Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology

Presently the Department is the only of its type in the state to impart knowledge on art, architecture and archaeology. It has carried on excellent research work and has also produced more than 20 numbers of UGC and ICHR-JRF. The Department has an excellent seminar library. It regularly conducts archaeological exploration and excavations, where the students are imparted practical training in the methods of archaeology. Field visits to monuments and sites are conducted for on the spot study. The revised syllabus is as per the UGC guidelines based on the CBCS pattern. In 2012 Narisho, an early historical site was excavated under the aegis of this Department. It completed two projects entitled Survey and Documentation of Lesser known Monuments at Puri and at Bhubaneswar being sponsored by the INTACH, Bhubaneswar Chapter. It also completed another major research project on Documentation of Monuments in Odisha sponsored by IGNCA, New Delhi.

The Department organized one National seminar on Buddhist Heritage of Odisha and collaborated with Department of Tourism, Government of Odisha in another International seminar on Buddhism and Tourism. It regularly assists the UGC Academic Staff College in organizing Refresher courses in History for the benefit of College Teachers. The Department collaborates with organisations at the state and national level i.e. Archaeological Survey of India (Bhubaneswar Circle and Excavation Branch IV), Odishan Institute of Maritime and South East Asian Studies, Bhubaneswar, Odisha State Archaeology, Odisha State Museum, Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, Odisha Chapter, Indira Gandhi National Centre of Arts, New Delhi and others in terms of field archaeology, display of sculptures and antiquities, visit to monuments, sites and projects. The Department also offers Allied Elective and Free Elective Courses under Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) which are opted by students of History, Anthropology and Sanskrit Departments. Some distinguished scholars who have visited the Department and delivered talks are, M. N. Deshpande, H. C. Chatterjee Shastri, A. Pal, B. N. Mukherjee, T. E. Donaldson, H. Kulke, H. Steitencorn, B. D. Chattopadhyay, Amarendra Nath, S. Bondopadhyay, R. Nagaswami, Bettina Baumer, Gautam Sengupta, Harapriya Rangarajan and others.