padmalata Sharma (Thakur) is also Chairperson of P.U. Gender Sensitization Cell. About 10 Refresher Courses sponsored by the U.G.C. have been conducted by the Department and lecturers from different parts of the country have benefited scholars with latest research activities in the field of history. The Department also organizes V.A. Narain Memorial Lecture and Papiya Ghosh Memorial Lecture regularly. To celebrate Centenary Year of Patna University, the Department has organized two Special Lectures, one on “Colonialism, Nationalism and Feminism” on 15 September, 2017 and the other on “Gandhi’s Champaran Satyagrah” The Department has also decided to organize a Two-Day’ National Seminar on ‘Historical Writings on the Freedom Movement in Bihar’ with Special Reference to the Writings of Patna University Scholars’ on 28-29 October 2017. On Every Saturday at 2 p.m. the time table contains Seminar period in which topics of general interest of the students are discussed, one such lecture being “Know and Love your Heritage” series by Mr Prabudh Biswas on 16-9-2017. About 120 students are enrolled every year; The Department has an excellent Library with more than fifty thousand books and a number of reputed journals at its disposal. Besides teaching, the Department has also excelled in research work. Every year about fifteen to twenty students get enrolled for the Ph.D. research work. The Department has the distinction of producing many internationally acknowledged Ph.D works.

First Head: Prof. K. K. Dutta

Present Head: Dr. Surendra Kumar