Ruins of Nalanda University
Channel: Imprinted Mind
Date: 2020-09-18

Key words: Atisha, Bakhtiyar Khilji, Buddhism,  Hiuen-Tsang, India, Kumargupta, Lotus, Nagarjuna, Nalanda University,  Shilbhadra, 

The place called ‘Nalo’ or Nalanda is located in the state of Bihar, India about 65 km from the state capital Patna. The place was famous for Buddhist pilgrimage post Lord Buddha's visit  in 600 BCE. Historical evidence suggests that Nalanda University was set up under the benefaction of the Gupta emperors, mainly Kumaragupta in the 500 CE. Later, two more kings Harshavardhan of Kanoj  (700 CE) and Devapala of Bengal (900 CE) got involved in patronizing the university. Nalanda was one of the oldest universities in the world. It was the major and the most important cultural site for the Buddhists till 1200 CE. Students from countries like Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey came to study in this university. 

History of the Nalanda University has been primarily based on the chronicle of Chinese scholar Hiuen-Tsang who came to Nalanda in 600 CE and got involved for 12 years before  left for China. According to him, Nalanda University was the first residential university in the world. It admitted more than 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers during its glorious days. It taught subjects like Medicine, Meta-Physics, Vedas, Logic, Grammar, Prose Composition and Rhetoric. The most talked and the impressive building of in the lost history of the Nalanda University was its library. The library itself used to be a grand complex to house thousands of sacred and rare scriptures. Furthermore, it was divided into three buildings and each building into further categorical smaller sections.  

The Nalanda university complex was divided by a central walkway which went from south to North. The east side was known as ‘Viharas' (Monasteries) and the west side as ‘Chiayas' (Temples). Thus the central allay divided the personal life and study life of the students from spiritual. There were 10 such monasteries consisting of more than 300 rooms and ten temples. Each monastery had a dais on which the teacher would sit and give Gyana (Lecture) to the students. 

At its peak period when the university had students from many countries it was attacked by a muslin ruler Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1193 and the whole university was brutally ransacked and destroyed by setting fire. It is said that most of the peaceful Buddhist students could not offer any resistance to the ruthless attack. One Persian historian in his chronicle Tabaqat-I-Nasiri wrote that the monks were driven away, burned alive and thousands of them were beheaded to uproot the Buddhism. To save their life, remaining monks fled away to Tibet or to other monasteries of India.

The narration in Hindi language and English subtitles with this video will bring clear vision among the watchers. 

Music: Free music of Bensound-India and YouTube was used in this video.