Odisha Loses Archaeologist Bijay Rath, An Expert In Temple Art

Bhubaneswar: Well-known archaeologist and one of the founder members of INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) Bijay Kumar Rath passed away at a private hospital here on Saturday. He was 74.

An active field archaeologist, Rath has participated in a number of excavation and exploration works in Odisha undertaken by the State Archaeology Department.

In the last few years, he had undertaken massive conservation programmes in the state with financial assistance from the 10^th and 11^th Finance Commission.

With his effort, about 900 heritage sites in Odisha have been structurally stabilised. He was a member of the technical committees for conservation of the Jagannath Temple and Gundicha Temple in Puri, the Sun Temple in Konark and Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar.

Rath was involved in the conservation and conversion of Janakinath Bhawan, the birthplace of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose in Cuttack,  into a museum by INTACH as secretary of Netaji Birth Place Museum Trust and as ex officio director of the museum.

He was the chief consultant to INTACH during the organisation of Odisha State Maritime Museum at the Jobra Workshop in Cuttack (2008-2013).

Prior to his demise, he was working as a consultant for heritage conservation and culture. He was involved in various conservation projects, including private projects and those of Integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) and INTACH.

Rath was also the guest faculty and visiting professor in the Department of Architecture in the College of Engineering and Technology (CET), Culture University and Department of Ancient Indian History Culture & Archaeology (AIHCA), Utkal University.

Born in 1947, Rath joined the State Archaeology Department as a curator in 1974 and subsequently worked as Superintendent of Orissa State Archaeology for 11 years from December 1996 to March 2007.

He has a number of publications and has authored some books, including Cultural History of Odisha, Krishna Pratibha, Studies in Indology, Fragmentary Rock Inscription from Bankado and Forgotten Moments of Odisha.

He was also proficient in Hindi, English, Telugu, Sanskrit and Bengali besides his mother tongue Odia.