Our Patna, Their Patna: Two Distant Cousins

thynkfeed team

Few in Bihar’s Patna or anywhere else in India know there’s another Patna, 11,000km away from Bihar’s capital, in East Ayrshire council area of Scotland. Yes, you got it right. There’s another Patna that exists in the world.

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The River Doon flowing through Patna (Image – wikipedia)

 

Bihar’s Patna city has a population of 17 lakh while Scotland’s Patna is inhabited by 2,000 people. Our Patna is situated on the bank of Ganga, theirs on the bank of the Doon. BBC did a story on the Scottish village sometime ago, and Scotland’s Patna owes its title to the great Indian city of Ganges.

patna uk

patna india

 

It was founded in the early years of the 19th century by William Fullarton, whose family had a close connection with the Bihar State. Fullarton’s uncle was in the service of the East India Company as surgeon at Fort William, now Calcutta, in 1745,”

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Image – bbc

 

Fullarton was born in Patna. On his return to Scotland, he began coal and limestone mining on the banks of the Doon. He built houses nearby to accommodate miners and decided to call the hamlet Patna. There’s also a Patna Primary School here. The other things that William Fullarton constructed here include Patna Auld (old) Bridge,  Patna Church, a Patna Youth Group and a Patna Golf Club. There used to be a Patna railway station which has since shut. The Patna bridge also remained in service for 155 years.

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Image – blogto
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Image – snipview

 

Bihar schoolchildren might not know about ‘foreign’ Patna, but the children of Patna Primary School in Scotland’s Patna have been taught about “a Patna situated on the bank of the Ganges” on which “there’s also a big bridge called the Mahatma Gandhi Setu”.

News source – toi

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