Nalanda: Ruins that stand for glory of Buddhism

Nalanda: Ruins that stand for glory of Buddhism

Dr. Jagadindra Raychoudhury

If I had not visited Rajgir then it would have been not possible for me to stare at the ruins of Nalanda University through my own lens.

Rajgir is located in a verdant valley surrounded by rocky hills. The meandering river Banganga and five hills ensconce picturesque Rajgir, ancient Rajgriha (literally abode of kings).

Presently, it is the Indian state of Bihar about 80 k.m. south-east of the capital Patna. Rajgir is famous for rock-cut caves, forts, Buddhist ruins, Hindu and Jain temples and Muslim tomb.

The name Rajgir was mentioned in several occasion in the Ramayana and Mahabharata epic. Rajagriha was an important centre of Buddhism.

Like many others in search of truth, Prince Siddhartha (Buddha), after he renounced his royal heritage came to this city to seek the path of salvation. Buddha made several visits to this town and stayed here for a considerable time to propagate his doctrine. He always admired the city and its environments.

Bimbisara was a great admirer of Buddha and his creed. But at his old age he was imprisoned and killed by his son Ajatasatru, who however, later on submitted to Buddha and became a convert to his creed. The place of Rajgir was not only favorite for Buddha but equally revered by the Jains.

Mahavira, out of his 32 years of his missionary life, passed 14 rainy seasons in Rajgir and Nalanda. Rajgir was a famous place from where both Buddhism and Jainism flourished into nooks and corner of the Bharata and beyond.

            Bhagawan Buddha was born in Lumbini city of Nepal and in search of his inherent quest he travelled a lot and reached Gaya district and sat under the Bodhi tree ( a papal tree) and attained enlightenment. Gautam Buddha achieved enlightenment and salvation at Bodh Gaya and his teaching spread over slowly and touched Nalanda .

Nalanda became a centre of Buddhism in due course of time and turned into a hub of religious as well as moral teaching which really attracted the people in and around that area. Nalanda became an ancient seat of learning and founded in the 5^th century A.D. Regarded as the world’s most ancient University now lay in ruins which is 62 kms from Bodhgaya and 90 kms south of Patna.

Emperor Ashoka built many monasteries, temples and viharas here. Buddha visited several times during his life time to this famous centre of Buddhism. We are aware of the fact that emperor Ashoka was the pioneer of establishing Nalanda and Nalanda Buddha vihar turned into a centre for teaching of many sastras and became famous across the world. Though Nalanda became an educational hub but due to lacking of its mere publicity it was not known to all.

It was Hiuen Tsang a traveller, came from China and stayed there and wrote about the Nalanda University. Another Chinese traveller Fa-Hien came earlier than Hiuen Tsang in 5^th century and according to him there was no monastery at Nalanda. There was only Sariputa chait. Further, he had reported that there was ‘Nalo’gram. It is therefore reasonable to hold the Nala, Nalaka, Nalogram and Nalanda are all the variant names of the same place.

A statement of Buddha lama Taranatha, Nalanda was a famous centre of Buddhisim since the time of Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna was a Hinayan and Mahayan philosopher and also chief priest at Nalanda. It was stated that Aryadeva was a philosopher of Yo-ga-chara during 5^th century and spent twelve years and succeeded by his brother Vaubandhu, as the chief priest of Nalanda.

Monasteries of Nalanda were the creation of Gupta emperors, Kumar Gupta who was regarded as founder of monasteries and reigned continuously for 43 years. Actually the Gupta kings patronized these monasteries, built in old kushan architectural style, in a row of cells around a courtyard. During his reign Chinese traveller Fa-hein left India.

According to Hiuen-Tsang altogether six monasteries were there and one was fallen that one repaired by Kumar Gupta which still stand today also. The food for forty monks was supplied by the king regularly. There was an astrologer during that time who forecasted that the monastery would be of word of fame and remain for a period of thousand years as an educational centre. Later on, Kumargupta’s son erected another monastery.

            According to Hiuen-Tsang, besides six numbers of monasteries it was a centre of educational hub in which on the top floor there was a science laboratory. In this laboratory forecasting of wind and rain could be detected easily. Hostel of the University was four storied building which is completely separated from the monasteries.

Hostel complex were separated with a provision of thirty rooms where single boarder had a single room and outside of it a well was situated for all thirty students. The walls of the hostel rooms were very much thick for which rooms were comfortable in all the seasons. Like monasteries, the hostels were also in a single line.

In this, first residential international University of the world, 2000 teachers and 10,000 students from all over the Buddhist world lived and studied there. The boarders studied at a free of cost and the expenditure was borrowed by more than two hundred villages bestowed by the emperor.

Hiuen-Tsang also noted that that the curriculum, scriptures of the Hinayana and Mahayana philosophy, Hetu-Vidya (Logic), Sabda-vidya( Grammer), Chikitsa-vidya (medicine) as well as Vedas were included in it.

The priests were in high quality and talented also. Shilabhadra was the chief priest scholar in excellence along with other priests like Dharmapal, Chandrapal, Gunmati, Jaychandra, Shighra-buddha etc. were all present in Nalanda University. Besides teaching of grammer and pali language it was known as a centre of tantric upasana. Buddhism God and Goddess were worshiped here.

            Taranath stated that the great Maurya emperor Ashoka was the great worshiper of sariputa chait (temple) at Nalanda. The full development of the University took place during the Gupta dynasty in the 5 century. Before this, it was a simple vidyapith which was stated by Hiuen-Tsang. From the recovered articles of the ruins, it appears that the architecture of Nalanda was a magnificent one. The brick which was used in the walls seemed to be thin mud-mortar had been applied with well dressed.

            During the Harshavardhana reign Nalanda was on full bloom. The revenue of 100 villages was provided for the monks who resided in the university. It was stated that during the kingdom ceremony one thousand monks participated in kannauj. Hiuen-Tsang visited India during the reign of Harshavardhana. When Chinese traveller Hiuen-Tsang was in Nalanda, he visited kamrupa on request of the king Kumar Bhaskar Barman and stayed for some time and finally he was accompanied by Bhaskar Barman to the capital of Harshavardhana.

            The reign of Pal-dynasty was full groom during 783 to 1180 and in the state of affairs another university was established in Bhagalpur in the name of Vikramshila. The course curriculum of this university was based on Nalanda University and the initiative of this university was taken by king Dharmapal, because he felt that the quality of Nalanda University was deteriorating slowly and steadily.

According to the statement of archaeologist, D.R. Patil the detoriation of Nalanda occurred due to attack of Pathans and flourishing of Tantra-vidya. The second and most important one was that the help of the dynasty completely stopped. As a result, the entire administrative system of Nalanda was in the verse of collapse but still exist .

On the other hand the Hindu philosopher, Kumarila Bhatta and Shankaracharya who were popularizing the Hindu religion once again and as result the strength of Buddhisim became came down. But the main destruction and devastation took place under the invasion of Turkey as well as Afghan warrior Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji.

His main intention was to diminish the Buddhisim and collection of worth which were deposited in the university premises. Khalji set ablaze the main library and killed not only acharyas but also a good number of students. The entire structure of the University was completely destroyed by his forces.

The destruction took place in 12 centuary. Another invasion took place in 1235, at that time only two monasteries remained and only 70 Buddhist priests were present. It was mentioned that in thirteen century the status of Nalanda University was completely abolished.

            The glory of Nalanda University would have remained in darkness unless and until the first European account of the village Bargaon the ruins of Nalanda University was given by Francis  Buchanan-Hamilton who visited the place for the first time in quarters of nineteen century. He found there some Brahmanical and Buddhist images.

Later on, Sir Alexander Cumingham, who was an Indian archeological high official, identified the exact location of Nalanda University with documental evidence. He asserted it with some documents of Chinese traveller and idols of various images. After a few years another British man, Alexander Meyrick Broadley carried out some unsystematic excavation in Charita site 12 and also published a monograph on that place.

It was in the year from 1915 to 1937, the archeological survey of India excavated the site under the direction and supervision of Sir John Marshall, the then Director General of archeological department. That was followed by another excavation from 1974 to 1982 under the supervision of Sri Birendra Nath Srivastva, Deputy Director of the same department.

All these excavations were very much scientific and were displayed in the entrance of the University and on the way to the entrance there were a good number of photographs where the Indian labours were busy in excavation works.

            Nalanda was initially a centre of Buddha teaching and when it flourished, in due course of time turned into a University where many students came across from various countries outside of India and studied there free of cost. The entry of the students to the campus was very tough because students had to face initially the guard who asked them a lot of questions.

When the guard would be satisfied with their answers then only he allows them to enter the University premises. The University was running smoothly because entire cost was borrowed from the villagers under the strict direction of various emperors who ruled the country from time to time. It was Bakhtiyar Khalji, who not only damaged the entire campus of the University but also destroyed it completely.

It became a history as time flew off but during the British period the ruins of the University were excavated scientifically and it was reestablished as a heritage site of India. At present a New International Nalanda University is also been established under the direction of present government which is a few k.m. away from the ruins of original one.

Dr. Jagadindra Raychoudhury, Guwahati-781038, Email : jagadindrar705@gmail.com

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