New Delhi, Nov 7 An ancient mound in Bihar’s East Champaran district has been declared an archaeological site of national importance, according to a central government notification.
The site — Ranivas Mound at Kesariya — is spread over 1.63 acres and is under the ownership of the Bihar government, reads the notification dated November 4, issued by the Ministry of Culture.
A total of 3,686 sites are under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the Centre had informed Parliament in February 2026.
A recommendation for listing the ancient Ranivas mound in Bihar as a centrally protected monument was sent to the ASI headquarters in Delhi in 2021, a senior official had told PTI in September 2022.
“Whereas by the notification of the Government of India in the Ministry of Culture (Archaeological Survey of India), vide number S.O. 2888 (E), dated the 8th June, 2026, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-Section (ii), dated the 8th June, 2026, the Central Government gave two months’ notice of its intention to declare the archaeological site and remains specified in the Site Plan and the Schedule annexed to the said notification to be of national importance,” reads the notification.
A copy of the said notification was affixed at a conspicuous place as required under sub-section (1) of section 4 of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act, 1958, it said.
Copies of the said gazette notification were made available to the public on June 8, 2026, and “no objection has been received” from any person to making of such a declaration by the central government, said the notification, signed by ASI Director General Yadubir Singh Rawat.
“Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (3) of section 4 of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 (24 of 1958), the Central Government hereby declares the said archaeological site and remains specified in the site plan and schedule annexed hereto, to be of national importance,” it says.
ASI-listed sites are protected under the AMASR Act, 1958, and enjoy the status of monuments and sites of national importance.
According to the procedure, proposals or recommendations sent in the form of meticulous documents by regional circles are examined by a team at ASI headquarters before making the final decision.
First, there is a provisional notification, and then a final gazetted notification is issued.
A senior official said inclusion of new sites under the ambit of ASI is an ongoing process, following recommendations received from various circles across the country, from time to time.
Centrally protected sites in Bihar fall under the jurisdiction of the Patna Circle of ASI.
Recommendations for a mound in the Junglistan area near the Vikramshila site in Bhagalpur district were sent in 2010. And, for listing of Ranivas mound in a different part of Bihar, it was sent in 2021, the official said. Currently, 70 sites in Bihar are under the ASI, governed under its Patna Circle, one of the oldest regional circles in India.
ASI was established in 1861 with Alexander Cunningham as the first head of the institution.
Patna Circle is one of its oldest circles, which was earlier known as Mid-Eastern Circle and still earlier as the Buddhist Circle, ostensibly because of the important Buddhist monuments lying in its area, according to the Circle’s website.
The ruins of ancient Nalanda University in Bihar, also under the ASI, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Prior to the recent inclusion, Bihar had 70 centrally protected sites.
These include the majestic Tomb of Sher Shah Suri, Tomb of Hasan Shah Suri, Rohtasgarh Fort in Rohtas district; Kumrahar, Bulandibagh and Sandalpur sites and Mir Ashraf ki Masjid in Patna; ancient mound in Bargaon in Nalanda; sculptures of various Hindu deities carved on the northern and eastern faces of some of the rocks of Kauvadol hill in Kurisarai, Gaya; Ashokan Pillar at Lauriya Areraj, East Champaran; Vikramshila monastery in Bhagalpur, among other sites.
Asked when the first notification was made for the Bihar region, the ASI official had earlier said, “Eight to nine sites were notified in 1909 altogether, the earliest ones to be notified.”
The ancestral house of India’s first president Rajendra Prasad in Ziradei, Siwan, north Bihar, was officially declared a protected monument on May 27, 1991. Its provisional notification was done on October 30, 1990, they had said.
The Shiva Temple in Gaya was notified by the ASI in 1996. No fresh site in Bihar had been brought under the ambit of the ASI since then, the senior official had said in September 2022.
Recommendations for inclusion of an Ashokan inscription site in Rohtas district of Bihar were sent in 2008, and for a mound in the Junglistan area near the Vikramshila site in Bhagalpur district in the state were sent in 2010, the official had then said.
Patna district has 11 sites in total, as per the list on the Circle’s website.
Patna Circle earlier also covered Jharkhand and a large number of sites in eastern Uttar Pradesh. While Ranchi Circle was created in 2003 after Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in 2000, a separate Sarnath Circle was created in 2013 for sites falling in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
(PTI News)
