Nalanda University and Xuanzang Memorial Hall
Wonders of Classical India in Bihar
Travelling around the state of Bihar is not the most comfortable of experiences. The roads seem designed to prevent invasions rather than promote excursions. However, if you can sit through a bumpy bus ride there are many historical treasures in this area, which was a center of political and cultural power in Ancient and Classical India.
I set out to visit the ruins of Nalanda University from Gaya by local bus. The journey took me through Rajgir, where the Buddha delivered many sermons, including the Heart Sutra — “Form is emptiness, emptiness is form” — from Vulture Peak.
The journey from Gaya to Nalanda took around 5 hours. It’s less than 100 kilometers, but in India, a journey of this distance can take a while. So don’t plan on popping down to Nalanda and returning to Gaya on the same day.
Nalanda was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016. However, it is yet to develop the type of tourist economy that frequently goes hand in hand with these awards. This is both a blessing and a curse.
The site of the ancient university is served by two hotels that stand opposite each other on either side of the highway which passes by the ruins. Both of these places seemed to have more staff than guests. I got the impression that these hotels were opened with a certain amount of bravado after the UNESCO status was awarded but had gradually fallen into disrepair as the tourists failed to materialize in numbers.
The staff seemed shocked to see me and scrambled to come up with the necessary documents to check foreign tourists in. Every room was painted white and there were no paintings on the walls to dim the glare that this created. Dead cockroaches were a feature of the room, which was no place to stay for more than one night. As darkness fell, I discovered that the blinking lights that declared the hotel “open” to passing weary travellers — there were none — were directly outside my window. It was like sleeping in a silent disco hall.
So, the accommodation wasn’t great. But there’s no reason to stay in Nalanda longer than it takes to see the ruins of the university and the Xuanzang Memorial Hall. These can both be covered over the course of about four hours and are devoid of the tourist hordes that often frequent sites of great historical significance such as these.
The Nalanda University site comprises the archaeological remains of a Buddhist monastic and scholastic institution which was founded in the 3rd century BCE and sacked and abandoned in the 13th century CE. For 800 years, from 500 CE until its sacking by a marauding brigade of Turko-Afghan invaders, it engaged in the organised transmission of knowledge uninterrupted. It is considered by historians to have been the world’s first residential university.
It was here that some of the greatest works of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, including the Mahavairocana sutra — “The state of enlightenment is seen as naturally inherent to the mind” — and A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life by Shantideva — “All the suffering there is in this world arises from wishing our self to be happy. All the happiness there is in this world arises from wishing others to be happy” — were written.
There were flowers placed outside of the room that is said to have been occupied by Xuanzang, the famous Chinese monk scholar who translated the sacred scriptures of Buddhism from Sanskrit into Chinese after studying at Nalanda in the 7th century. His journeys throughout India and Central Asia are well documented and were popularized by the Chinese classic novel, “Journey to the West,” published in the 16th century.
A few minutes walk from the main site lies the Xuanzang Memorial Hall. The construction of the Memorial was initiated in 1957 by Jawarhalal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, and Zhou Enlai, the first Premier of the People’s Republic of China. Dignitaries from both countries were present when the Hall finally opened in 2007.
The Xuanzang Memorial Hall celebrates the Buddhist heritage of India and China and takes architectural inspiration from both traditions. The building features a curved roof which supposedly wards off evil spirits that are believed to move in straight lines. Inside, there are museum installations documenting the travels of Xuanzang and others dedicated to the life of the Buddha, including motifs on the ceiling from the Jakata Tales, replicas of those found at the Ajanta Caves.
There is also a statue of the famous monk scholar in front of the expansive courtyard that lies at the entrance to the building. Through 17 years of travelling the sub-continent, Xuanzang collected 150 sacred relics and 657 Buddhist manuscripts in Sanskrit, which he dutifully went about translating after he returned to China. He founded the Consciousness-Only school in China, which upholds the concept that all phenomena arise from consciousness.
It’s a struggle to get to this ancient monument and modern memorial, but it’s well worth it once you arrive. This is probably similar to how Xuanzang felt after he slogged his way across Central Asia to arrive at this great seat of ancient wisdom over a thousand years ago.
