Department of Ancient History and Culture

	Prof. V. B. S. Yadav Head of Department
Phone	9412048581
E-Mail	hodancienthistoryculture@mjpru.ac.in
Establishment	1985

• The Department of Ancient History and Culture came into existence in July 1985 as a pioneering department of its kind in Rohilkhand University (now Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Rohilkhand University) as well as in the Rohilkhand region. In the past three decades, the Department has proved its acumen in all spheres of the academia. Coping with its ever growing academic achievements and requirement, a conducive infrastructural set up has been established.
• The Department has now a well equipped Archaeological Section and a full-fledged Museum (Panchala Museum) with galleries and dioramas. An auditorium building has been added up recently to the museum building. Apart from these, the Department has well-furnished lecture theatres, office, faculty and staff rooms with all kinds of amenities like intercom, internet, computer and laptops, scanner, photocopier, etc. Audio-visual aids such as LCD Projector, Over Head Projector, Slide Projector, Epidiascope, and Television and VCR are being used for classroom teaching in the Department.
• The major objective of the Department is to impart education and research in the field of Ancient History, Culture and Archaeology. It is offering Master of Arts (M.A.), Master of Philosophy (M. Phil.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees to the students. As per the norms of U.G.C. under 12f, there are seven sanctioned posts in the department consisting one Professor, two Associate Professors and four Assistant Professors. In addition, the archaeological section consists of three experts in the field of photography, cartography and field archaeology who supervise the archaeological programs of the Department. The total capacity of students in different programs are -- M. A. (first & final years) - 40, M. Phil. - 15 and Ph. D. – 30.
• The Faculty members of the Department have achieved recognition in India and abroad for their valuable contribution to knowledge in the field of History and Archaeology. The research publications include research papers, authored and edited books, proceedings of conferences organized by the department, research monographs, photo album concerning history of Bareilly and souvenirs. There are two museum catalogues published by the department; one contains articles on the history and culture of the region and the second has photographs of the valuable antiquities collected time to time from the field as well as donated by the people to the Panchala Museum. The Department has successfully organized a number of National and International conferences; two highly reputed national conferences are Joint Annual Archaeological Conference and Indian History Congress. Other academic events hosted in the Department include two international conferences of Indian Society for Greek and Roman Studies (ISGARS), four International seminars of Forum for Indo-Iranian Studies (FIIRST), three sessions of U.P. History Congress and several UGC and ICHR sponsored National Seminars.
• Besides, the Department has been the base or headquarter of highly acclaimed, the only journal of its genre in India “Yavanika” in the field of Graeco-Roman history and is being edited by Prof. U.P. Arora and his colleagues in the Department viz. Profs. A.K. Sinha and A.K. Singh.
• Another journal “Aitihya” (Journal of History, Culture and Archaeology) is successfully being published for past five years under the aegis of Prof. A.K. Sinha. The department has collaboration with Greek institution thereby faculty members and students regularly visit Greece. The Department also has collaboration with some institutions of Iran. A book entitled “Dialogue between Cultures: India and Iran”, published in the joint editorship of Profs. A.K. Singh and A.K. Sinha, was awarded as the “Best yearbook in Indo-Iranian History and Culture” in the world by Govt. of Iran in 2005. Three teachers of the Department have visited Iran more than once.
• Apart from these, the department regularly organizes memorial and endowment lectures. A good number of lectures have been delivered by various scholars. Another important feat of the Department is establishment of “Indo-Iranian Studies Centre” in 2012. It functions in a separate building in the campus, which was inaugurated by His Excellency Mr. Sayed Mahdi Nabizadeh (Ambassador of Iran in India) and the Vice-Chancellor of the University Prof. Mohd. Muzammil. The Centre with the help of Iran Culture House, New Delhi, imparts teaching on Persian language and culture and has an impressive library which houses books, pictures and audio-visual CD/DVDs on diverse subjects of Persian history, culture, art and language. It also time to time organizes lectures, exhibitions and celebrates Iranian festivities like Navruj (21st March) and Shbe Yalda (21st December) with much fanfare. The Department has a small unit of Archaeology, which within a short time has proved its prowess by excavating two ancient sites of the region. The site of Abhaipur (2001-2006), in Bisalpur tehsil of Pilibhit district, being the first site coming under the spade of archaeologists, has been marked in the archaeological map of India as the first human burial sites of Painted Grey ware (PGW) culture. The other site is Gokalpur, a PGW site, in the outskirt of Bareilly city. Besides, there are above 300 sites marked in the maps of Rohilkhand region by the research students of the Department and the team of archaeology. For its valuable contribution to the field of Ancient History and Archaeology, the Department was conferred “Centre of Excellence” by the Uttar Pradesh State Government in 2008-09. With the funding of which, the Departmental library was developed to the present form. A significant achievement has been establishment of Panchal Museum, which houses antiquities and photographs of monuments of the ancient and medieval past of the Rohilkhand region. The Centre of Excellence Award of U.P. Government was again conferred upon the Department in 2013-14 for development of the Panchal Museum.