About Patna Branch
The seeds of Excavation Branch III, Patna were sown in the year 1971 when Vikramshilla Excavation Project was started with an objective to expose the remains buried in a vast area at Antichak in Bhagalpur district of Bihar, identified as Vikramshilla Mahavihar, a premier teaching institution of early medieval India. Initially the headquarter of this office was at pain but in view of convenience to carry out the excavation work it’s headquarter was shifted to Bhagalpur in November, 1971. After successful completion of excavation work at Antichak, once again headquarter was shifted to Patna on 01/01/1978. The Bihar government has been calling the Telhara project one of its biggest after the excavations that unearthed Nalanda and Vikramshilla universities. The excavation at Telhara should have happened earlier, say experts, but the site lost out to the more famous Nalanda.
