Nalanda Mahavira or the Nalanda University was widely known around the world as one of the oldest and the biggest international universities to have ever existed in this world.
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History of Nalanda University
It has survived repeated invasions from the invaders. However, the last invasion or the third one proves to be very fatal for the survival of this university that there was nothing left for it to restore anymore. Nalanda is at the present-day Bihar with the word Nalanda being derived from the Sanskrit term Na, Alam, and Da which means the unstoppable flow of knowledge.
This prestigious educational institution was flourishing during the 5th century. According to the well-known Chinese traveler Hieun Tsang in the 7th century, he regarded Kumaragupta – I of the Gupta Dynasty as the founder of the university with over 10,000 students who were predominantly Buddhist Bhikshus and over 1510 teachers.
The students were from all over the world like Persia, Korea, China, Japan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Turkey studying varied courses ranging from Buddhism, astronomy, Upanishads, mathematics, philosophy, astronomy, grammar, medicine, etc. It was said that the original manuscripts of the Upanishads were found in the Nalanda famous library. The great scholars like Nagarjuna, Padmasambhava, Vasubandhu, Harshvardhana, Dharmapal use to study in this renowned educational institution and the popular mathematician Aryabhatta happens to be the head of the institution once.
The students were given free education, but to get access to the university as a student, the student has to undergo rigorous testing before getting enrolled into the university. All the expenses of the university were borne out by the kings who were very favorable to the flourishing of Buddhist ideologies at that time.
Nalanda University – Invasion by Hunas
Nalanda was invaded first in 457- 467 AD by the “Hunas” under the leadership of Mihirkula during the reign of king Samudragupta of the Gupta dynasty. Hunas were the central Asia tribe that entered India through the Khyber Pass. Despite their savagery attack on this educational institution, the fame and the glory of the Nalanda were restored and rebuilt by the successor of King Sumudragupta. They not only restored but expanded to a huge scale thereby boosting the already flourishing Buddhism in India.
Nalanda University – Invasion by Gaudas Rauvansh
In the 7th century, Gaudas Rauvansh of the Gauda dynasty in Bengal was well known in much spiritual text as an oppressor of Buddhism. Known popularly as Shashanka at one time was known to have cut the Bodhi tree under which Lord Buddha had attained enlightenment. Despite Shashanka’s attempt to annihilate the Nalanda Mahavira completely, King Harshavardhana of the Vardhana dynasty restored the richness of the Nalanda tradition in the 7th century. King Harsha even invited the well-known Chinese traveler monk Hieun Tsang who happens to be traveling in the present-day Assam in search of Buddhist wisdom.
Who destoryed Nalanda University ?
The last and the most fatal attack on Nalanda Mahavira in 1193 were seen by most scholars as to the late milestone in the decline of Buddhism in India. The attack was done in such a savagery manner that there is nothing left for it to restore.
The story goes on like this Ikhtiyār al-Dīn Muḥammad Bakhtiyār Khiljī, also known as Bakhtiyar Khilji, was a Turko-Afghan military general. Once on an expedition to conquer the northern areas, he felt very sick. Despite consulting the Hakims and other Princes with their medicines, his condition never improved.
He was suggested to get treatment from the Nalanda principal Rahul Sri Bhadra who was very popular then. But Bhaktiyar Khilji ignored the suggestions as he never acknowledged the advancement of Buddhism over Islam. However, his condition never improved and he was in a desperate moribund situation. Seeing his vulnerable situation, he thought there is no harm in consulting.
He annoyingly put a condition in which he will not take any medicine prescribed by Rahul Sri Bhadra, but he wanted to see improvement in his health. This way, in doing that, he wanted to insult him thereby humiliating the Buddhist tradition in curing the diseases. Rahul Sri Bhadra assured that his condition will improve on the condition that he has to read the pages of the Quran regularly during the morning, noon and evening which he gladly obliged.
Now Bhaktiyar Khilji while reading use to flip the pages of the Quran by moistening his forefinger with his saliva repeatedly. His condition improved and he was as expected surprised to see the sudden improvement in his health.
When he asked Rahul Sri Bhadra about his improving condition, he was shocked to know that the Buddhist Bhikshus had applied for the medicines on the area of the pages where his moist finger touches very sporadically. Sensing the creativity and the knowledge of the Buddhist Bhikshus, he was filled with jealousy, insecurity that he pledged to destroy the source of the knowledge of the non-Muslims.
B. R. Ambedkar, “The decline and fall of Buddhism”
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches, Vol. III, Government of Maharashtra. 1987, p. 232-233, quoting Vincent Smith.
The Mussalman invaders sacked the Buddhist universities of Nalanda, Vikramshila, Jagaddala, Odantapuri to name only a few. They razed to the ground Buddhist monasteries with which the country was studded. The monks fled away in thousands to Nepal, Tibet and other places outside India. A very large number were killed outright by the Muslim commanders.
How the Buddhist priesthood perished by the sword of the Muslim invaders has been recorded by the Muslim historians themselves. Summarizing the evidence relating to the slaughter of the Buddhist Monks perpetrated by the Musalman General in the course of his invasion of Bihar in 1197 AD, Mr. Vincent Smith says, “
The Musalman General, who had already made his name a terror by repeated plundering expeditions in Bihar, seized the capital by a daring stroke… Great quantities of plunder were obtained, and the slaughter of the ‘shaven headed Brahmans’, that is to say the Buddhist monks, was so thoroughly completed, that when the victor sought for someone capable of explaining the contents of the books in the libraries of the monasteries, not a living man could be found who was able to read them. ‘
It was discovered,’ we are told, ‘that the whole of that fortress and city was a college, and in the Hindi tongue they call a college Bihar.’ “Such was the slaughter of the Buddhist priesthood perpetrated by the Islamic invaders. The axe was struck at the very root. For by killing the Buddhist priesthood, Islam killed Buddhism. This was the greatest disaster that befell the religion of the Buddha in India….
In 1193, he set upon his savagery acts by burning Bhikshus alive and destroying the very source of knowledge “The Dharma Ganj” the famous library of the Nalanda. It was a three multi-storied building, Ratnasagar, Ratnodhadhi, and Ratnarajanka which has around 90 lakh books which has the presence of immense knowledge which could open many mysteries of the present days. Unfortunately, he set fire to the whole Nalanda university and the library that according to the contemporary writer, Minhaj Siraj in his book “Tabaqat- I –Nasiri” “ It took three months for Nalanda to burn”.
Besides killing many Buddhist Bhikshus, Bhaktiyar Khilji not only destroyed a university, but he destroyed a tradition that was an invaluable asset in the present day scenario of the scarcity of knowledge. In the 12th century, due to the insecurity of one person, the world lost an invaluable treasure of knowledge.
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