Nalanda: Revisiting through the Ruins
The Nalanda University was destroyed by the Muslim invader Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1193. It was an incident which pushed behind the development of humans by centuries. Bakhtiyar Khilji killed all the teachers and students present and also destroyed the three-storey library which contained about 9 million manuscripts. This was not a destruction of a University, but of entire humanity.
Nalanda University was established by Kumaragupta I in 427 AD. It was the first residential university of the world and was established 660 years before the University of Bologna, the oldest operating university of the world. Also, the oldest Islamic University, Al-Azhar University was established 540 years after Nalanda. This university was not a one man’s work. It was nurtured by each successive generation of kings such as Buddhagupta, Tathagatagupta, Baladitya, etc.
The Nalanda was a fully residential university where the students were tested well before being admitted. The medium of impartation of knowledge was preferably Sanskrit, although other languages were used as well. The education was completely free of cost and the expenses of the university were taken care of by the rulers of the land and the villages around the university.
The Nalanda University played a major role in making the Gupta era the Golden Period of Indian History. It had scholars from all over India and around the world. Some of them included Aryabhatta, Shantirakshita, Nagarjuna, Hiuen Tsang, I-Hsing, etc. The place value system, concept of zero, value of pi, etc. are all the products of Nalanda.
The vast knowledge imparted here in the field of Arts, Mathematics, Science, Medicine, Architecture, etc. influenced the entire world. It attracted scholars from China, Korea, Japan and even Greece. The Arab texts reporting on Indian Mathematics were translated into Latin in 1150 AD. The renowned universities of Oxford and Cambridge were established only after this period in Europe.
The contribution of the Nalanda to the Tibetan Buddhism has also been acknowledged by the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso. He says:
Tibetan Buddhism is not an invention of the Tibetans. Rather, it is quite clear that it derives from the pure lineage of the tradition of the Nalanda Monastery. The source of all knowledge we have, has come from Nalanda.
The destruction of 1193 was the third time Nalanda had been destroyed. It couldn’t be restored after that destruction because the Islamic rulers of foreign lineage had no interest in reviving Nalanda. It had survived the previous attacks by Hunas in 5th century and Gaudas in 7th century due to kings like Skandagupta and Harshavardhana who restored the glory of the Nalanda every time it was ransacked. The major teachings of Nalanda were kept alive in Tibet by the Seventeen Masters, who the Dalai Lama traces back his lineage to.
However, Nalanda lost itself in the ruins while Europe was still developing learning centres such as Oxford and Cambridge.
