Nalanda – Bihar
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Nalanda is situated in the state of Bihar. Founded in the 5th century AD, it lies at a distance of approximately 90 km from the capital city of Patna. Nalanda had the honor of being visited by Lord Buddha a number of times, in His lifetime. Even Hieun Tsang, the famous Chinese Traveler, stayed in this village for approximately 12 years, in the 7th century AD. Nalanda came to be recognized as a famous center of Buddhist learning in India, only between 5th century and 12th century.
The university of Nalanda, apart from being the largest and oldest university of ancient time, was also first residential international university of the world. Around 2,000 teachers and 10,000 students, from all over the Buddhist world, stayed at this university. Emperor Ashoka and Harshavardhana got a number of temples, monasteries and viharas built here. Some time back, in 1951, an International Center for Buddhist Studies was set up at this place.
In pre-Buddhist India, education had two basic features. Firstly, it was restricted to the upper strata of society and secondly it was essentially based on an individual teacher with his small group of pupils, i.e., the Gurugriha (The Teacher’s House) system. The Buddhists revolutionized both these concepts. They made the learning open to all and also introduced the system of organized schools in the monasteries. These monastic institutions later gave birth to well-known Buddhist Universities. Of all the Buddhist Universities, Nalanda was the first and the grandest University in India. The glory of Nalanda faded away in A.D. 12th century but its legacy lives.
Though Asoka the Great had built a monastery at Nalanda in the third century B.C. yet it emerged as a University much later. While Nagarjuna’s name is associated with the Nalanda University since its start in A.D. second century, Arya Deva, it seems, gave it a definite shape in A.D. 4th century.
Under the Guptas and the later monarchs of magadha, Nalanda, as an educational centre, attained to a magnificent status. The earliest evidence of the history of the revival of Nalanda belonged to the reign of Kumaragupta I. In A.D. 5th century Narasimha Gupta of the Gupta Dynasty built a brick temple more than 300ft. high at Nalanda which was remarkable for the delicacy of its decoration. By the seventh century, when Hiuen-Tsang came, Nalanda University was in a flourishing state.
The Nalanda University became famous on account of its galaxy of well-versed professors and the high standard of teaching. The Nalanda University counted on its staff such great thinkers as Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, Vasubandhu, Asanga, Sthirmati Dharmapala, Santideva, Santideva, Padmasabhava. Being a post-graduate institution, here only advanced students were admitted, those seeking admission being required to satify the test prescribed by the ‘Dwar Pandit.’ I.e., the gatekeeper of the Board of Admission. Hiuen-Tsang records that "the entrance examination was severe and only about two three out of every ten applicants succeeded in passing it." Hiuen-Tsang himself spent many years at the Nalanda University. He took the degree of the Master of Law there and finaly became Vice-Principal of the University.
With endowments from successive monarchs, the Nalanda University became a site of imposing buildings. There were said to be eight colleges, built by different patrons including the one by the king of Srivijaya (Sumatra), who had diplomatic relations with the king of pala dynasty of Bihar and Bengal. Hiuen-Tsang, states: "The whole establishment is surrounded by a brick wall. One gate opens into the great college from which are separated eight other halls standing in the middle. The richly adorned towers and fairy-like turrets like pointed hill-tops are congregated together..." Another Chinese scholar-pilgrim, It-Sing, who visited the place a few years after Hiuen-Tsang, mentions "300 big rooms and eight halls." Besides these teaching and meeting hallsand rooms, "a whole area of the campus (of Nalanda) was, according to the Tibetan writers, set apart for the libraries and the area in which the University with its grand library was located was called harmaganja or Piety Mart. It consisted of three grand buildings called Ratnadadhi, Ratnadadhi and Ratnaranjaka respectively. In the Ratnadadhi which was a nine-storeyed building, the sacred scripts were kept." There were on the campus, besides the great structures, ponds with lotuses, well devised footpaths, extensive pleasant lawns, mango groves and lovely flower beds, Moreover, there were innumerable shrines embellished with a wealth of sculptural art.
At the time of Hiuen-Tsang’s visit, there were some ten thousand students from Tibet, Chinna, Mongolia, Turkestan and Korea, as well as from different parts of India and Greater India, in dact from the entire Buddhist world. Hiuen-Tsang says,"The Sangharamas of India are counted by myriads, but this is the most remarkable for grandeur and height. The priests, belonging to the convent, or strangers (residing therein) alwaya reach to the number of 10,000 who all study the Great Vehicle, and also (the works belonging to) the eighteen sects, and not only (the works belonging to) the eighteen sects, and not only so, but even ordinary works, such as the Vedas and other books, the Hetuvidya (logic), Sabdavidya (grammer), the Chikitsavidya (medicine), the Sankyha; besides these they thoroughly investigate the ‘miscellaneous’ works. The Priests, dwelling here, are as a body, naturally dignified and grave, so that during the 700 years the foundation of the establishment, there has been no single case of guilty rebellion against the rules."
The University of Nalanda, continued to grow anad remained the greatest seat of learning for over 700 years. Even in the 12th century, it had several thousand students from India and abroad.
How glorious the University was in its days of prosperity is well described in one of its own dedicatory inscription of the eighth century; "Nalanda has scholars well known for their knowkedge of sacred texts. It has a row of viharas the spires of which touch the clouds. That (the row of Viharas) seems to have been built by the Creator himself like a garland hanging up high. It has temples which are brilliant with the network of rays from various jewels set in them. It is the pleasant abode of a learned and virtuous Sangha and resembles-Sumeru, the charming residence of the noble Vidyadharas."
The fatal invasion by Bakhtiar Khilji destroyed the two sister-universities of Nalanda and vikramasila, towards the close of the 12th century. It seems the tough and thoughtless invader mistakenly took these universities to be important military centers, with thousands of head-shaven soldiers in library was set on fire. The soldiers used book as fuel for cooking. It took six months to burn. Even after such a big fire many books were left. Many sscholats fied with these books and thus many of them were saved." Many of these books reached Tibet and Nepal, wherefrom some are still available.
A Tibetan pilgrim popularly known as "Dharmaswami", who visited Nalanda in A.D. 1234 says, "Though he could not of ... The well-known erudite and the last abbot Rahul Shreebhadra (aged 90)" with only seventy followers left (others having left the place or been killed by the invader)" harmaswami took the old inform abbot on his shoulders.. . (to a place of safety, thus saving) his nist revered guruObviously, even after the massive destruction of the Nalanda University, it continued for some time more in a diminutive form. However, by mid-thirteenth century it was abandoned and it fell into ruins.
For centuries Nalanda lay in ruins unknown, unidentified. When Buchanan Hamilton visited the ruins at the village of Bargaon in 1811-1812 he found heaps of images in the ruins and thought that the a place of worship might have existed there. He was told by the villagers that "vast heaps of materials had for ages been removed to Behar and other neighbouring places for building." This process continued for more than 50 years after the cisit of Buchanan. Then came Sir Alexander Cunningham, the first Director General of Archaeology and the pioneer explorer of Buddhist heritate in India. On the basis of the accounts of the Chinese pilgrims, Huien-Tsang in particular, he identified the modern village of Bargaon with the historic Nalanda. He also discovered on the site two inscriptions in which "the place itself is called Nalanda." Cunningham published his findings in the "Ancient Geography of India," in 1871 and thus put Nalanda once again on the map.
Systematic excavation work at Nalanda was started by the Archaeological Survey of India in 1915: this "unearthed the wonderful monuments which have won the admiration of the whole world." The remains bear witness to thespacious grandeur of a by-gone age, when wealth and learning must have combined to maintain the great Institutions.
The Stupa site No.3 is a huge structure standing in the middle of a court on the south-western flank surrounded by a number of Stupas. To the north of this Stupa and in the same alignment are ruins of the temples erected directly over the ruins of earlier ones.
As says Dr. R.L. Soni: "At Nalanda are still discernible the glorious glimpses of the fascinating halo that once was of the atmosphere here. Every pebble, every stone or brick lying scattered, even every grain of dust, around the sacred precincts, has a vital story to tell of the legendary glory as the background of this place. This awakens our consciousness with a lightning throb in our heart, bringing to vivid awareness the human dignity, the intellectual brilliance, moral grandeur and spiritual radiance that once pervaded the entire scene of this mighty centre of learning."
Nalanda Museum dates back to the year 1971 and houses a rich collection of ancient manuscripts, Buddhist statues and items like coins, pottery, inscriptions of the Maurya and Gupta period.
Nearby Cities
Rajgir - Approximately 12 km
Bodh Gaya - Approximately 110 km
Gaya - Approximately 95 km
Patna - Approximately 90 km
The university of Nalanda, apart from being the largest and oldest university of ancient time, was also first residential international university of the world. Around 2,000 teachers and 10,000 students, from all over the Buddhist world, stayed at this university. Emperor Ashoka and Harshavardhana got a number of temples, monasteries and viharas built here. Some time back, in 1951, an International Center for Buddhist Studies was set up at this place.
In pre-Buddhist India, education had two basic features. Firstly, it was restricted to the upper strata of society and secondly it was essentially based on an individual teacher with his small group of pupils, i.e., the Gurugriha (The Teacher’s House) system. The Buddhists revolutionized both these concepts. They made the learning open to all and also introduced the system of organized schools in the monasteries. These monastic institutions later gave birth to well-known Buddhist Universities. Of all the Buddhist Universities, Nalanda was the first and the grandest University in India. The glory of Nalanda faded away in A.D. 12th century but its legacy lives.
History
Nalanda was in the Buddha’s time, a lovely resort of saints and ascetics. Lord Buddha visited Nalanda several times and delivered some important sermons. Moreover, Sariputta as well as Moggallana, the two chief disciples of the Buddha, were born somewhere near Nalanda. Sariputta also attained Parinirbbana in the house of his parents at Nalanda.Though Asoka the Great had built a monastery at Nalanda in the third century B.C. yet it emerged as a University much later. While Nagarjuna’s name is associated with the Nalanda University since its start in A.D. second century, Arya Deva, it seems, gave it a definite shape in A.D. 4th century.
Under the Guptas and the later monarchs of magadha, Nalanda, as an educational centre, attained to a magnificent status. The earliest evidence of the history of the revival of Nalanda belonged to the reign of Kumaragupta I. In A.D. 5th century Narasimha Gupta of the Gupta Dynasty built a brick temple more than 300ft. high at Nalanda which was remarkable for the delicacy of its decoration. By the seventh century, when Hiuen-Tsang came, Nalanda University was in a flourishing state.
The Nalanda University became famous on account of its galaxy of well-versed professors and the high standard of teaching. The Nalanda University counted on its staff such great thinkers as Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, Vasubandhu, Asanga, Sthirmati Dharmapala, Santideva, Santideva, Padmasabhava. Being a post-graduate institution, here only advanced students were admitted, those seeking admission being required to satify the test prescribed by the ‘Dwar Pandit.’ I.e., the gatekeeper of the Board of Admission. Hiuen-Tsang records that "the entrance examination was severe and only about two three out of every ten applicants succeeded in passing it." Hiuen-Tsang himself spent many years at the Nalanda University. He took the degree of the Master of Law there and finaly became Vice-Principal of the University.
With endowments from successive monarchs, the Nalanda University became a site of imposing buildings. There were said to be eight colleges, built by different patrons including the one by the king of Srivijaya (Sumatra), who had diplomatic relations with the king of pala dynasty of Bihar and Bengal. Hiuen-Tsang, states: "The whole establishment is surrounded by a brick wall. One gate opens into the great college from which are separated eight other halls standing in the middle. The richly adorned towers and fairy-like turrets like pointed hill-tops are congregated together..." Another Chinese scholar-pilgrim, It-Sing, who visited the place a few years after Hiuen-Tsang, mentions "300 big rooms and eight halls." Besides these teaching and meeting hallsand rooms, "a whole area of the campus (of Nalanda) was, according to the Tibetan writers, set apart for the libraries and the area in which the University with its grand library was located was called harmaganja or Piety Mart. It consisted of three grand buildings called Ratnadadhi, Ratnadadhi and Ratnaranjaka respectively. In the Ratnadadhi which was a nine-storeyed building, the sacred scripts were kept." There were on the campus, besides the great structures, ponds with lotuses, well devised footpaths, extensive pleasant lawns, mango groves and lovely flower beds, Moreover, there were innumerable shrines embellished with a wealth of sculptural art.
At the time of Hiuen-Tsang’s visit, there were some ten thousand students from Tibet, Chinna, Mongolia, Turkestan and Korea, as well as from different parts of India and Greater India, in dact from the entire Buddhist world. Hiuen-Tsang says,"The Sangharamas of India are counted by myriads, but this is the most remarkable for grandeur and height. The priests, belonging to the convent, or strangers (residing therein) alwaya reach to the number of 10,000 who all study the Great Vehicle, and also (the works belonging to) the eighteen sects, and not only (the works belonging to) the eighteen sects, and not only so, but even ordinary works, such as the Vedas and other books, the Hetuvidya (logic), Sabdavidya (grammer), the Chikitsavidya (medicine), the Sankyha; besides these they thoroughly investigate the ‘miscellaneous’ works. The Priests, dwelling here, are as a body, naturally dignified and grave, so that during the 700 years the foundation of the establishment, there has been no single case of guilty rebellion against the rules."
The University of Nalanda, continued to grow anad remained the greatest seat of learning for over 700 years. Even in the 12th century, it had several thousand students from India and abroad.
How glorious the University was in its days of prosperity is well described in one of its own dedicatory inscription of the eighth century; "Nalanda has scholars well known for their knowkedge of sacred texts. It has a row of viharas the spires of which touch the clouds. That (the row of Viharas) seems to have been built by the Creator himself like a garland hanging up high. It has temples which are brilliant with the network of rays from various jewels set in them. It is the pleasant abode of a learned and virtuous Sangha and resembles-Sumeru, the charming residence of the noble Vidyadharas."
The fatal invasion by Bakhtiar Khilji destroyed the two sister-universities of Nalanda and vikramasila, towards the close of the 12th century. It seems the tough and thoughtless invader mistakenly took these universities to be important military centers, with thousands of head-shaven soldiers in library was set on fire. The soldiers used book as fuel for cooking. It took six months to burn. Even after such a big fire many books were left. Many sscholats fied with these books and thus many of them were saved." Many of these books reached Tibet and Nepal, wherefrom some are still available.
A Tibetan pilgrim popularly known as "Dharmaswami", who visited Nalanda in A.D. 1234 says, "Though he could not of ... The well-known erudite and the last abbot Rahul Shreebhadra (aged 90)" with only seventy followers left (others having left the place or been killed by the invader)" harmaswami took the old inform abbot on his shoulders.. . (to a place of safety, thus saving) his nist revered guruObviously, even after the massive destruction of the Nalanda University, it continued for some time more in a diminutive form. However, by mid-thirteenth century it was abandoned and it fell into ruins.
For centuries Nalanda lay in ruins unknown, unidentified. When Buchanan Hamilton visited the ruins at the village of Bargaon in 1811-1812 he found heaps of images in the ruins and thought that the a place of worship might have existed there. He was told by the villagers that "vast heaps of materials had for ages been removed to Behar and other neighbouring places for building." This process continued for more than 50 years after the cisit of Buchanan. Then came Sir Alexander Cunningham, the first Director General of Archaeology and the pioneer explorer of Buddhist heritate in India. On the basis of the accounts of the Chinese pilgrims, Huien-Tsang in particular, he identified the modern village of Bargaon with the historic Nalanda. He also discovered on the site two inscriptions in which "the place itself is called Nalanda." Cunningham published his findings in the "Ancient Geography of India," in 1871 and thus put Nalanda once again on the map.
Systematic excavation work at Nalanda was started by the Archaeological Survey of India in 1915: this "unearthed the wonderful monuments which have won the admiration of the whole world." The remains bear witness to thespacious grandeur of a by-gone age, when wealth and learning must have combined to maintain the great Institutions.
Tourist Attractions in Nalanda
The ruins of Nalanda, only 12 km.from Rajgir, extend over a vast area. Lengthwise they extend from south to north, with the monasteries on the eastern flank and the temples of the western. The monasteries were all built in more or less the same plan in each case, with rows of cells preceded by a corridor round a central courtyard and shrine at the back wall, just opposite the entrance.The Stupa site No.3 is a huge structure standing in the middle of a court on the south-western flank surrounded by a number of Stupas. To the north of this Stupa and in the same alignment are ruins of the temples erected directly over the ruins of earlier ones.
As says Dr. R.L. Soni: "At Nalanda are still discernible the glorious glimpses of the fascinating halo that once was of the atmosphere here. Every pebble, every stone or brick lying scattered, even every grain of dust, around the sacred precincts, has a vital story to tell of the legendary glory as the background of this place. This awakens our consciousness with a lightning throb in our heart, bringing to vivid awareness the human dignity, the intellectual brilliance, moral grandeur and spiritual radiance that once pervaded the entire scene of this mighty centre of learning."
Nalanda University
The university of Nalanda counts amongst the oldest Universities of the world. It was founded in the 5th century BC. Spread over an area of 14 hectares, it comprises of numerous temples and monasteries. There is a small chapel in the university, which still retains a half broken statue of Lord Buddha.Surya Mandir
Surya Mandir, dedicated to the Surya (the Sun God) is adorned with many idols, of both Hindu as well as Buddhist deities.Nalanda Museum
The antiquities discovered from the vast ruins are preserved in the Archaeological Museum at Nalanda. Among other things it is interesting observe the ancient seals of the Nalanda Mahavighara, specimens of burnt rice (9th and 10th centuries), bronze images of the Buddha, some with umbrella overhead, images of the Mahayana and Hindu deities and of the ten incarnations of VishnuNalanda Museum dates back to the year 1971 and houses a rich collection of ancient manuscripts, Buddhist statues and items like coins, pottery, inscriptions of the Maurya and Gupta period.
Hieun Tsang Memorial Hall
This Memorial Hall is dedicated to Hieun Tsang, a Chinese traveler who stayed in Nalanda for 12 years.How to Reach
NalandaBy Air
The nearest airport of Patna is around 90 km from the village and is well linked with Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, etc.<By Rail
The railway station of Bakhtiyarpur, 38 km away, is the nearest to Nalanda. One can also go to the Gaya railway station, approximately 65 km away.<By Road
There is a good road network connecting Nalanda with Patna, Gaya, Delhi, Kolkata, etc.Nearby Cities