ANCIENT NALANDA UNIVERSITY

Ancient Nalanda University Nalanda is an ancient center of higher learning in Bihar, India from 427 to 1197. Nalanda was established in the 5th century AD in Bihar, India. Founded in 427 in northeastern India, not far from what is today the southern border of Nepal, it survived until 1197.

It was devoted to Buddhist studies, but it also trained students in fine arts, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, politics and the art of war. The center had eight separate compounds, 10 temples, meditation halls, classrooms, lakes and parks. It had a nine-story library where monks meticulously copied books and documents so that individual scholars could have their own collections. It had dormitories for students, perhaps a first for an educational institution, housing 10,000 students in the university’s heyday and providing accommodations for 2,000 professors.

Nalanda University attracted pupils and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey. A half hour bus ride from Rajgir is Nalanda, the site of the world's first University. Although the site was a pilgrimage destination from the 1st Century A.D., it has a link with the Buddha as he often came here and two of his chief disciples, Sariputra and Moggallana, came from this area.

The large stupa is known as Sariputra's Stupa, marking the spot not only where his relics are entombed, but where he was supposedly born. The site has a number of small monasteries where the monks lived and studied and many of them were rebuilt over the centuries. We were told that one of the cells belonged to Naropa, who was instrumental in bringing Buddism to Tibet, along with such Nalanda luminaries as Shantirakshita and Padmasambhava. A small opening in the cell revealed a tiny room where Naropa supposedly meditated. Nalanda's main importance comes from its Buddhist roots as a center of learning.

Hsuan Tsang, the famous pilgrim from China came here and studied and taught for 5 years in the 7th Century A.D. Nalanda University at that time had over 10,000 students and 3,000 teachers. For some 700 years, between the 5th and 12th Centuries, Nalanda was the center of scholarship and Buddhist studies in the ancient world.

A great fire wiped out the library of over 9 million manuscripts and at the beginning of the 12th Century, the Muslim invader Bakhtiyar Khalji sacked the university. It was in the 1860's that the great archeologist Alexander Cunningham identified the site as the Nalanda University and in 1915-1916 the Archeological Survey of India began excavations of the site. What has been excavated to date is only a small part of the entire site but much of the ruins are beneath existing villages and are unlikely to be revealed.

The present site is well-maintained and very pleasant to visit. Across the street is the small museum with some excellent Buddhist statues and about a kilometer away is a temple dedicated to Hsuan Tsang. Nearby are the International Centre for Buddhist Studies and the Nava Nalanda Mahivihara, set up for the research of Buddhism.

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