Nalanda Mahavihara - a World Heritage Site
by Pranava Kumar Chaudhary
It's a celebration time in Bihar. -UNESCO has declared Bihar's much
awaited ancient site - the ruins of Nalanda Mahavihara - a World
Heritage Site, barely 98 km away from Patna. With the inclusion of
Nalanda, this would be the second UNESCO Heritage Site after Mahabodhi
temple in Bodh Gaya. "Nalanda stands out as the most ancient university
of the Indian Subcontinent. It engaged in the organized transmission of
knowledge over an uninterrupted period of 800 years.
Buddhism
The historical development of the site testifies to the development
of Buddhism into a religion and the flourishing of monastic and
educational traditions," said UNESCO on its website.PMO India's official
Twitter account retweeted UNESCO's tweet, which said, "Just inscribed as
@UNESCO #WorldHeritage Site: Archaeological Site of Nalanda Mahavira at
Nalanda, Bihar #India".
Talking to TOI, superintending archaeologist of Patna Circle Pravin K
Mishra said, "It is a matter for pride for Bihar as well as the nation".
The ancient Nalanda University was a major Mahavihara or a large
Buddhist monastery that also doubled up as an important centre of
learning from the 5th to 1200 AD in the erstwhile kingdom of Magadh.
Earlier, there was a doubt whether Nalanda would be declared a heritage
site by UNESCO as allegedly there were several flaws in the submitted
dossier.The principal secretary to the Bihar CM, Chanchal Kumar, had
also visited Paris before its finalisation. "There were some technical
flaws which were sorted out in the meeting before the UNSECO team. Now I
am extremely happy to know the inclusion of the ruins of Nalanda
Mahavihara in the UNESCO list. It is a matter of pride for all of us,"
Chanchal told TOI over phone. Chanchal has been consistently been
closely following the development of Nalanda affairs. Noted economist
and member secretary of the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI)
Shaibal Gupta said: "It's a celebration time for Bihar. This UNESCO
declaration has been overdue. It will be a boost to the development of
the new Nalanda University as well." This ruins of this ancient
university has been finally successful in getting an international
recognition it always deserved, Gupta said.
Last year, the ruins of Nalanda university was inspected by an expert
team from the Paris-based International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS),
which also held talks with senior Bihar government officials in
pursuance of the bid to get a UNESCO World Heritage tag for the ancient
site.
The Ministry of Culture through the ASI had sent an over
'200-page-long' nomination dossier on January last year and officials
and staff at ASI's Patna Circle were upbeat about the team's visit.
The inspection of Nalanda ruins (spread over in 12 hectares) was made
by Japanese expert Masaya Matsui on a positive note with expectations of
inclusion of the ancient seat of learning in the World Heritage list.
Oldest
The ancient seat of learning, one of the world's oldest universities
construction of which began in 5th century AD, flourished under the
Gupta rulers. It came to an end in the 12th century when it was
destroyed in 1193 AD by the invading Turkish army led by its commander
Bakhtiar Khilji.
The inspection of Nalanda ruins
- Times of India
|