India's Nalanda University, a great seat of learning

by Premadasa Epasinghe

On my recent visit to India, I saw the world famous ruins of the University of Nalanda, in the vicinity of Badagaon, in Bihar State, in South East Patna, the capital city. In ancient times, it was known as Pataliputra.

Nalanda was the ancient symbol for the passion of propagating knowledge and understanding. The amazing complex of the ancient great seat of learning in India was the largest Buddhist University of Asia. It was founded in the 5th century AD. According to the records the staff consisted of about 2,000 teachers, tutors, assistant lecturers, lecturers, professors, deans, Registrars, bursars and marshalls.

The Head was the Vice-Chancellor. Probably, the reigning king would have been the Chancellor, who graced the annual convocation. There were about 10,000 undergraduates from all over the Buddhist world. Nalanda was the first residential international university of the world.

Ruthless conqueror

The University of Nalanda flourished from the 5th to the 12th century. According to the learned Prof. Amartyn Sen the 1998 Nobel Prize winner in Economics and Bharat Ratna in 1999, Nalanda was destroyed in an Afghan attack led by the ruthless conqueror Nhaktiyar Khiliji in 1193, shortly after the University of Oxford and before the initiation of the University of Cambridge.

The University of Nalanda was more than 600 years old, when Bologna was born. The city of Bologna, was at the root of Apennines, North Central Italy; capital of Emilia-Romagna Province. If the University of Nalanda survived to date it would be the oldest university in the world today.

Nalanda was an ancient seat of learning. It attracted students from many countries, particularly, China, Tibet, Japan and Korea. There was a student population of over 10,000 studying various subjects. Some brilliant Chinese students such as Xuangzang and Yi Jins who studied during the 7th century wrote about the standard of the great educational centre Nalanda. When tracing the history of ancient China, Nalanda University is the only non-Chinese institution where Chinese scholars studied.

The other two Indian universities at that time were Vickramashila and Odantapuri. But Nalanda, possessed a prestigious culture and tradition.

Faculties

At Nalanda, there were faculties related to arts, science, languages, medicine, architecture, engineering, management, fine arts, languages, mathematics and astrology.

The Nalanda University library was supposed to be the best in the world. It contained very rare books. The Muslim invaders killed about 12,000 Bhikkhus and many lay students. They also burned the library.

The history of the Nalanda University goes down to the period of the Buddha. The Mango grove was situated in close proximity to Nalanda. One of the chief disciples, Sariputta was born at Nalakagama in Nalanda.

Tracing the ancient history prior to the establishment of the University of Nalanda, a monastery named Nalanda was built in the 2nd century AD by the King of Magadha. The travellers who visited Nalanda in the 7th century AD mention that successive kings constructed the buildings of Nalanda University which came into prominence during the Guptha period in the 5th century. 'Nalanda' was one of the epithets meaning "Insatiable in giving" or greedy in giving.

The great Mahayana philosopher Nagarjuna, Dinnaga, the founder of the school of logic, Dharmapala, the Brahamin scholar, taught at the University of Nalanda. Hiuen Tsiang who stayed at Nalanda has also given a detailed description of the University of Nalanda.

The Buddha delivered discourses Upali Sutta (Majjima Nikaya) and Kevadha Sutta (Digha Nikaya) at the Nalanda village. Some of the other great seats of learning include Al-Azher University (Cairo) established in 970 Ad, Bologna University (Italy) founded in 1088, Paris University (France) - founded in 1091, Oxford University (England) - founded in 1167 and Cambridge University (England) - founded in 1209.