Nalanda-The Ancient Town & University
Nalanda is the name of an ancient center of higher learning in Bihar, India. The site of Nalanda is located in the Indian state of Bihar, about 55 miles south east of Patna, and was a Buddhist center of learning from 427 to 1197 CE.It has been called "one of the first great universities in recorded history."Some buildings were constructed by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka the Great (i.e. Raja Asoka: 273–232 BCE) which is an indication of an early establishment of the Buddhist learning center Nalanda. The Gupta Empire also patronized some monasteries. According to historians, Nalanda flourished between the reign of the Gupta king Sakraditya (also known as Kumaragupta, reigned 415-55) and 1197 CE, supported by patronage from Buddhist emperors like Harsha as well as later emperors from the Pala Empire.The complex was built with red bricks and its ruins occupy an area of 14 hectares. At its peak, the university attracted scholars and students from as far away as China, Greece, and Persia.Nalanda was sacked by Turkic Muslim invaders under Bakhtiyar Khalji in 1193, a milestone in the decline of Buddhism in India. The great library of Nalanda University was so vast that it is reported to have burned for three months after the Mughals set fire to it, sacked and destroyed the monasteries, and drove the monks from the site. In 2006, Singapore, China, India, Japan, and other nations, announced a proposed plan to restore and revive the ancient site as Nalanda International University.
Etymology
Nalanda means "insatiable in giving."The Chinese pilgrim-monk Xuanzang gives several explanations of the name Nalanda. One is that it was named after the Naga who lived in a tank in the middle of the mango grove. Another – the one he accepted – is that Shakyamuni Buddha once had his capital here and gave "alms without intermission", hence the name. Sariputta died at the village called 'Nalaka,' which is also identified as Nalanda by many scholars.
History
In the time of the Buddha (500 BCE)
The Buddha is mentioned as having several times stayed at Nalanda. When he visited Nalanda he would usually reside in Pavarika's mango grove, and while there he had discussions with Upali-Gahapati and Dighatapassi,with Kevatta,and also several conversations with Asibandhakaputta.
The Buddha visited Nalanda during his last tour through Magadha, and it was there that Sariputta uttered his "lion's roar," affirming his faith in the Buddha, shortly before his death.The road from Rajagaha to Nalanda passed through Ambalatthika,and from Nalanda it went on to Pataligama. Between Rajagaha and Nalanda was situated the Bahuputta cetiya.
According to the Kevatta Sutta,in the Buddha's time Nalanda was already an influential and prosperous town, thickly populated, though it was not until later that it became the centre of learning for which it afterwards became famous. There is a record in the Samyutta Nikaya,of the town having been the victim of a severe famine during the Buddha's time. Sariputta, the right hand disciple of the Buddha, was born and died in Nalanda.
Nalanda was the residence of Sonnadinna. Mahavira is several times mentioned as staying at Nalanda, which was evidently a centre of activity of the Jains. Mahavira is believed to have attained Moksha at Pavapuri, which is located in Nalanda (also according to one sect of Jainism he was born in the nearby village called Kundalpur).
King Asoka (250 BC) is said to have built a stupa in the memory of Sariputta. According to Tibetan sources, Nagarjuna taught there.
HistoryFounding of the university and the Gupta heyday
Historical studies indicate that the University of Nalanda was established during the reign of the Gupta emperor Kumaragupta.Both Xuanzang and Prajñavarman cite him as the founder, as does a seal discovered at the site.
As historian Sukumar Dutt describes it, the history of Nalanda university "falls into two main divisions--first, one of growth, development and fruition from the sixth century to the ninth, when it was dominated by the liberal cultural traditions inherited from the Gupta age; the second, one of gradual decline and final dissolution from the ninth century to the thirteen--a period when the tantric developments of Buddhism became most pronounced in eastern India."
History
In the Pala era
A number of monasteries grew up during the Pala period in ancient Bengal and Magadha. According to Tibetan sources, five great Mahaviharas stood out: Vikramashila, the premier university of the era; Nalanda, past its prime but still illustrious, Somapura, Odantapura, and Jaggadala. The five monasteries formed a network; "all of them were under state supervision" and there existed "a system of co-ordination among them . . it seems from the evidence that the different seats of Buddhist learning that functioned in eastern India under the Pala were regarded together as forming a network, an interlinked group of institutions," and it was common for great scholars to move easily from position to position among them.
During the Pala period the Nalanda was less singularly outstanding, as other Pala establishments "must have drawn away a number of learned monks from Nalanda when all of them . . came under the aegis of the Palas."
The seal of Nalanda University set in terracotta on display in the ASI Museum in Nalanda
History
Decline and end
In 1193, the Nalanda University was sacked by the Islamic fanatic Bakhtiyar Khilji, a Turk;this event is seen by scholars as a late milestone in the decline of Buddhism in India. The Persian historian Minhaj-i-Siraj, in his chronicle the Tabaquat-I-Nasiri, reported that thousands of monks were burned alive and thousands beheaded as Khilji tried his best to uproot Buddhism and plant Islam by the sword; 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."
The last throne-holder of Nalanda, Shakyashribhadra, fled to Tibet in 1204 CE 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 Mulasarvastivadin 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 Turkish soldiers caused the remaining students to flee. Despite all this, "remnants of the debilitated Buddhist community continued to struggle on under scare resources until c. 1400 CE when Chagalaraja was reportedly the last king to have patronized Nalanda."
Ahir considers the destruction of the temples, monasteries, centers of learning at Nalanda and northern India to be responsible for the demise of ancient Indian scientific thought in mathematics, astronomy, alchemy, and anatomy.
According to some Indian historians, increasing pressure was felt on Nalanda from Brahmanical society over the course of the 10th century.According to historian Prakash Buddh, a Yajna a fire sacrifice performed by Hindus resulted in a great conflagration which consumed Ratnabodhi, the nine-storeyed library of Nalanda. In his Social history of India, the historian Sadasivan states, "the enormous manuscript library of the University was set on fire by Trithikas (all sects of Brahmins) with the support of Jainas due to the mounting jealousy they nurtured against the great center of learning."
Overview
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. 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.
The Tang Dynasty Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang left detailed accounts of the university in the 7th century. Xuanzang 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."Xuanzang 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."
The entrance of many of the viharas in Nalanda University ruins can be seen with a bow marked floor; bow was the royal sign of Guptas'.
Overview
Libraries
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, so extensive that it burned for months when set aflame by Muslim invaders. 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).
Curriculum
The Tibetan tradition holds that there were "four doxographies" (Tibetan: grub-mtha’) which were taught at Nalanda, and Alexander Berzin specifies these as,.
1. Sarvastivada Vaibhaika
2. Sarvastivada Sautrantika
3. Madhyamaka, the Mahayana philosophy of Nagarjuna
4. Cittamatra, the Mahayana philosophy of Asaga and Vasubandhu
According to an unattributed article of the Dharma Fellowship (2005), the curriculum of Nalanda University at the time of Mañjusrimitra contained:
...virtually the entire range of world knowledge then available. 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.
Administration
Yijing wrote that matters of discussion and administration at Nalanda would require assembly and consensus on decisions by all those at the assembly, as well as resident monks:
If the monks had some business, they would assemble to discuss the matter. Then they ordered the officer, Viharapala, to circulate and report the matter to the resident monks one by one with folded hands. With the objection of a single monk, it would not pass. There was no use of beating or thumping to announce his case. In case a monk did something without consent of all the residents, he would be forced to leave the monastery. If there was a difference of opinion on a certain issue, they would give reason to convince (the other group). No force or coercion was used to convince.
Xuanzang also writes: "The lives of all these virtuous men were naturally governed by habits of the most solemn and strictest kind. Thus in the seven hundred years of the monastery's existence no man has ever contravened the rules of the discipline. The king showers it with the signs of his respect and veneration and has assigned the revenue from a hundred cities to pay for the maintenance of the religious."
Influence on Buddhism
A vast amount of what came to comprise Tibetan Buddhism, both its Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions, stems from the late (9th–12th century) Nalanda teachers and traditions. The scholar Dharmakirti (ca. 7th century), one of the Buddhist founders of Indian philosophical logic, as well as and one of the primary theorists of Buddhist atomism, taught at Nalanda.
Other forms of Buddhism, such as the Mahayana Buddhism followed in Vietnam, China, Korea and Japan, flourished within the walls of the ancient university. A number of scholars have associated some Mahayana texts such as the Sura?gama Sutra, an important sutra in East Asian Buddhism, with the Buddhist tradition at Nalanda. Ron Epstein also notes that the general doctrinal position of the sutra does indeed correspond to what is known about the Buddhist teachings at Nalanda toward the end of the Gupta period when it was translated.
According to Hwui-Li, a Chinese visitor, Nalanda was held in contempt by some Theravadins for its emphasis on Mahayana philosophy. They reportedly chided King Harshavardhana for patronizing Nalanda during one of his visits to Orissa, mocking the "sky-flower" philosophy taught there and suggesting that he might as well patronize a Kapalika temple.
Ruins
A number of ruined structures survive. Nearby is the Surya Mandir, a Hindu temple. The known and excavated ruins extend over an area of about 150,000 square metres, although if Xuanzang's account of Nalanda's extent is correlated with present excavations, almost 90% of it remains unexcavated. Nalanda is no longer inhabited. Today the nearest habitation is a village called Bargaon.
In 1951, a modern centre for Pali (Theravadin) Buddhist studies was founded nearby by Bhikshu Jagdish Kashyap, the Nava Nalanda Mahavihara. Presently, this institute is pursuing an ambitious program of satellite imaging of the entire region.
The Nalanda Museum contains a number of manuscripts, and shows many examples of the items that have been excavated. India's first Multimedia Museum was opened on 26 January 2008, which recreates the history of Nalanda using a 3D animation film narrated by Shekhar Suman. Besides this there are four more sections in the Multimedia Museum: Geographical Perspective, Historical Perspective, Hall of Nalanda and Revival of Nalanda.
Plans for revival
Main article: Nalanda International University
* On 9 December 2006, the New York Times detailed a plan in the works to spend $1 billion to revive Nalanda University near the ancient site. A consortium led by Singapore and including China, India, Japan and other nations will attempt to raise $500 million to build a new university and another $500 million to develop necessary infrastructure.
* On 28 May 2007, Merinews reported that the revived university's enrollment will be 1,137 in its first year, and 4,530 by the fifth. In the 'second phase', enrolment will reach 5,812.
* On 12 June 2007, News Post India reported that the Japanese diplomat Noro Motoyasu said that "Japan will fund the setting up an international university in Nalanda in Bihar". The report goes on to say that "The proposed university will be fully residential, like the ancient seat of learning at Nalanda. In the first phase of the project, seven schools with 46 foreign faculty members and over 400 Indian academics would come up." ... "The university will impart courses in science, philosophy and spiritualism along with other subjects. A renowned international scholar will be its chancellor."
* On 15 August 2007, The Times of India reported that Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has accepted the offer to join the revived Nalanda International University sometime in September 2007."
* NDTV reported on 5 May 2008 that, according to Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, the foundation of University would likely be in the year 2009 and the first teaching class could begin in a few years from then. Sen, who heads the Nalanda Mentor Group, said the final report in this regard, is expected to be presented to the East Asia Summit in December 2008.
* On 11 May 2008, The Times of India reported that host nation India and a consortium of East Asian countries met in New York to further discuss Nalanda plans. It was decided that Nalanda would largely be a post-graduate research university, with the following schools: School of Buddhist studies, philosophy, and comparative religion; School of historical studies; School of International Relations and Peace; School of Business Management and Development; School of Languages and Literature; and, School of Ecology and Environmental Studies. The objective of the school was claimed to be "aimed at advancing the concept of an Asian community...and rediscovering old relationships."
* On 13 September 2010, the Jakarta Globe Reported Parliament in New Delhi passed a bill approving plans to rebuild the campus as a symbol of India’s global ambitions.
As they stood, before the Nalanda University was excavated.
Back side view of Sariputta Stupa
Front view of Sariputta Stupa
Temple and votive stupas.
Interior of the Nalanda ruins.
The Buddha teaching at Deer Park, Varanasi. Nalanda.
Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva statue. Nalanda, 11th century CE.
Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva statue. Nālandā, 11th century CE.
Started in the 2nd century AD Nalanda was the first residential University in the world. It was one of the world’s greatest Universities and an important Budhist centre until its sacking by the Afghans in the 12th century. The Chinese scholar and traveler – Hiuen Tsang stayed here in the 7th century and has left an elaborate description of the excellence, and purity of monastic life practiced here. Their student to teacher ratio of five to one was better than that of the present Oxford University, where the ratio is six to one.
The ruins of this famous University town are situated in the village of Badagaon, 100 kilometers from modern Patna, (hen known as Pataliputra). Modern Rajgir, then known as Rajgraha, the capital of the Magadha Empire is very near to Nalanda and in ancient Jain scripture, the University town is mentioned as a suburb of Rajgraha.
According to historical accounts, the founder of the Jain religion Vardhamana Mahavira visited the site of Nalanda on several occasions. It is also believed that Budha would stop at a mango grove near Nalanda while traveling between Pataliputra and Rajgraha. The name Nalanda is said to have been derived from one of Sakyamuni’s former births, when he was a king. Nalanda was one of his epithets meaning “insatiable in giving”.
The construction of the main monastery is attributed to Shakraditya, the king of Maghada in the 2nd century AD. Travellers who visited Nalanda in the seventh century AD has written that successive kings had constructed the vast University. But Nalanda came into prominence during the reign of Gupta King Kumaragupta I, in the fifth century AD, who ensured that it became the seat of Budhism in Magadha.
His successor Narasimha Gupta prevented the Huna King Mihirakulla from completely destroying the University. But as quite a large percentage of the institution had been demolished by the invader, Narsimha Gupta ensured that the institution was restored to its former glory and a great assembly of more than 10,000 Budhist monks was held to commemorate the event.
At its apex, the Nalanda University was a huge city with all amenities required for scholarship. There were numerous Budhist temples for prayer, large halls for teaching and many hotels to house and the hundreds who comprised the teaching staff. One main aspect of Nalanda was the large number of Viharas or monasteries for the Budhist scholar monks, who were the backbone of the teaching staff. As one gazes into the remains of the vast viharas, one is surprised at the grand construction, with concrete courtyards, wall and drainage system.
Excavation in Nalanda began only in 1915 and today it is spread over 15 acres. The ruins are must for the visitors. The huge multistoried structure merges superbly with the rocky background of the landscape. It is obvious that different architectural styles were adopted at Nalanda.
The name Nalanda has its origin from Sanskrit word Nalam means lotus (a symbol of knowledge) and da (to give). Another account suggest that bodhisattva (rebirth of Buddha) once had his capital here and he gave alms without intermission; hence the name Nalanda. During the time of Buddha (500 CE), Nalanda was a flourishing temple city. Sariputta, the right hand disciple of the Buddha, was born and died at Nalanda.
Historical evidence show that the university was established by Gupta kings around 450 CE. With dormitories, Nalanda was the world’s first residential universities. It accommodated more than 10,000 students and 2000 teachers.
The curriculum of the Nalanda contained virtually the entire range of world knowledge then available. 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 also studied foreign philosophy.
Huan Tsang or Xuanzang, the Chinese traveler had visited the university in its heyday. In his account, he writes that Nalanda had eight separate compounds and ten temples, along with many other meditation halls and classrooms. It was surrounded by parks and lakes.
The library was located in a nine storied building where meticulous copies of texts were produced. It attracted students from China, Tibet, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey.
When Huan Tsang 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 (according to historians the teachers would pose as gatekeepers), and many students would be rejected after failing the gate-test. To study or to have studied at Nalanda was a matter of great prestige.
However, no degree was granted nor was a specific period of study required. Time was measured by a water clock.
There were schools of study in which students received explanations by discourse. 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. The libraries were vast and widely renowned, although there is also a legend of a malicious fire in which many of the texts were destroyed and irrevocably lost.
During the Gupta age, the practice and study of the Mahayana, especially the madhyamika, 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. Naropa, later so important to the tantric lineages of the Tibetan traditions, too was abbot of Nalanda in the years 1049-57.
Much of the tradition of Nalanda had been carried into Tibet by the time of the Muslim invasions of the 12th 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 invaders.
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.
A large number of ancient Buddhist establishments, stupas, chaityas, temples and monastery sites have been excavated and they show that this was one of the most important Buddhist centres of worship and culture.
Regarding the historicity of Nalanda, we read in Jaina texts that Mahavira Vardhamana spent as many as fourteen rainy seasons in Nalanda.
Most of the vajrayayana teachings stems from Nalanda. The scholar Dharmakirti (circa 7th century), one of the Buddhist founders of Indian Philosophical logic and primary theorist of Buddhist atomism, taught here.
Guru Padmasambhava (called Guru Rinpoche by the Tibetan school of Buddhists) who is widely worshipped as second Buddha in the Himalaya, was a teacher at Nalanda. Other forms of Buddhism, like the Mahayana followed in Vietnam, China, Korea and Japan, found their genesis within the walls of the ancient university.
Theravada Buddhism (popular in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Mayanmar) was taught at Nalanda University. But the teachings of Theravada were not developed further in Nalanda, as Nalanda was not a strong center of Theravada.
Due to the disappearance of Buddhism from India during the 12th century, the university was in decline. In 1193, the Nalanda University suffered a final blow after the complex was sacked by Muslim invaders under Bakhtiyar Khilji; this event is seen as a milestone in the decline of Buddhism in India.
When the Tibetan translator Chag Lotsawa visited Nalanda in 1235, he found it damaged and looted, but still functioning with a small number of monks.
Another historian blames the destruction of the temples, monasteries, centers of learning at Nalanda and northern India for the demise of ancient Indian scientific thought in mathematics, astronomy, alchemy, and anatomy. Ling and Scott (historians) however, point out that centres of learning were already declining, before the presence of Muslims.
Nalanda is being revived
a.. On December 9, 2006, the New York Times detailed a plan in the works to spend $1 billion to revive Nalanda University near the ancient site. A consortium led by Singapore and including China, India, Japan and other nations will attempt to raise $500 million to build a new university and another $500 million to develop necessary infrastructure.
b.. On June 12, 2007, News Post India reported that the Japanese diplomat Noro Motoyasu said that “Japan will fund the setting up an international university in Nalanda in Bihar”.
The report goes on to say that “The proposed university will be fully residential, like the ancient seat of learning at Nalanda. In the first phase of the project, seven schools with 46 foreign faculty members and over 400 Indian academics would come up.” ... “The university will impart courses in science, philosophy and spiritualism along with other subjects. A renowned international scholar will be its chancellor.” c.. On August 15, 2007, The Times of India reported that Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (Ex-president of India) has accepted the offer to join the revived Nalanda International University. Latest Developments
To trace the location of the buried ancient structures of Nalanda, scientists from the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) have started conducting a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey.
According to the officials of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), a five-member team of scientists from the NRSA has begun a four-day GPR survey. This survey is being conducted for the first time in Bihar. It has proved beneficial across the world in exploration of archaeological structures.
The survey would be conducted on two mounds - Garhpar and Rukministhan - located in the vicinity of Nalanda town.
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