patna at least 20 scholars gave presentations on the rich archaeological heritage of the indian subcontinent on the concluding day of a threeday national conference at patna museum on fridaythe conference christened perspectives of 21st century was hosted by the art culture and youth departments directorate of archaeology experts from the indian archaeological societydelhi the indian society for prehistoric and quaternary studiespune and the indian history and culture societydelhi participated in the conference they talked about indian art and architecture anthropology epigraphy and numismatics on day 3 bihar museums curatorial assistant ravi s gupta gave a presentation on the lord mahavira temple at kshatriya kund gram in jamui district the temple which is revered for being the birthplace of lord mahavira has inscriptions and sculptures that date back to the gupta period he saiddeccan colleges pune research scholar elora tribedy talked about creation of onspot museums at various archaeological sites in bihar she said during the colonial period most sculptures from lal pahari area of lakhisarai district were transported to either patna museum or gaya museum in the process the archaeological context of the sculptures was lost hence the authorities concerned should construct onspot museums at archaeological sites rather than transporting the sculptures to museumsthe highlight of the conference was however the presentation given by 17yearold archaeologist arsh ali he threw light on the spread of buddhism in ancient egypt by ashokait is widely believed that buddhism originated in the east and was propagated by king ashoka to other parts of the indian subcontinent during my research i found evidence at sanchi in madhya pradesh that indicated the spread of buddhism to egypt the youngest archaeologist said