INTEGRATED BBA-MBA PROGRAM (2021-26)

TERM-1

Archeological site of India

Individual Assignment-I
Nalanda University

Submitted to: prof. Rashmi Panda

Submitted on

15th November 2021

Submitted by:

Roll No. Name

217311 Arjav Patel

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 Table of contents

UNDERTAKING 3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 4
INTRODUCTION 6
Foundation and establishment 7
Description of Nalanda 8
Post-Gupta dynasty 9
International Visitors 10
Pala Dynasty 11
Invasion of Nalanda 12
the library 14
plans of revival 16
conclusion 18
references 19

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 UNDERTAKING
I, hereby confirm that to my knowledge, this assignment is the
outcome of my independent research and is my original work. Any
overlapping of phrases or sentences is purely coincidental, and I do
not intend to misuse it. The information is purely used for
educational purposes.

ARJAV PATEL

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This fills me with immense pleasure in bringing out this report of the project
related to the exploration of Nalanda mahavihar and the importance of its
library. I also get to know about the interesting story of khijli and the reason
behind Nalanda’s destruction

I would like to thank Prof. Rashmi Panda, who gave me this golden
opportunity to work, research, and write on this interesting topic, and gave me
her valuable suggestions and ideas during this project. I am thankful to my
family and friends who encouraged me during this project and helped me with
the needful.

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 The only
international
university in
the world in
5th century
arjav patel

Nalanda Mahavihara

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INTRODUCTION

( source: the mysterious India )

In ancient Magadha (Bihar), India, there was a renowned Buddhist
monastery and university called Nalanda. It operated from around
427 to 1197 CE near Rajagriha and around 90 kilometers
southeast of Pataliputra (now Patna). During the Gupta Empire,
Nalanda was founded with the help of many Indian and a few
Javanese benefactors, both Buddhists, and non-Buddhists. Its
faculty featured some of Mahayana Buddhism's most illustrious
scholars throughout 750 years. The Hindu Vedas and its six
philosophies, as well as grammar, medicine, logic, and
mathematics, were taught at Nalanda Mahavihara, as were six
important Buddhist schools and philosophies such as Yogacara
and Sarvastivada.

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Foundation and establishment

( This is a photo of ASI monument number N-BR-43 ).

• Nalanda was founded by the Gupta emperors in the early 5th-century

which was supported by The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang. According to
scholars Kumaragupta I founded the monastery and He was a member of
the Gupta dynasty.
• Budhagupta, Tathagatagupta, Baladitya, and Vajra, are successors who
further expanded monasteries and temples to enlarge and grow the
institution. During the Gupta dynasty, Nalanda prospered throughout the
fifth and sixth centuries. Numerous Buddhist and Hindu seals, artwork,
iconography, and inscriptions discovered in Nalanda are in Gupta-style
and belong to Gupta-era, demonstrating these Gupta dynasties ’
contributions to the city. The Gupta rulers were not Nalanda's sole
benefactors many other varied groups of supporters from various
religious backgrounds were there.

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Description of Nalanda University

Map of Nalanda by Alexander Cunningham, 1861-62

• Nalanda was the first-ever international residential

institution in the world, with student dorms.
According to historical evidence, the University of
Nalanda was founded in 450 C.E. by Gupta rulers,
particularly Kumaragupta I. It had housed over
10,000 students and 2,000 professors in its prime. A
towering wall and one gate designated the institution,
which was considered an architectural masterpiece.
There were eight different complexes and ten
temples in Nalanda, as well as several meditation
halls and classrooms. There were lakes and parks on
the property. The library was housed in a nine-story
structure that created careful copies of manuscripts.
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Post-Gupta dynasty (550 CE - 600 CE)

• Harshavardhana was the most renowned patron of the Nalanda

Mahavihara after the Guptas fell out of favor. He was a 7th-century
monarch who ruled over Kannauj. Harsha was a third-generation Hindu
king from the Vaishya caste. He constructed grand Buddhist viharas as
well as three temples dedicated to Buddha, Surya, and Shiva.
• Harsha gifted 100 villages and also assigned 200 houses from each of
these villages to provide the monastery's monks with everyday
necessities including rice, butter, and milk. At Nalanda, this provided
support for around 1,500 teachers and 10,000 student monks.

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International Visitors At Nalanda
University

The painting work has been released into the public domain by its author, Alexan

Xuanzang Visit (630 CE - 643 CE) - Between the years 630 and 643
CE, Xuanzang traveled across India, he visited twice in Nalanda, the
first in 637 and the second in 642, spending a total of two years at the
monastery.
Yijing Visit (673 CE – 700 CE) - He came to India in 673 CE and spent
fourteen years in the country, 10 of them in the Nalanda Mahavihara. He
brought 400 Sanskrit books and 300 grains of Buddha relics with him
when he returned to China in 695, which were later translated into
China.
Korean and Tibetan pilgrims (650 CE – 1400 CE) -By the mid-sixth century,
monks like Kyom-ik were traveling to Indian monasteries. They, too, brought
and translated Indian literature, resulting in 72 chuan of translated writings.
Hyon-jo, a Silla Korean monk, visited and resided at various Indian
monasteries in the mid-seventh century, including three years in Nalanda,
with Yingji. Hye-Ryun and Hyon-gak, two of his students, were sent to
Nalanda to study.

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Pala Dynasty (750 CE – 1200 CE)

King Balaputradewa, one of the great kings of Srivijaya

(photo by - by Gunawan Kartapranata is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 )

The pala dynasty started ruling the eastern region of India in mid
8th century and continued till the 12th century. Till the 12th century,
Nalanda was under the control of pala rulers as they were
Buddhist dynasty. inscriptions, literary evidence, seals, and
ruined artwork excavated at the Nalanda site proves that Nalanda
was still dominant and active during the times of pala. king
Dharmapala and devapala were two prominent rulers from the
Pala dynasty how expanded the Nalanda monastery and its library
work. Attracted by the numerous excellences of Nalanda,
Srivijayan (currently in Indonesia) king, built a monastery and had
requested Devapala to contribute the revenue of five villages for
its care, a request that was granted.

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Invasion of Nalanda

Nalanda was been attacked three times

• First attack was done by hunas under the
leadership of Mihirkula in 455-467 A.D during
the reign of Samudragupta
• Second attack took place during 7th century by
Rajvansh of Bengal
• Third attack which brought to the end of
Nalanda was done by Turkish invader
Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1193 A.D

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Destruction under Bakhtiyar Khalji
1200C.E
Muḥammad Bakhtiyar Khalji was a Turkic invader. At the time
of his rule in north India once he suffered from an illness that
was not even cured by his princes. Someone advised him to
take treatment from Achary Rahul Sribhadra at first he refused
this advice-giving reason that he would not take treatment from
a non-muslim doctor. later still suffering from an illness he
decided to take treatment but on the condition that he would not
take any medicine provided by the achary. A few days after
accepting his condition vaidyaraj Came up with Quran and ask
to read specific pages daily. surprisingly the illness was cured.
After curing khalji vaidyaraj admitted the applied medicine on
some pages of the Quran and as he started reading those
pages of the Quran he was able to recover. Following his
recovery, Khilji was astounded to find that an Indian scholar
and instructor knew more than his kings and countrymen. Khilji
was jealous of the knowledge of a non-muslim and thus
decided to destroy Nalanda the ultimate source of knowledge of
that time.
Nalanda’s library was the source of knowledge of Rahul Sri and
other monks. Bakhtiyar Khilji attack Nalanda and brutally
massacred the monks and scholars of Nalanda, many monks
were burnt alive. They burnt the library that contain hand
manuscripts that were only copies in the whole world. Khilgji
not only destroyed Nalanda but also destroy the whole tradition.
the university was brutally destroyed and there was no chance
of rebuilt or repair

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 Invaluable asset – the library

Temples and library

TThe library was named dharma ganj and it was the

world’s biggest library of that time. the library had 3
multistoried buildings – Ratna Sagar means ocean of
jewels, ratnodadhi sea of jewels, and ratnaranjaka means
jewel-adorned. Even at that time library of Nalanda
consisted of a total of 90 lakh books and manuscripts. In
the book by Minhaj Siraj – TABAKAT-I-NASIRI it is
mentioned that when Nalanda library was put on fire it
took 3 months to burn the whole library.

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 Dharanisamgraha, a manuscript from Nalanda, circa 1075

• Library consisted of many originally written

manuscripts which were the only copy in the whole
world. Nalanda library consisted not only of religious
scripts but also many books on other subjects such
as grammar, logic, literature, astrology, and
medicine

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Plans for revival
• former President of India, the Hon’ble Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam mooted
the idea of reviving the ancient Nalanda University while addressing
the Bihar State Legislative Assembly in March 2006, the first step
towards realizing the dream of reinventing the old Nalanda had been
taken.
• On December 9, 2006, the New York Times detailed a plan in the works
to spend $1 billion to revive Nalanda University near the ancient site. A
consortium led by Singapore and including China, India, Japan, and
other nations will attempt to raise $500 million to build a new university
and another $500 million to develop the necessary infrastructure.
• When the East Asia Summit (EAS) gathered in the Philippines in
January 2007, the leaders of sixteen member states backed the
initiative to re-establish Nalanda.
• More members endorsed the idea of creating the Nalanda University
during the fourth EA Summit in Hua Hin, Thailand, in October 2009, and
promoted regional networking and collaboration between the
University and existing centers of excellence in East Asia
•
Member countries

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On January 9, 2009, the archaeological site of
Nalanda was added to the Tentative List of
World Heritage.

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 CONCLUSION
Nalanda was undoubted a great international university with
residential facilities with the interesting fact that no fees
were charged from the student. destruction of Nalanda was a
major reason for the decline of Buddhist dharma in India,
and it was also found that many monks of Nalanda settled in
tibet ( current China). Destruction of Nalanda made a global
impact as more than 9 million handwritten books and
manuscripts were burned down. Nalanda was pride for India
and I am happy to do research on Nalanda Mahavihar

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 REFERENCES
Wikipedia -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalanda
New World Encyclopedia -
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Nala
nda
Nalanda university official site
https://nalandauniv.edu.in/about-
nalanda/history-and-revival/
the mysterious India -
https://www.themysteriousindia.net/ancient-
nalanda-university-india/

youtube video study iq education on nov 10

2021 –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVPEMy
gA9B8

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