NALANDA – One of the world’s first residential universities

Dr. V.K.Maheshwari, M.A(Socio, Phil) B.Sc. M. Ed, Ph.D

Former Principal, K.L.D.A.V.(P.G) College, Roorkee, India

In the state of Bihar in India at a distance of 7 miles in the  north of Rajgarh and in south-east of Patna in India, at a distance of 43 miles, is situated Nalanda, where ruins are still displaying its ancient glory.

Nalanda represents an era, that saw India leading in imparting knowledge, to the world – the era when India was a coveted place for studies. Founded in the 5th Century A.D., Nalanda is known as the ancient seat of learning. 2,000 Teachers and 10,000 Students from all over the Buddhist world lived and studied at Nalanda, the first Residential International University of the World. Nalanda, was a famous Buddhist place since early times, as it was the place of the birth and death of Sariputta, the right hand disciple of the Buddha.

Although Nalanda is one of the places distinguished as having been blessed by the presence of the Buddha, it later became particularly renowned as the site of the great monastic university of the same name , which was to become the crown jewel of the development of Buddhism in India. The name may derive from one of Shakyamuni’s former births , when hewas a king whose capital was here.Nalanda was one of his epithets meaning “insatiable in giving.”

Pali Buddhist Literature , too, has ample references to Nalanda, which used to be visited by Lord Buddha. During the days of Mahavira and Buddha,Nalanda was apparently a very prosperous temple city, a great place of pilgrimage and the site of a celebrated university. It is said that King Asoka gave offerings to the Chaitya of Sariputra at Nalanda and erected a temple there. In Nalanda the Vihara was established by Emperor Asoka. He had built a Sangharam‖ (residents of Buddhist nuns) but as a university it did not flourish before the 3rd century A.D. Nagarjuna came to study here about 300 or 330 A.D. from far south. But as the period of Nagarjuna and Ayurveda could not decided on reliable evidences, therefore the history of Nalanda as a centre of learning begins from 450 A.D.Fahian visited the place in 410 A.D. but Dr. Mukerji says that he had seen some other village named Nal, which in Sudarsan Jatak‘ is named as Nalak or Nal village, and thus he could not visit the actual centre of Nalanda.  Taranath mentions this and also that Nagarjuna, the famous Mahayana philosopher of the second century A.D.,studied at Nalanda.Nagarjuna later became the high-priest there.

Modern historians have tentatively dated the founding of a monastery at Nalanda as being in the fifth century.However, this may not be accurate. For example,the standard biographies of the teacher Nagarjuna, believed by most historians to have been born around 150 AD, are quite specific about his having received ordination at Nalanda monastery when he was seven years old. Further, his teacher Rahulabhadra is said to have lived there for some time before that. We may infer that there were a monastery or monasteries at Nalanda long before the foundation of the later Great Mahavihara.

But its rise as a centre of learning has to be placed by about 450 A.D. ; for Fa Hsien, who visited the place in c. 410 A.D, does not refer to its educational importance. .( According to Taranath, Aryadeva, a disciple of Nagarjuna, was a Nalanda scholar. This, if true, would take back the antiquity of Nalanda by about a couple of centuries. The identity of both Nagarjuna and Aryadeva and their precise time are not yet definitely determined. Bose, Indian Teachers, pp. 108-9.)

The University flourished during the 5th and 12th century. Some historical studies suggest that the University of Nalanda was established during the reign of a king called Śakrāditya, of the Gupta Dynasty.Both Xuanzang and Prajñavarman cite him as the founder, as does a seal discovered at the site. . Sakraditya, who was probably Kumaragupta I (414-454 A.D.), laid the foundation of the greatness of Nalanda by founding and endowing a monastery there.

This place saw the rise and fall of many empires and emperors who contributed in the development of Nalanda University. Many monasteries and temples were built by them. King  Harshwardhana gifted a 25m high copper statue of Buddha and Kumargupta endowed a college of fine arts ere.

The famous Chinese traveller and scholar,Hieun-Tsang stayed here and has given a detailed description of the situations prevailing at that time. Careful excavation of the place has revealed many stupas, monasteries ,hostels ,stair cases, meditation halls, lecture halls and many other structures which speak of the splendour and grandeur this place enjoyed, when the place was a centre of serious study. Regarding the historicity of Nalanda, we read in Jaina texts that Mahavira Vardhamana spent as many as fourteen rainy seasons in Nalanda.

The Gupta kings patronized these monasteries, built in old Kushan architectural style, in a row of cells around a courtyard.Ashoka and Harshavardhana were some of its most celebrated patrons who built temples and monasteries here. Recent excavations have unearthed elaborate structures here. Hiuen Tsang had left ecstatic accounts of both the ambiance and architecture of this unique university of ancient times.

During the Gupta age,the practice and study of the mahayana, especially the madhyamaka, flourished. However, from 750 AD, in the Pala age, there was an increase in the study and propagation of the tantric teachings.This is evidenced by the famous pandit Abhayakaragupta, a renowned tantric practitioner who was simultaneously abbot of the Mahabodhi, Nalanda and Vikramashila monasteries. Also Naropa, later so important to the tantric lineages of the Tibetan traditions, was abbot of Nalanda in the years 1049-57.

The last throne-holder of Nalanda, Shakyashribhadra, fled to Tibet in 1204 at the invitation of the Tibetan translator Tropu Lotsawa (Khro-phu Lo-tsa-ba Byams-pa dpal). In Tibet, he started an ordination lineage of the Mulasarvastivada lineage to complement the two existing ones.

When the Tibetan translator Chag Lotsawa (Chag Lo-tsa-ba, 1197–1264) visited the site in 1235, he found it damaged and looted, with a 90-year-old teacher, Rahula Shribhadra, instructing a class of about 70 students. During Chag Lotsawa’s time there an incursion by Turkic soldiers caused the remaining students to flee. Despite all this, “remnants of the debilitated Buddhist community continued to struggle on under scarce resources until c. 1400 when Chagalaraja was reportedly the last king to have patronized Nalanda.”

Nalanda rapidly rose into importance owing to the patronage of a number of Gupta emperors. That the Gupta rulers, who were themselves orthodox Hindus, should have contributed a lion’s share to the development, equipment and endowment of the greatest Buddhist University speaks volumes for the catholicity of the age.

The splendid Buddha temple in this monastery was for centuries the central place of worship for the congregation. Tathagatagupta, (who cannot yet be definitely identified), Narasinha,- gupta Baladitya, (468-472 A. D.) and Budhagupta ( 475-500 A.D.) added one monastery each to that establishment.  Vajra, an unidentified successor of Baladitya, and another unnamed king of central India added two further monasteries to the establishment. New buildings continued to be erected by Hindu and Buddhist donors down to the 11th century.

The Layout and Buildings:

Excavations have shown that Nalanda University covered an area at least one mile long and half a mile broad. Monastic buildings and stupas attached to them were built according to a preconceived plan ; they were all arranged in a row and not huddled together in any haphazard fashion. The central college had seven halls attached to it ; besides there were 300 smaller rooms for the lecturing work. The buildings were superb, several storeys in height. Hwui Li’s statement that the upper rooms towered above the clouds and enabled a spectator to see how they changed their shape is of course an exaggeration, but it has now received an unexpected corroboration from a contemporary record which also avers that the tops of the buildings at Nalanda touched the clouds.  We may therefore take it that the towers and turrets of the colleges, temples and monasteries at Nalanda must have been of impressive height. There were also deep and translucent ponds covered with blue lotuses, which added to the beauty of the place and supplied water and flowers to the establishment. The whole colony was surrounded by an encircling wall with a door in the southern side.

The Tang Dynasty Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang left detailed accounts of the university in the 7th century. He described how the regularly laid-out towers, forest of pavilions, harmikas and temples seemed to “soar above the mists in the sky” so that from their cells the monks “might witness the birth of the winds and clouds.” The pilgrim states: “An azure pool winds around the monasteries, adorned with the full-blown cups of the blue lotus; the dazzling red flowers of the lovely kanaka hang here and there, and outside groves of mango trees offer the inhabitants their dense and protective shade.

Boarding and Lodging Arrangement:

Monk- Students were lodged in monasteries specially built for the purpose. Recent excavations have so far revealed the existence of thirteen such monasteries, and a glance at the topography shows that some more must have existed. Monasteries were at least two stores in height and had both single-seated and double-seated rooms in them. Each room had one stone cot for each occupant and was also provided with nitches for lamp, books, etc. In one corner of the court-yard of each monastery, a well has been unearthed, showing that the problem of water supply was not overlooked. Rooms were assigned to the monk-students according to their seniority and redistribution took place every year. Hearths of huge dimensions have been discovered in each monastery, showing that the messing arrangements were common. The University had received 200 rich villages as endowment  and so could offer free boarding and clothing to its students. The usual practice in Buddhist monasteries was to offer these facilities to lay students, only if they agreed to perform some menial service.  (In medieval Christian monasteries, the practice was to offer free tuition to all those who intended to join the Order ; the laity was expected to pay small voluntary fee for the education of its children.   It is however possible that Nalanda may have offered free lodging and boarding to its lay students also, who were usually Hindus, in view of its having received so many endowments from Hindu patrons.

The Number of Scholars:

When I-tsing was living at Nalanda (e. 675 A.D.), there were more than 3,000 monks residing in the establishment . The biographer of ‘Yuan Chwang states that in the second quarter of the seventh century the number of the residents of Nalanda would always reach 10,000 . The biographer had never been to India and his information therefore was second hand. His figure seems to be a little exaggerated since it is given in round numbers, and since Yuan Chwang himself simply observes that there were some thousand brethren residing at the place . It would, however, seem certain that the actual number of the monks staying at Nalanda must have been at least about 5,000 towards the middle of the 7th century A. D.

Both a Monastery and a University :

Nalanda, however, was not a mere monastery ; it had obtained so wide a fame primarily because it was a very famous centre of learning. Nalanda was one of the world’s first residential universities, i.e., it had dormitories for students. It is also one of the most famous universities. In its heyday, it accommodated over 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers. The university was considered an architectural masterpiece, and was marked by a lofty wall and one gate. Nalanda had eight separate compounds and ten temples, along with many other meditation halls and classrooms. On the grounds were lakes and parks. The library was located in a nine storied building where meticulous copies of texts were produced.

Yuan Chwang says, ‘In the establishment were some thousand brethren, all men of great learning and ability, several hundreds being highly esteemed and famous ; the brethren were very strict in observing the precepts and regulations of their order ; learning and discussing they found the day too short, day and night they admonished each other, juniors and seniors mutually helping to perfection. Hence foreign students came to the establishment to put an end to their doubts and then became celebrated, and those who stole the name (of Nalanda) were all treated with respect wherever they went’. The names of deep scholars and skilful debaters, who had distinguished themselves at the University, used to be written in white on the lofty gate of the University for being known to every fresher and visitor.

High Standard of Piety and Scholarship :

The head abbots of Nalanda used to be as much celebrated for piety as for scholarship. Amongst them were ‘Dharmapala and Chandrapala, who gave a fragrance to the Buddha’s teachings, Gunamati and Sthiramati of excellent reputation among contemporaries, Prabhamitra of clear argument, Jinamitra of elevated conversation, Jinamitra of model character and perspicacious intellect and Sllabhadra whose perfect excellence was buried in obscurity’ 1 These scholars were not, however, content merely to teach and expound ; they were authors of several treatises, widely studied and highly valued by their contemporaries, The above seven scholars flourished in the first half of the 7th century ; the total number of high class scholars produced at Nalanda during its history of about 700 years must have been very great. At the time of Yuan Chwang’s visit the average scholarship of the establishment also was very high. Out of its 5,000 (or 10,000) monks, there were a thousand who could explain thirty collections of Sutras, and perhaps ten who could explain fifty.

Rush for Admission from India and Abroad:

There was a great rush for admission to the Nalanda University. Students from all parts of India and also from distant foreign countries were anxious to get the benefit of its instructions. Fa Hsien, Yuan Chwang and I-tsing were not the only Chinese Scholars that were attracted to Nalanda by its fame as a centre of learning. During the short interval of thirty years between the visits of Yuan Chwang and I-tsing, Thon-mi, Hiuen Chiu, Taou-hi,Hwuinieh,Aryavarman,Buddhadharma, Taou-sing, Tang and Hwui Lu, hailing from distant countries like China, Korea, Tibet and Tokhara had visited Nalanda and spent considerable time there in studying and copying manuscripts.

The standard of admission was naturally high ; ‘of those from abroad, who wished to enter the schools of discussion, the majority, beaten by the difficulties of the problems, withdrew ; and those who were deeply versed in old and modern learning were admitted, only two or three out of ten succeeding  .

At the time Hsuan Chwang stayed at Nalanda and studied with the abbot Shilabhadra, it was already a flourishing centre of learning. In many ways it seems to have been like a modern university.There was a rigorous oral entry examination conducted by erudite gatekeepers,and many students were turned away.To study or to have studied at Nalanda was a matter of great prestige.

Library Facilities :

The Nalanda authorities had realised that a monastery without a library was like a castle without an armoury. The University was maintaining a splendid library to meet the needs of the hundreds of teachers and thousands of students that were engaged in the study of different sciences. The library of Nalanda, known as Dharma Gunj (Mountain of Truth) or Dharmagañja (Treasury of Truth), was the most renowned repository of Buddhist knowledge in the world at the time. Its collection was said to comprise hundreds of thousands of volumes. The library had three main buildings as high as nine stories tall, Ratnasagara(Sea of Jewels), Ratnodadhi (Ocean of Jewels), and Ratnarañjaka(Delighter of Jewels).The libraries were vast and widely renowned, although there is a legend of a malicious fire in which many of the texts were destroyed and irrevocably lost.

One of the reasons why Chinese scholars used to spend months together at Nalanda was to get true copies of the sacred texts and other works of Buddhism. I-tsing got copied at Nalanda 400 Sanskrit works amounting to 5,00,000 verses.Significantly enough the library quarter was known as Dharma-gafija ‘Mart of Religion.

Lecturing Arrangement:

In the monk population of about 5,000 (perhaps 10,000) a thousand could explain, as we have seen already, twenty collections, of Sutras. This means that there were about a thousand competent teachers to look after the education of about 4,000, but in no case, more than 9,000 monk students. On the average therefore each teacher was in charge of about not more than nine students. Personal attention was thus possible to each student and the teaching therefore must have been very efficient. The college had eight big halls and 300 smaller apartments and every day the authorities used to arrange for about a hundred lectures. Learned monk teachers were held in high veneration and were provided with sedan chairs. They were experts in the art of teaching and expounding; I-tsing gratefully observes, ‘I have been very glad that I have had an opportunity of acquiring knowledge personally from them, which I should otherwise have never possessed.’ However, no degree was granted nor was a specific period of study required. The monks’ time, measured by a water clock, was divided between study and religious rites and practice.There were schools of study in which students received explanations by discourse, and there were also schools of debate, where the mediocre were often humbled, and the conspicuously talented distinguished. Accordingly, the elected abbot was generally the most learned man of the time.

Curriculum:

The subjects taught at Nalanda University covered every field of learning, and it attracted pupils and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey. During the period of Harsha, the monastery is reported to have owned 200 villages given as grants. Nagarjuna- a Mahayana philosopher, Dinnaga- founder of the school of Logic and Dharmpala- the Brahmin scholar, taught here.

The Tibetan tradition holds that there were “four doxographies” (Tibetan: grub-mtha’) which were taught at Nālandā, and :  Courses were drawn from every field of learning, Buddhist and Hindu, sacred and secular, foreign and native. Students studied science, astronomy, medicine, and logic as diligently as they applied themselves to metaphysics, philosophy, Samkhya, Yoga-shastra, the Veda, and the scriptures of Buddhism. They studied foreign philosophy likewise.

In the 7th century, Xuanzang records the number of teachers at Nālandā as being around 1510] Of these, approximately 1000 were able to explain 20 collections of sūtras and śāstras, 500 were able to explain 30 collections, and only 10 teachers were able to explain 50 collections. Xuanzang was among the few who were able to explain 50 collections or more. At this time, only the abbot Śīlabhadra had studied all the major collections of sūtras and śāstras at Nālandā.

The curriculum at Nalanda was fery comprehensive and catholic. The establishment Belonged to the Mahayana school of Buddhism, but :he works of the rival school, the Hinayana one, were also taught. This necessitated a study of Pali language, in which most of the Hinayana works were composed. Works of the famous Mahayana scholars like Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu, Asariga and Dharmaklrti must have been specially studied. But it is not to be opposed that the curriculum of the University was a sectarian one in the sense that it neglected Hindu subjects. In the first place it must be noted that subjects like grammar, logic and literature were common to both the Hindus and the Buddhists.

Secondly, we have to remember that Bauddha and hindu religion and philosophy had become so intricately interconnected with each other that to Study the one without the other had become practically impossible not only for the ambitious controversialist but also for the sincere lover of truth. Buddhists themselves inform us that the three Vedas, Vedanta and Sarhkhya philosophy were taught at the University along with ‘miscellaneous works’. The latter expression probably included the study of subjects like Dharmasastra (sacred law), Puranas, astronomy, astrology etc., which were very important for the lay Hindu and Buddhist students. The study of medicine which is referred to in the sacred canon, was also prosecuted at the place.

Administration:

At the head of the general administration was the abbot-principal, who used to be assisted by two councils, one academic and the other administrative. How these bodies used to function has been already described in the last chapter. To arrange for the free boarding and lodging of so vast a number of students as 5,000 (or perhaps 10,000) was a very costly affair ; the University was enabled to do it because different kings had assigned the revenues of a large number of villages for the upkeep of the establishment. The number of these villages was 200 during I-tsing’s stay at the University (c. 675-685 A.D.). Sealings of a number of these villages, obviously attached to letters sent by them to the University administration, have been found in excavations.

Yijing wrote that matters of discussion and administration at Nālandā would require assembly and consensus on decisions by all those at the assembly, as well as resident monks

Later History ; A Foreign Endowment :

Nalanda continued to be a famous centre of learning down to the 12th century A. D. An 8th century inscription describes how it was then excelling, all other towns and cities on account of itsscholars who were well-versed in sacred texts and philosophy.  In the 9th century the University continued to enjoy inter- national reputation ; Balaputradeva, a king of Java and Sumatra, being attracted by its fame, built a monastery there and induced his friend and ally, King Devapala of Bengal, to grant five villages for its upkeep. Part of this endowment was reserved for the purpose of copying books for the University library (Dharmaratnazya lekhanartham).

Work in Tibet :

From the 8th century onwards, the scholars at Nalanda began to play an active part in the propagation of Buddhist religion and culture in Tibet. Arrangements therefore must have been made for teaching Tibetan at the institution. Mahapandits such as Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, Buddhapalita, Bhavaviveka, Chandrakirti, Shantideva, Shantarakshita, Kamalashila, Asanga, Vasubandhu, Dharmakirti or Atisha wrote extensive commentaries on the Sutra, still used in Tibetan monasteries today. Santarakshita, the Abbot of Nalanda, not only introduced the Buddha dharma to the Land of Snows, but also ordained the first monks. Since then, the lamas of Tibet have faithfully followed their Nalanda teachers. Charidragomin, a Nalanda monk who flourished at the beginning of the 8th century A.D., was the pioneer in the field. Scores of his works were translated into Tibetan ; many scholars were in fact engaged in translation work. Santarakshita, another Nalanda monk and scholar, was invited to Tibet by its king Khri-sron-deu-tsan in 74  A.D. for the purpose of preaching Buddhism. He was given a royal reception and the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet was built under his instructions. He became its chief abbot and vigorously helped the spread of Buddhism till his death in 762 A.D. He received very valuable cooperation in this work from Padmasambhava, a Kashmirian monk educated at Nalanda. Intellectual and literary activity of Nalanda must have continued in subsequent centuries also, for several manuscripts have been, preserved to this time, which were copied at Nalanda during the 10th, llth and 12th centuries A.D.

Much of the tradition of Nalanda had been carried into Tibet by the time of the Muslim invasions of the twelfth century. While the monasteries of Odantapuri and Vikramashila were then destroyed, the buildings at Nalanda do not seem to have suffered extensive damage at that time, although most of the monks fled before the desecrating armies. In 1235 the Tibetan pilgrim Chag Lotsawa found a 90 year old teacher, Rahula Shribhadra, with a class of seventy students. Rahula Shribhadra managed to survive through the support of a local brahmin and did not leave until he had completed educating his last Tibetan student.

Supersession by Vikramasila University : Taranath informs us that the professors of Vikramagila were often appointed to watch over the affairs of Nalanda by the Pala rulers. From the llth century onwards the new University of Vikramasila began to receive a greater share of the royal patronage ; this circumstance may have led to the decline of Nalanda during the llth and 12th centuries. Evidence from the Tibetan sources shows that by this time Tantricism had aquired a hold over the Buddhist mind and it may have perhaps affected the progress of serious studies. We have, however, no definite evidence on the point.

The Destruction of the University:

The ruin of the establishment was brought about by the Muslim invaders under Bakhtiyar Khilji. The buildings were burnt or destroyed and the whole of the monk population was put to the sword. Evidence in literature suggests that in 1193, the Nalanda University was sacked by Bakhtiyar Khilji, a Turk. The Persian historian Minhaj-i-Siraj, in his chronicle the Tabaqat-I-Nasiri, reported that thousands of monks were burned alive and thousands beheaded as Khilji tried his best to uproot Buddhism. The priceless library of the university was also wantonly committed to flames. Thus perished this famous university at the hands of  fanatic invaders who did not know its value.  The burning of the library continued for several months and “smoke from the burning manuscripts hung for days like a dark pall over the low hills.”  So extensive that it burned for approximately more than 6 months when set aflame by Turkish invaders.

References:

Radha Kumud Mookerji :Ancient Indian Education -
A. S. Altekar Education in Ancient India -
Swami Tattwananda: Ancient Indian Culture at a Glance -
Benoy Kumar Sarkar: Creative India
Gurumurthy. S: Education in South India
Radha Kumud Mookerji : Hindu Civilization –

 

 

 

 

NALANDA – One of the world’s first residential universities

 

Dr. V.K.Maheshwari, M.A(Socio, Phil) B.Sc. M. Ed, Ph.D

Former Principal, K.L.D.A.V.(P.G) College, Roorkee, India

In the state of Bihar in India at a distance of 7 miles in the  north of Rajgarh and in south-east of Patna in India, at a distance of 43 miles, is situated Nalanda, where ruins are still displaying its ancient glory.

 

Nalanda represents an era, that saw India leading in imparting knowledge, to the world – the era when India was a coveted place for studies. Founded in the 5th Century A.D., Nalanda is known as the ancient seat of learning. 2,000 Teachers and 10,000 Students from all over the Buddhist world lived and studied at Nalanda, the first Residential International University of the World. Nalanda, was a famous Buddhist place since early times, as it was the place of the birth and death of Sariputta, the right hand disciple of the Buddha.

 

Although Nalanda is one of the places distinguished as having been blessed by the presence of the Buddha, it later became particularly renowned as the site of the great monastic university of the same name , which was to become the crown jewel of the development of Buddhism in India. The name may derive from one of Shakyamuni’s former births , when hewas a king whose capital was here.Nalanda was one of his epithets meaning “insatiable in giving.”

 

Pali Buddhist Literature , too, has ample references to Nalanda, which used to be visited by Lord Buddha. During the days of Mahavira and Buddha,Nalanda was apparently a very prosperous temple city, a great place of pilgrimage and the site of a celebrated university. It is said that King Asoka gave offerings to the Chaitya of Sariputra at Nalanda and erected a temple there. In Nalanda the Vihara was established by Emperor Asoka. He had built a Sangharam‖ (residents of Buddhist nuns) but as a university it did not flourish before the 3rd century A.D. Nagarjuna came to study here about 300 or 330 A.D. from far south. But as the period of Nagarjuna and Ayurveda could not decided on reliable evidences, therefore the history of Nalanda as a centre of learning begins from 450 A.D.Fahian visited the place in 410 A.D. but Dr. Mukerji says that he had seen some other village named Nal, which in Sudarsan Jatak‘ is named as Nalak or Nal village, and thus he could not visit the actual centre of Nalanda.  Taranath mentions this and also that Nagarjuna, the famous Mahayana philosopher of the second century A.D.,studied at Nalanda.Nagarjuna later became the high-priest there.

 

Modern historians have tentatively dated the founding of a monastery at Nalanda as being in the fifth century.However, this may not be accurate. For example,the standard biographies of the teacher Nagarjuna, believed by most historians to have been born around 150 AD, are quite specific about his having received ordination at Nalanda monastery when he was seven years old. Further, his teacher Rahulabhadra is said to have lived there for some time before that. We may infer that there were a monastery or monasteries at Nalanda long before the foundation of the later Great Mahavihara.

 

But its rise as a centre of learning has to be placed by about 450 A.D. ; for Fa Hsien, who visited the place in c. 410 A.D, does not refer to its educational importance. .( According to Taranath, Aryadeva, a disciple of Nagarjuna, was a Nalanda scholar. This, if true, would take back the antiquity of Nalanda by about a couple of centuries. The identity of both Nagarjuna and Aryadeva and their precise time are not yet definitely determined. Bose, Indian Teachers, pp. 108-9.)

 

The University flourished during the 5th and 12th century. Some historical studies suggest that the University of Nalanda was established during the reign of a king called Śakrāditya, of the Gupta Dynasty.Both Xuanzang and Prajñavarman cite him as the founder, as does a seal discovered at the site. . Sakraditya, who was probably Kumaragupta I (414-454 A.D.), laid the foundation of the greatness of Nalanda by founding and endowing a monastery there.

 

This place saw the rise and fall of many empires and emperors who contributed in the development of Nalanda University. Many monasteries and temples were built by them. King  Harshwardhana gifted a 25m high copper statue of Buddha and Kumargupta endowed a college of fine arts ere.

 

The famous Chinese traveller and scholar,Hieun-Tsang stayed here and has given a detailed description of the situations prevailing at that time. Careful excavation of the place has revealed many stupas, monasteries ,hostels ,stair cases, meditation halls, lecture halls and many other structures which speak of the splendour and grandeur this place enjoyed, when the place was a centre of serious study. Regarding the historicity of Nalanda, we read in Jaina texts that Mahavira Vardhamana spent as many as fourteen rainy seasons in Nalanda.

 

The Gupta kings patronised these monasteries, built in old Kushan architectural style, in a row of cells around a courtyard.Ashoka and Harshavardhana were some of its most celebrated patrons who built temples and monasteries here. Recent excavations have unearthed elaborate structures here. Hiuen Tsang had left ecstatic accounts of both the ambiance and architecture of this unique university of ancient times.

 

During the Gupta age,the practice and study of the mahayana, especially the madhyamaka, flourished. However, from 750 AD, in the Pala age, there was an increase in the study and propagation of the tantric teachings.This is evidenced by the famous pandit Abhayakaragupta, a renowned tantric practitioner who was simultaneously abbot of the Mahabodhi, Nalanda and Vikramashila monasteries. Also Naropa, later so important to the tantric lineages of the Tibetan traditions, was abbot of Nalanda in the years 1049-57.

 

The last throne-holder of Nalanda, Shakyashribhadra, fled to Tibet in 1204 at the invitation of the Tibetan translator Tropu Lotsawa (Khro-phu Lo-tsa-ba Byams-pa dpal). In Tibet, he started an ordination lineage of the Mulasarvastivada lineage to complement the two existing ones.

 

When the Tibetan translator Chag Lotsawa (Chag Lo-tsa-ba, 1197–1264) visited the site in 1235, he found it damaged and looted, with a 90-year-old teacher, Rahula Shribhadra, instructing a class of about 70 students. During Chag Lotsawa’s time there an incursion by Turkic soldiers caused the remaining students to flee. Despite all this, “remnants of the debilitated Buddhist community continued to struggle on under scarce resources until c. 1400 when Chagalaraja was reportedly the last king to have patronized Nalanda.”

 

Nalanda rapidly rose into importance owing to the patronage of a number of Gupta emperors. That the Gupta rulers, who were themselves orthodox Hindus, should have contributed a lion’s share to the development, equipment and endowment of the greatest Buddhist University speaks volumes for the catholicity of the age.

The splendid Buddha temple in this monastery was for centuries the central place of worship for the congregation. Tathagatagupta, (who cannot yet be definitely identified), Narasinha,- gupta Baladitya, (468-472 A. D.) and Budhagupta ( 475-500 A.D.) added one monastery each to that establishment.  Vajra, an unidentified successor of Baladitya, and another unnamed king of central India added two further monasteries to the establishment. New buildings continued to be erected by Hindu and Buddhist donors down to the 11th century.

 

The Layout and Buildings:

 

Excavations have shown that Nalanda University covered an area at least one mile long and half a mile broad. Monastic buildings and stupas attached to them were built according to a preconceived plan ; they were all arranged in a row and not huddled together in any haphazard fashion. The central college had seven halls attached to it ; besides there were 300 smaller rooms for the lecturing work. The buildings were superb, several storeys in height. Hwui Li’s statement that the upper rooms towered above the clouds and enabled a spectator to see how they changed their shape is of course an exaggeration, but it has now received an unexpected corroboration from a contemporary record which also avers that the tops of the buildings at Nalanda touched the clouds.  We may therefore take it that the towers and turrets of the colleges, temples and monasteries at Nalanda must have been of impressive height. There were also deep and translucent ponds covered with blue lotuses, which added to the beauty of the place and supplied water and flowers to the establishment. The whole colony was surrounded by an encircling wall with a door in the southern side.

 

The Tang Dynasty Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang left detailed accounts of the university in the 7th century. He described how the regularly laid-out towers, forest of pavilions, harmikas and temples seemed to “soar above the mists in the sky” so that from their cells the monks “might witness the birth of the winds and clouds.” The pilgrim states: “An azure pool winds around the monasteries, adorned with the full-blown cups of the blue lotus; the dazzling red flowers of the lovely kanaka hang here and there, and outside groves of mango trees offer the inhabitants their dense and protective shade.

 

Boarding and Lodging Arrangement:

 

Monk- Students were lodged in monasteries specially built for the purpose. Recent excavations have so far revealed the existence of thirteen such monasteries, and a glance at the topography shows that some more must have existed. Monasteries were at least two storeys in height and had both single-seated and double-seated rooms in them. Each room had one stone cot for each occupant and was also provided with nitches for lamp, books, etc. In one corner of the court-yard of each monastery, a well has been unearthed, showing that the problem of water supply was not overlooked. Rooms were assigned to the monk-students according to their seniority and redistribution took place every year. Hearths of huge dimensions have been discovered in each monastery, showing that the messing arrangements were common. The University had received 200 rich villages as endowment  and so could offer free boarding and clothing to its students. The usual practice in Buddhist monasteries was to offer these facilities to lay students, only if they agreed to perform some menial service.  (In medieval Christian monasteries, the practice was to offer free tuition to all those who intended to join the Order ; the laity was expected to pay small voluntary fee for the education of its children.   It is however possible that Nalanda may have offered free lodging and boarding to its lay students also, who were usually Hindus, in view of its having received so many endowments from Hindu patrons.

 

The Number of Scholars:

 

When I-tsing was living at Nalanda (e. 675 A.D.), there were more than 3,000 monks residing in the establishment . The biographer of ‘Yuan Chwang states that in the second quarter of the seventh century the number of the residents of Nalanda would always reach 10,000 . The biographer had never been to India and his information therefore was second hand. His figure seems to be a little exaggerated since it is given in round numbers, and since Yuan Chwang himself simply observes that there were some thousand brethren residing at the place . It would, however, seem certain that the actual number of the monks staying at Nalanda must have been at least about 5,000 towards the middle of the 7th century A. D.

 

Both a Monastery and a University :

 

Nalanda, however, was not a mere monastery ; it had obtained so wide a fame primarily because it was a very famous centre of learning. Nalanda was one of the world’s first residential universities, i.e., it had dormitories for students. It is also one of the most famous universities. In its heyday, it accommodated over 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers. The university was considered an architectural masterpiece, and was marked by a lofty wall and one gate. Nalanda had eight separate compounds and ten temples, along with many other meditation halls and classrooms. On the grounds were lakes and parks. The library was located in a nine storied building where meticulous copies of texts were produced.

 

Yuan Chwang says, ‘In the establishment were some thousand brethren, all men of great learning and ability, several hundreds being highly esteemed and famous ; the brethren were very strict in observing the precepts and regulations of their order ; learning and discussing they found the day too short, day and night they admonished each other, juniors and seniors mutually helping to perfection. Hence foreign students came to the establishment to put an end to their doubts and then became celebrated, and those who stole the name (of Nalanda) were all treated with respect wherever they went’. The names of deep scholars and skilful debaters, who had distinguished themselves at the University, used to be written in white on the lofty gate of the University for being known to every fresher and visitor.

 

High Standard of Piety and Scholarship :

 

The head abbots of Nalanda used to be as much celebrated for piety as for scholarship. Amongst them were ‘Dharmapala and Chandrapala, who gave a fragrance to the Buddha’s teachings, Gunamati and Sthiramati of excellent reputation among contemporaries, Prabhamitra of clear argument, Jinamitra of elevated conversation, Jinamitra of model character and perspicacious intellect and Sllabhadra whose perfect excellence was buried in obscurity’ 1 These scholars were not, however, content merely to teach and expound ; they were authors of several treatises, widely studied and highly valued by their contemporaries, The above seven scholars flourished in the first half of the 7th century ; the total number of high class scholars produced at Nalanda during its history of about 700 years must have been very great. At the time of Yuan Chwang’s visit the average scholarship of the establishment also was very high. Out of its 5,000 (or 10,000) monks, there were a thousand who could explain thirty collections of Sutras, and perhaps ten who could explain fifty.

 

Rush for Admission from India and Abroad:

 

There was a great rush for admission to the Nalanda University. Students from all parts of India and also from distant foreign countries were anxious to get the benefit of its instructions. Fa Hsien, Yuan Chwang and I-tsing were not the only Chinese Scholars that were attracted to Nalanda by its fame as a centre of learning. During the short interval of thirty years between the visits of Yuan Chwang and I-tsing, Thon-mi, Hiuen Chiu, Taou-hi,Hwuinieh,Aryavarman,Buddhadharma, Taou-sing, Tang and Hwui Lu, hailing from distant countries like China, Korea, Tibet and Tokhara had visited Nalanda and spent considerable time there in studying and copying manuscripts.

 

The standard of admission was naturally high ; ‘of those from abroad, who wished to enter the schools of discussion, the majority, beaten by the difficulties of the problems, withdrew ; and those who were deeply versed in old and modern learning were admitted, only two or three out of ten succeeding  .

 

At the time Hsuan Chwang stayed at Nalanda and studied with the abbot Shilabhadra, it was already a flourishing centre of learning. In many ways it seems to have been like a modern university.There was a rigorous oral entry examination conducted by erudite gatekeepers,and many students were turned away.To study or to have studied at Nalanda was a matter of great prestige.

 

Library Facilities :

 

The Nalanda authorities had realised that a monastery without a library was like a castle without an armoury. The University was maintaining a splendid library to meet the needs of the hundreds of teachers and thousands of students that were engaged in the study of different sciences. The library of Nalanda, known as Dharma Gunj (Mountain of Truth) or Dharmagañja (Treasury of Truth), was the most renowned repository of Buddhist knowledge in the world at the time. Its collection was said to comprise hundreds of thousands of volumes. The library had three main buildings as high as nine stories tall, Ratnasagara(Sea of Jewels), Ratnodadhi (Ocean of Jewels), and Ratnarañjaka(Delighter of Jewels).The libraries were vast and widely renowned, although there is a legend of a malicious fire in which many of the texts were destroyed and irrevocably lost.

 

One of the reasons why Chinese scholars used to spend months together at Nalanda was to get true copies of the sacred texts and other works of Buddhism. I-tsing got copied at Nalanda 400 Sanskrit works amounting to 5,00,000 verses.

Significantly enough the library quarter was known as Dharma-gafija ‘Mart of Religion.

 

Lecturing Arrangement:

 

In the monk population of about 5,000 (perhaps 10,000) a thousand could explain, as we have seen already, twenty collections, of Sutras. This means that there were about a thousand competent teachers to look after the education of about 4,000, but in no case, more than 9,000 monk students. On the average therefore each teacher was in charge of about not more than nine students. Personal attention was thus possible to each student and the teaching therefore must have been very efficient. The college had eight big halls and 300 smaller apartments and every day the authorities used to arrange for about a hundred lectures. Learned monk teachers were held in high veneration and were provided with sedan chairs. They were experts in the art of teaching and expounding; I-tsing gratefully observes, ‘I have been very glad that I have had an opportunity of acquiring knowledge personally from them, which I should otherwise have never possessed.’ However, no degree was granted nor was a specific period of study required. The monks’ time, measured by a water clock, was divided between study and religious rites and practice.There were schools of study in which students received explanations by discourse, and there were also schools of debate, where the mediocre were often humbled, and the conspicuously talented distinguished. Accordingly, the elected abbot was generally the most learned man of the time.

 

 

Curriculum:

 

The subjects taught at Nalanda University covered every field of learning, and it attracted pupils and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey. During the period of Harsha, the monastery is reported to have owned 200 villages given as grants. Nagarjuna- a Mahayana philosopher, Dinnaga- founder of the school of Logic and Dharmpala- the Brahmin scholar, taught here.

 

The Tibetan tradition holds that there were “four doxographies” (Tibetan: grub-mtha’) which were taught at Nālandā, and :  Courses were drawn from every field of learning, Buddhist and Hindu, sacred and secular, foreign and native. Students studied science, astronomy, medicine, and logic as diligently as they applied themselves to metaphysics, philosophy, Samkhya, Yoga-shastra, the Veda, and the scriptures of Buddhism. They studied foreign philosophy likewise.

 

In the 7th century, Xuanzang records the number of teachers at Nālandā as being around 1510] Of these, approximately 1000 were able to explain 20 collections of sūtras and śāstras, 500 were able to explain 30 collections, and only 10 teachers were able to explain 50 collections. Xuanzang was among the few who were able to explain 50 collections or more. At this time, only the abbot Śīlabhadra had studied all the major collections of sūtras and śāstras at Nālandā.

 

The curriculum at Nalanda was fery comprehensive and catholic. The establishment Belonged to the Mahayana school of Buddhism, but :he works of the rival school, the Hinayana one, were also taught. This necessitated a study of Pali language, in which most of the Hinayana works were composed. Works of the famous Mahayana scholars like Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu, Asariga and Dharmaklrti must have been specially studied. But it is not to be opposed that the curriculum of the University was a sectarian one in the sense that it neglected Hindu subjects. In the first place it must be noted that subjects like grammar, logic and literature were common to both the Hindus and the Buddhists.

 

Secondly, we have to remember that Bauddha and hindu religion and philosophy had become so intricately interconnected with each other that to Study the one without the other had become practically impossible not only for the ambitious controversialist but also for the sincere lover of truth. Buddhists themselves inform us that the three Vedas, Vedanta and Sarhkhya philosophy were taught at the University along with ‘miscellaneous works’. The latter expression probably included the study of subjects like Dharmasastra (sacred law), Puranas, astronomy, astrology etc., which were very important for the lay Hindu and Buddhist students. The study of medicine which is referred to in the sacred canon, was also prosecuted at the place.

 

Administration:

 

At the head of the general administration was the abbot-principal, who used to

be assisted by two councils, one academic and the other administrative. How these bodies used to function has been already described in the last chapter. To arrange for the free boarding and lodging of so vast a number of students as 5,000 (or perhaps 10,000) was a very costly affair ; the University was enabled to do it because different kings had assigned the revenues of a large number of villages for the upkeep of the establishment. The number of these villages was 200 during I-tsing’s stay at the University (c. 675-685 A.D.). Sealings of a number of these villages, obviously attached to letters sent by them to the University administration, have been found in excavations.

Yijing wrote that matters of discussion and administration at Nālandā would require assembly and consensus on decisions by all those at the assembly, as well as resident monks

 

Later History ; A Foreign Endowment :

 

Nalanda continued to be a famous centre of learning down to the 12th century A. D. An 8th century inscription describes how it was then excelling, all other towns and cities on account of itsscholars who were well-versed in sacred texts and philosophy.  In the 9th century the University continued to enjoy inter- national reputation ; Balaputradeva, a king of Java and Sumatra, being attracted by its fame, built a monastery there and induced his friend and ally, King Devapala of Bengal, to grant five villages for its upkeep. Part of this endowment was reserved for the purpose of copying books for the University library (Dharmaratnazya lekhanartham).

 

Work in Tibet :

 

From the 8th century onwards, the scholars at Nalanda began to play an active part in the propagation of Buddhist religion and culture in Tibet. Arrangements therefore must have been made for teaching Tibetan at the institution. Mahapandits such as Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, Buddhapalita, Bhavaviveka, Chandrakirti, Shantideva, Shantarakshita, Kamalashila, Asanga, Vasubandhu, Dharmakirti or Atisha wrote extensive commentaries on the Sutra, still used in Tibetan monasteries today. Santarakshita, the Abbot of Nalanda, not only introduced the Buddha dharma to the Land of Snows, but also ordained the first monks. Since then, the lamas of Tibet have faithfully followed their Nalanda teachers. Charidragomin, a Nalanda monk who flourished at the beginning of the 8th century A.D., was the pioneer in the field. Scores of his works were translated into Tibetan ; many scholars were in fact engaged in translation work. Santarakshita, another Nalanda monk and scholar, was invited to Tibet by its king Khri-sron-deu-tsan in 74  A.D. for the purpose of preaching Buddhism. He was given a royal reception and the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet was built under his instructions. He became its chief abbot and vigorously helped the spread of Buddhism till his death in 762 A.D. He received very valuable cooperation in this work from Padmasambhava, a Kashmirian monk educated at Nalanda. Intellectual and literary activity of Nalanda must have continued in subsequent centuries also, for several manuscripts have been, preserved to this time, which were copied at Nalanda during the 10th, llth and 12th centuries A.D.

 

Much of the tradition of Nalanda had been carried into Tibet by the time of the Muslim invasions of the twelfth century. While the monasteries of Odantapuri and Vikramashila were then destroyed, the buildings at Nalanda do not seem to have suffered extensive damage at that time, although most of the monks fled before the desecrating armies. In 1235 the Tibetan pilgrim Chag Lotsawa found a 90 year old teacher, Rahula Shribhadra, with a class of seventy students. Rahula Shribhadra managed to survive through the support of a local brahmin and did not leave until he had completed educating his last Tibetan student.

 

Supersession by Vikramasila University : Taranath informs us that the professors of Vikramagila were often appointed to watch over the affairs of Nalanda by the Pala rulers. From the llth century onwards the new University of Vikramasila began to receive a greater share of the royal patronage ; this circumstance may have led to the decline of Nalanda during the llth and 12th centuries. Evidence from the Tibetan sources shows that by this time Tantricism had aquired a hold over the Buddhist mind and it may have perhaps affected the progress of serious studies. We have, however, no definite evidence on the point.

 

The Destruction of the University:

 

The ruin of the establishment was brought about by the Muslim invaders under Bakhtiyar Khilji. The buildings were burnt or destroyed and the whole of the monk population was put to the sword. Evidence in literature suggests that in 1193, the Nalanda University was sacked by Bakhtiyar Khilji, a Turk. The Persian historian Minhaj-i-Siraj, in his chronicle the Tabaqat-I-Nasiri, reported that thousands of monks were burned alive and thousands beheaded as Khilji tried his best to uproot Buddhism. The priceless library of the university was also wantonly committed to flames. Thus perished this famous university at the hands of  fanatic invaders who did not know its value.  The burning of the library continued for several months and “smoke from the burning manuscripts hung for days like a dark pall over the low hills.”  So extensive that it burned for approximately more than 6 months when set aflame by Turkish invaders.

References:

Radha Kumud Mookerji :Ancient Indian Education -
A. S. Altekar Education in Ancient India -
Swami Tattwananda: Ancient Indian Culture at a Glance -
Benoy Kumar Sarkar: Creative India
Gurumurthy. S: Education in South India
Radha Kumud Mookerji : Hindu Civilization –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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