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It was a winter morning with thick fog. Our car advanced slowly, overtaking horse-drawn carriages. Horse-drawn carriages are still used in Bihar. The horse pulling the cart and behind it the turbaned coachman look like shadows in the mist.
However, I left for Nalanda early in the morning after spending a night at Bodhgaya where the Buddha was enlightened. The brick-built Nalanda University was an important educational center in ancient times.
Nalanda University was established in 427 AD and is reputed to be the first residential university in the world. At one time around 10 thousand students from Middle East Asia used to stay and study in one campus. At that time the library there had a collection of about ninety lakh books. These students studied medicine, logic, mathematics and Buddhist principles.
The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, once said, “All the Buddhist knowledge we received came from Nalanda.” said.
Nalanda University has been the world’s largest educational center for almost seven hundred years since its establishment. At one time its popularity skyrocketed. It is known as an educational center unmatched in the world.
Located under a Buddhist monastery, this university is more than 500 years older than Oxford University and Europe’s oldest University of Bologna. Moreover, the university’s intellectual approach to philosophy and religion has long reflected the culture of Asia.
It is an interesting fact that the king of the Gupta dynasty who founded Nalanda University was a devout Hindu. But he was a supporter of Buddhism, its intellectuals and philosophical writings.
Liberalism, cultural and religious traditions flourished during the Gupta dynasty. Nalanda University also became the center of multidisciplinary academic curriculum. It also taught the intellectual education of Buddhism along with higher education in various fields.
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Main Education Centre
Ayurveda is an ancient Indian system of medicine based on natural therapies. It was well taught in Nalanda University. It then spread to other parts of the world through the students here. Although the campus of Nalanda University is an open space filled with prayer halls and lecture halls, from the outside it looks like a fortress. This design was adopted by other Buddhist institutions. The plaster techniques used here also influenced Thai architecture. Also metallurgy reached Tibet and the Malayan Peninsula.
But the most important and long-lasting legacy of Nalanda University is its achievements in mathematics and astronomy.
Considered the father of Indian mathematics, Aryabhata is said to have been the head of Nalanda University in the early sixth century. Calcutta-based mathematics professor Anuradha Mitra said, “Aryabhata was the first to recognize zero as a number. His idea led to tremendous changes. It simplified mathematical calculations and complicated calculations like algebra and calculus.” Helped expand mathematics. Without zero we wouldn’t even have computers today.”
Prof. Mitra outlines Aryabhata’s contribution, “He gave important theorems related to series of squares and cubes, he applied geometry and trigonometry. His contribution to astronomy was also immense. He was the first person to say that the moon has no light.”
His work contributed significantly to the development of mathematics and astronomy not only in South India but in the entire Arabian Peninsula. Nalanda University continued to send its best scholars and professors to places like China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Sri Lanka to spread Buddhist education and philosophy. Ancient cultural exchanges helped Buddhism to spread and establish itself throughout Asia.
image source, SUGATO MUKHERJEE/BBC
Nalanda University damaged by Khilji
The archaeological remains of Nalanda University are included in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In the 1190s, the university was destroyed by a force of invaders led by the Turko-Afghan army general Bakhtiar Khilji.
The campus of Nalanda University was so large that it was said to have been burning for three months after the attackers set it on fire. The current 23-hectare site is only a part of the original university campus, but looking at the remains of monasteries and temples in the area, one can understand how much education must have been taught here.
I wandered around the prayer halls of the monastery. I saw the verandahs and halls of the monasteries. Through a tall, red-brick walled corridor, I reached the inner courtyard of the monastery. It was rectangular in shape and had a stone platform. My local guide Kamala Singh said, “It was a lecture hall that could seat 300 students. The teachers would teach from a platform.” said.
He showed me around the ruins. I went inside a small room on one side of the campus where students from far away countries like Afghanistan stayed. There were two cupboards facing each other to hold oil lamps and personal belongings. Guide Kamala Singh explained that the small, square-shaped pit box near the room door was each student’s personal mailbox.
In today’s times, as much as it is difficult to get admission in reputed universities, getting admission in Nalanda University is not easy either. Aspirants have to attend an oral test i.e. an interview in front of the top professors of the university. Those lucky enough to pass it were taught by liberally minded professors from different corners of India. There were hundreds of teachers under famous Buddhist priests like Dharmapala and Shilapatra.
The library’s 90 lakh manuscripts, handwritten on palm leaves, were the world’s treasury of Buddhist knowledge. One of its three library buildings has been described by the Tibetan Buddhist scholar Dharanatha as a nine-storey building ‘floating among the clouds’.
When the invaders set fire to the complex, the few Buddhists who saved their lives saved some handwritten manuscripts. They can now be seen in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the United States and the Yarlung Museum in Tibet.
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The Journey of Yuan Chuang
The famous Chinese traveler Yuan Chuang visited Nalanda in the 7th century. Not just a visitor, he stayed here for a long time to study and later worked as an expert professor in this university.
Chuang came to India in AD 630 and returned to China in AD 645. He took 657 Buddhist texts from Nalanda. He is considered one of the world’s most influential Buddhist scholars. He translated many of these texts into Chinese.
Apart from this, he also wrote his autobiography which includes his experiences at Nalanda University. His Japanese disciple Tosho later translated his writings into Japanese and spread Buddhism to Japan, where it became a major religion. This is the reason why the Buddhist monk who brought Buddhism to the Low Countries is remembered as Huan Chuang.
A large stupa is mentioned in Yuan Chuang’s description of Nalanda. This stupa is a large monument built in memory of one of Buddha’s main disciples.
I was standing in front of the ruins of this magnificent octagonal pyramidal structure of this stupa. There are open steps made of bricks to reach the top of the gigantic stupa. A number of smaller temples and stupas can be found on the outer wall around the 30 meter high colossal stupa.
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History of the Great Stupa
It was here that I met Anjali Nair, a history teacher from Mumbai. He said, “This great stupa was built before the Nalanda University. It was built by Emperor Ashoka in the third century. However, it was rebuilt several times in new ways over the next eight centuries.” said.
He also said, “Here are the bones of Buddhist monks who lived here and devoted their entire lives to the university.”
Nearly eight centuries after the destruction of the university, some scholars dispute the widely held theory that Khilji and his soldiers destroyed this center of Buddhist learning because it posed a major challenge to Islam.
The attack on the university may have been staged to root out Buddhism, but one of India’s leading archaeologists, H.T. Sangalia in his 1934 book ‘Nalanda University’ mentions that stories about the fort-like complex and its wealth may have attracted the invaders to attack here.
image source, SUGATO MUKHERJEE/BBC
previous attack
“Yes, it is difficult to find a concrete reason for the attack,” said Shankar Sharma, director of the Nalanda University museum built on the ruins.
The museum exhibits 350 artefacts out of more than 13,000 archaeological remains found during Nalanda excavations. These include plaster sculptures, bronze statues of Buddha, ivory and bone.
“However, this was the first attack on Nalanda. It was attacked in the 5th century by the Hunars under the leadership of Mihirakula. This was followed by an invasion by the Gauda kings of Bengal in the 8th century,” Shankar Sharma told us as we walked through the ruins.
Hunap raiders attacked to loot property. But it is easy to conclude that the Bengal king’s attack was a result of the growing enmity between the Saivite Hindus and the Buddhists of the time. However, in both cases, the buildings were reconstructed. Facilities were also expanded with the help of Gupta rulers.
Sharma said, “Buddhism was on the verge of collapse when Khilji attacked India’s greatest academic center. The Buddhist Pala dynasty, which had supported the university since the eighth century, also fell. Thus, the third attack was the final nail in the coffin.” said.
After this, Nalanda was gradually forgotten for the next six centuries. In 1812, the Scottish surveyor Francis Buchanan-Hamilton discovered it, and later in 1861, Sir Alexander Cunningham identified these remains as the ancient University of Nalanda.
While standing near a small stupa, I saw a group of young monks, dressed in red robes, and among them, a young ascetic was deep in meditation. His eyes were fixed on the gigantic monument. The scene was like a reverent recollection of a glorious past.
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