Chapter 3

Chapter III
Ancient Magadha: A Centre of Learning
After the general sketch of early Indian education in the previous chapter, the
present chapter practices to demark the line of educational development in ancient
Magadha. First, this chapter traces social, economic, political and institutional roots of
the evolution of both gurukula and mahāvihāra learning systems in Ancient
Magadha. Then, it describes both the Brāhmaṇical and the Buddhist didactic centres
that flourished in Magadha. It raises issues like: what were the factors responsible for
the rise of Magadha as a learning centre? What was the form of gurukula instruction
in Magadha? Which were all the mahāvihāras and gurukulas that existed on the land
of Magadha? What was the nature of growth of these learning centres in Magadha?
Did it also affect educational development outside Magadha? How far did the
contemporary society of Magadha incorporate both the values of gurukulas and
mahāvihāras?
As previously mentioned in the introductory chapter, the ancient land of

Magadha is located in the present state of Bihar to the south of the river Ganga.
Magadha occupies a rich legacy in the history of all of India and the world. The rise
and fall of Magadha constitutes the main event in the history of India. At the same
time, it should be clearly understood that there was no Buddhist period of Indian
history; Buddhism provided only an important segment of the composite religious
culture of India, which were developed in Magadha. Magadha witnessed two pan-
Indian empires – the Maurya Empire and the Gupta Empire. The period of the Gupta
dynasty - with their epicenter in Magadha – especially contributed a lot in
advancement of India’s astronomy, mathematic, logic, religion, philosophy and
science. Due to these facts, the Gupta dynasty is so-called as the golden age in the
northern India and particular in Magadha. Currents and cross currents of spiritual
thought and material prosperity flowed simultaneously to stimulate the creative
energy of Magadha.
~87~
The history of Bihar is in particular the story of two regions separated by the
Ganges. To the north was Mithilā, which was “a strong-hold of Brāhmaṇic
orthodoxy” while Magadha in the south remained a center of Buddhism up to the
Moslem conquest. The phase of second urbanisation in the Gangetic valley promoted
academic activities. The archaeological excavations of Gangetic cities indicate toward
political, social, economic, religious and educational development in ancient
Magadha. Alexander Cunningham, founder of Archaeological Survey of India,
discovered the main archaeological sites of the Ganges plain (Plate III.1.). He
covered the routes described by two Chinese pilgrims Fa-Hien and Hiuen-Tsang, who
visited India in the fifth and the seventh century A.D. respectively. Cunningham
identified and compared the mounds he visited with the cities described in the reports
by the two pilgrims. In northern India only, he explored the sites of Mathurā,
Ahicchatra, Kanauj, Kausāmbi, Ayodhyā, Śrāvastī, Kuśinagara, Vārānasī, Vaisālī,
Pātaliputra, Bodhgaya, Rājagrha, Nālandā, Champā and Tamraliptī. The work of
Cunningham was continued and extended by some of his successors at the
Archaeological Survey of India and his discoveries were largely confirmed. Many
sites identified by Cunningham have been explored during the last fifty years. Since
then, stratigraphic excavations were utilised mainly to define different periods of
occupation and to classify materials discovered into each layer such as classes of
objects like pottery, utensils, ornaments, coins, seals, terracotta figurines etc. It is
from the Seventies that in some studies1 data coming from these excavations were
taken into consideration to revise settlement dynamics and cultural development in
the Ganges valley. Particular care was devoted to the Iron Age, when an urban
civilization was born. In this context, the theory first asserted by Ghosh 2 that
fortifications pertain to two different temporal phases gained consent. The first phase
would go back to the sixth-fifth century B.C. and the second to the last centuries of

1
A. Ghosh, The City in Early Historic India, Indian Institute of Advance Studies, Shimla, 1973; B.
Allchin and F. R. Allchin (ed.), The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, 1982; T. N. Roy, The Ganges Civilization: A Critical Archaeological Study of the
Painted Grey Ware and Northern Black Polished Ware Periods of the Ganga Palins in India,
Ramanand Vidya Bhawan, Delhi, 1983; G. Erdosy, Urbanisation in Early Historic India, BAR
International Series 430, Oxford, 1988; D. K. Chakrabarti, The Archaeology of Ancient Indian Cities,
Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1995.
2
A. Ghosh, The City in Early Historic India, Indian Institute of Advance Studies, Shimla, 1973, p. 66.
~ 88 ~
the first millennium B.C. As regards the first phase, Erdosy3 and Chakrabarti4 affirm
that mud ramparts protected the sites of Atranjikherā, Rājghat, Kausambi, Old Rājgir
and Champā and that their construction could be linked to the development of the first
territorial states and to the birth of cities.5 As regards the second phase, Ghosh6
supposes that the fortifications were built during the second-first century B.C. when
the Mauryan Empire had broken up and local dynasties were cropping up, each
dynasty fortifying its capital.
Plate III.1: Ganges Plain: Principal Sites
Source: Federica Barba, The Fortified Cities of the Ganges Plain in the First Millennium B.C., East
and West, Vol. 54, No. 1/4 (December 2004), pp. 225.

3
G. Erdosy, Urbanisation in Early Historic India, BAR International Series 430, Oxford, 1988, p. 134.
4
D. K. Chakrabarti, The Archaeology of Ancient Indian Cities, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1995,
p. 247.
5
B. Allchin and F. R. Allchin (ed.), The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, 1982, p. 132 also support this thesis, saying that politically the sixth
century saw the emergence of Magadha as the dominant state in the Ganges valley and the break-up of
the old tribal society. One of the first indications of these developments is the construction of great new
mud or mud-brick ramparts as defenses for the newly emerging cities.
6
A. Ghosh, The City in Early Historic India, Indian Institute of Advance Studies, Shimla, 1973, p. 66.
~ 89 ~
It may be also noted that data concerning the fortifications of Gangetic cities
are incomplete. Graphic, photographic or stratigraphic documents as well as
information on dimensions of a site and perimetral measures of the fortifications are
often lacking. Furthermore, the geography of the sites and the surrounding area is
often not reported, thus making it difficult to understand the role played by a
settlement. The archaeological evidences related to the growth of cities and the rise of
state indicates towards the urban culture and economic prosperity of ancient
Magadha, which played a vital role in the diffusion of Brāhmaṇical and Buddhist
knowledge through gurukulas and mahāvihāras. Some times the limitations of
archeological sources related to the role of emerging settlements in ancient Magadha
get addressed by available literary sources especially Buddhist religious texts and
travelling accounts.
III.1. Rise of Magadha as Learning Centre

Magadha gradually prospered and established itself as a center of political,
social, economic and religious activities in ancient India. Ancient Magadha occupies a
particular place in the history of early Indian education, its preservation and diffusion,
which knows no state or national boundaries. The distinct urban and liberal culture of
ancient Magadha stimulated the diffusion of both Brāhmaṇical and Buddhist
knowledge, which are reflected in the prevailed folk stories.7 It was at Pātaliputra that
Vishnu Sharma in the fifth century wrote fables, which found their way into Persian,
Arabic, Hebrew, Greek and Syrian languages. The capitals of Magadha, Rājagriha
and Pātaliputra remained a seat of learning for centuries because they are mentioned
as the home of culture, learning, fine arts and wealth. Also Odantapurī, Gaya and
Bodhgaya transmitted both Brāhmaṇical and Buddhist knowledge.
III.2. Rise of Magadha as a Centre of Buddhist Learning

Ancient Magadha possesses a distinct place in the educational history of early
India, which housed both gurukula and mahāvihāra learning systems. If we do a
comparative study of the two then the Buddhist scholarship flourished more than
Brāhmaṇical schooling in early Magadha. As a matter of fact, being situated beyond

7
Sheela Verma, Magahi Folklore and Folk Tales, Manohar, New Delhi, 2008, pp. 23-24.
~ 90 ~
the eastern limit of purely Āryan Culture, Magadha resisted the cultural aggression of
the Āryans for a long time during which the neighbouring kingdoms of Koŝala
(Oudh), Kauśāmbi (Allahabad) and Videha (North Bihar) came under the Āryan
domination. The Brāhmaṇical religion and rituals were not rooted deeply in the
society of Magadha and maintained its individual culture all the time. In this way
from the beginning, Magadha was a land of heterodox sects like Buddhism and
Jainism. Buddhism specially prospered with its apparatus in Magadha and the
mahāvihāra education system also got its way to flourish with Buddhism. In the
vicinity of Magadha, we have large monastic institutions like Nālandā, Odantapurī,
etc. For over six hundred years the monastic establishments ungrudgingly and
impartially patronised all branches of Brāhmaṇical and Buddhist faiths and learning.
Here we shall look into the factors responsible for the rise of Magadha as a learning
centre of both Buddhist and Brāhmaṇical faiths. The focus will be to trace the causes
of the growth of mahāvihāra educational system but occasionally the rise of
gurukulas will also come into reference.
III.2.a Economic Bases

The economic prosperity of Magadha helped ancient Magadha to emerge as
the most prominent learning centre in early India especially because of availability of
natural resources and the growth of internal and external trade. The wide expanse of
Magadha was blessed with the Ganges for her life giving and wealth producing water,
primeval forest, fertile alluvial soil and reservoir of iron ore. The flourishing trade and
commerce provided enough fund to support large Buddhist monastic institutions that
prevailed in the empire of Magadha. The expansion of agriculture also stimulated the
process by providing materials for trade and budding cottage industries. A large
number of inscriptions at Buddhist sites record that resources for the religious edifices
came from three categories of donors: the ruling elites, merchants and other
occupational groups, and monks and nuns.
The introduction of iron technology helped in breaking the hard alluvial soil of
the Gangetic plain and making the fields fit for agricultural purposes by cutting the
deeply forested areas from 1100-800 B.C. It also led to marshaling in an era of large
settlements, which also attracted Brāhmaṇical teachers. The new available lands were
~ 91 ~
used for the construction of monasteries. These less settled areas were suitable for this
purpose because it was not too far from the towns and not too near, convenient for
going and for coming, easily accessible to all who wish to visit, not too crowded by
day and not exposed to too much noise and alarm by night.8 Before the introduction
of iron in the Gangetic Valley agriculture was extensive without proper ploughing but
irrigational facilities made it more and more intensive after the introduction of the
iron tools leading to multifarious agricultural activities, producing some new crops;
wheat being one of the most important.9 Irons tools (spade, hoe, socketed and plain
axes and plough-share) were useful for procuring water for irrigation by tapping
artificial sources of water such as digging of wells, tanks and canals as practiced in
the times of the Rigveda and the Atharvaveda.10 Khanitra, a shovel or spade for
digging is mentioned in the Rigveda and the later texts. Khanitrima meaning produced
by digging is epithet of apaḥ (water). The impact of iron tools is also reflected in the
multiplicity of cereals and grains and beginning of cultivation of an important cereal
(wheat) evidenced at Atranjikherā and hitherto unknown in the Gangetic Valley
during the Copper Bronze age.11 These agricultural activities of the Painted Grey
Ware people were responsible for the surplus production. This surplus production
supported growing Brāhmaṇical and Buddhist educational system in Magadha.
Especially the monastic establishments got enough food for its increasing number of
monk residents. The citizens of Rājagriha, Śrāvastī and Benares used to supply food
on certain occasions to the monks of the Buddhist saṅgha in the city.12
The beginning of intensive agriculture led to evolution of circuit of exchange

for surplus productions. Circuit of exchange developed from the existing networks

8
Chullavagga, VI, 4.8.
9
M. D. N. Sahi, “Agricultural Production during the Early Iron Age in Northern India” in Brajadulal
Chattopadhyaya (ed.), Essays in Ancient Indian Economic History, Indian History Congress, Golden
Jubilee Year Publication Series, Vol. II, Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1987, p.33.
10
A. A. Macdonell and A. B. Keith, Vedic Index of Names and Subject, Vol. II, Motilal Banarsidass,
Delhi, 1912, reprinted 1967, p. 214.
11
K. A. Chowdhury, Ancient Agriculture and Forestry in North India, Asia Publication, Bombay,
1977, pp. 63-66.
12
S. K. Das, The Economic History of Ancient India: From the Earliest Time down to the Invasion of
India by Alexander the Great, Vol. I, second edition, Mitra Press, Calcutta, 1937, pp. 185-186.
~ 92 ~
involving essential items such as trade in grains, salt and iron smithy, which were
often serviced thorough a regular seasonal circuit. From the Jātakas, we know that
special people known as the sarthavahas worked on these and they could carry the
sartha or caravan.13 Exchange is further encouraged if settlements are located on the
banks of navigable rivers and are therefore within easy reach of each other by boat, or
are located in the accessible areas. Such activities would have formed the prelude to
the emergence of trade in the Ganga plain. 14 The epigraphs make a distinction
between the financier, the caravaneer, the general trader and dealers in specific
commodities such as salt and sugar.15 The earliest Buddhist records mention river
traffic only as far down as Magadha, or Champā as its farthest point.16 The existence
of Champā as a great commercial port points to the accessibility of trade with
Bengal.17 In some cases the location of capitals were shifted in order to tap commerce
as for example the shift of Rājagriha to Pātaliputra. Circuits of exchange not only
traded goods but also transferred ideas and people. In this way, Pātaliputra emerged
not only as important trading centre but also as a centre of learning assimilating the
diverse ideologies of Brāhmaṇical and Buddhism.
Another dimension in the process of trade and social change was provided by
the expansion of Buddhism along trade networks and the location of monastic
establishments at the nodal points of trade routes. 18 Ancient Magadha was well
connected internally and externally by different trade routes, which also prospered the
gurukulas and mahāvihāras side by side (Plate III.2.). There is a reference to the
route that started from Vaisālī and went up to Rājagriha including places Pātaligama,

13
Dilip K. Chakrabarti, The Archaeology of the Deccan Routes: The Ancient Routes from the Ganga
Plain to the Deccan, Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 2005, p. 156.
14
Romila, Thapar, “The First Millennium B. C. in Northern India (Up to the end of the Mauryan
Period)”, in Romila Thapar (ed.), Recent Perspectives of Early Indian History, Revised Second Edition
1998, Popular Prakashan, Mumbai, Reprinted 2002, p. 120.
15
H. P. Ray, “ Trade and Contacts”, in Romila Thapar (ed.), Recent Perspectives of Early Indian
History, revised second edition 1998, Popular Prakashan, Mumbai, Reprinted 2002, p. 160.
16
T. W. Rhys-Davids, Buddhist India, Susil Gupta, Calcutta, 1957, p. 44.
17
Steven G. Darien, “The Economic History of the Ganges to the End of Gupta Times” Journal of the
Economic and social History of the Orient, Vol.13, No.1, 1970, p. 66.
18
H. P. Ray, “Trade and Contacts”, in Romila Thapar (ed.), Recent Perspectives of Early Indian
History, revised second edition 1998, Popular Prakashan, Mumbai, Reprinted 2002, p. 152.
~ 93 ~
Nālandā, and Ambalaṭṭhika etc. before Rājagriha.19 A route connecting Rājagriha with
Varanasi probably via Gaya has been also mentioned in the Buddhist literature, which
proceeded further west to the city of Prayāga, Kanyakubja, Mathura and Takṣaśīlā.20
The most notable trade route was the Pātaliputra-Tāmraliptī passing though Gaya as
well as the Gaya-Pātaliputra and Gaya-Rājagriha route. Here, it branched the main
trunk going on to Delhi and across Punjab to Takṣaśīlā and Kabul Valley21, where it
split again with one part disappearing over the Hindu Kush and the other on to
Western Asia.22 This road was known as Uttarapatha.23 The Tāmraliptī-Pātaliputra
route however appears to be the present day G.T. road connecting the eastern and
western ends of the country.24 Even in early Buddhist days the roads to Takṣaśīlā
seems to have been relatively safe, as numerous stories mention nobles’ and
Brāhmaṇas’ sons travelling unarmed to Takṣaśīlā to receive their education.25

19
M. S. Pandey, Historical Geography and Topography of Bihar, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1963, pp.
195-196.
20
Steven G. Darian, “The Economic History of the Ganges to the End of Gupta Times”, Journal of the
Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Jan., 1970), p. 74.
21
A. L. Basam, The Wonder that was India, Grove Press, New York, 1954, p. 223.
22
C. C. Davies, Historical Atlas of the Indian Peninsula, Oxford University Press, London, 1959, p.
17.
23
24
Arun Kumar Singh, Archaeology of Magadha Region, Ramanand Vidya Bhawan, New Delhi, 1991,
p. 35.
25
E. J. Rapson (ed.), The Cambridge history of India, Vol. I Ancient India, Macmillan Co., New York,
1922, p. 214.
~ 94 ~
Plate III.2. Internal Trade Routes in the context of the Period between 1000 B.C.
and 200 B.C.
Source: N. Lahiri, The Archaeology of Indian Trade Routes, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1992.
The growth of trade was related to the increase in the number of occupations
and later the functional groups living together came to be organised into guilds. On
the evidence of the Jātakas and the law books, we get the names of the following
guilds – wood workers, smiths, leather worker, painters, garland makers, caravan
traders, herdsmen, money lenders, cultivators, traders and pilots.26 One group and the

26
Santosh Kumar Das, The Economic History of Ancient India: From the Earliest Time Down to the
Invasion of India by Alexander the Great, Mitra Press, Calcutta, second edition, 1937, pp. 242-243.
~ 95 ~
same class of artisans inhabited particular streets and quarters. Types of somewhat
similar mahallās and chawks are noticed at Kāsī, Gayā, Ujjain, Nasik, Mathurā,
Udaipur, Jaiselmer and Kathmandu.27 It was during the Buddha period that the guilds
came to play a prominent part in the various aspects of social life such as education.
The guilds started preserving knowledge of their profession and transmitting to
needing learner through teaching and training. The apprentice in the industrial sense
appears frequently in the Jātakas though no conditions of pupilage are given. Usually
a contract of study between the apprentice and the teacher gets formulated for the
complete knowledge of particular profession or art. We also have instances of fees
being paid by apprentice to teachers. The teacher who does not instruct the pupil in art
and causes him to perform other work shall incur the first breach and the pupil may
forsake him and go to another teacher after its release from the indenture.28
The growing intensive cultivation, rise of trade and increase in population

also led to the second urbanisation in Magadha from around 500 B.C. onward.
According to Erdosy, from among the five sites that show the earliest signs of
urbanisation, three sites (Rājghat, i.e. ancient Varanasi, Champā and Rājgir) are
situated in east of the confluence of Ganga and Yamuna, one site (Kausambi) is near
to it and one site (Ujjain) lies somewhere else together.29 Elsewhere Erdosy recalls
that Buddhist tradition recognises six cities of outstanding importance which would
have been to receive the moral remains of the Buddha – Champā, Kāsī, Śrāvastī,
Kauśāmbi, Rājagṛha and Sāketa – and points out that the first five of these correspond
to the earliest urban centres reconstructed from archaeological evidence, omitting
only Ujjain.30 It is also in these areas that a number of educational, religious and
spiritual movements arose, most famous among them Buddhism and Jainism. All

27
Sris Chandra Chatterjee, Magadha Architecture and Culture, University of Calcutta, Calcutta, 1942,
p. 12.
28
Arthur A. Macdonell, History of Sanskrit Literature, Vol. II, New Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal,
Third Indian Edition, 1972, p. 07.
29
G. Erdosy, Urbanisation in Early Historic India, BAR International Series 430, Oxford, 1988, p. 94-
95.
30
R. Allchin (ed.), The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States,
Cambridge University Press, London, 1995, p. 114f.
~ 96 ~
these events took place were manifestations of the culture of that part of northern
India.
The rise of urban centres is not unrelated to further changes in agrarian scene.
There had been a gradual breaking up of the clan holding of land and the emergence
of family and individuals. This may have developed from families claiming rights of
usage, which over time were accepted as rights of ownership. The significance of this
change is evident particularly from Buddhist texts, where the gṛhapati/gaḥapati
assumes an important position as the head of household and sometimes the owner of
cultivable land.31 A distinction is made between the gaḥapati who appears to be the
well-off landowners and the kaṣsāka who is the cultivator. The possibility of
accumulation to use wealth for taxes as well as for personal gain becomes a reality in
the emergence of wealthy gaḥapatis who employ labour to work the land. It is
probably among the families of wealthy landowning gaḥapatis that there emerged, the
initially part-time and ultimately full-time, profession of traders and merchants as
well as bankers and financers, who are referred to as seṭṭhi. The gaḥapati and the
kaṣsāka are also the groups involved in the payment of regular taxes. They are also
major donors to the monastic learning institutions.
Inscription data from Buddhist monastic sites indicate that the economic
prosperity in the early historic period between 100 B.C. and 400 A.D. was not
restricted to the elite, but also percolated to occupational groups and castes. The
progress of Magadha was not confined to Rājagriha and Pātaliputra. Its villages and
countryside with their developed system of agriculture and commerce had a great
influence on its growth and prosperity. There were large villages like
Mahāvaḍḍhakigāma and Kammāragāma each of which consisted about one thousand
families of wood carvers and smiths, with the institutions of Jeṭṭhakas i.e. aldermen
32
among the artisans. Archaeological excavations document a technological

31
1998, Popular Prakashan, Mumbai, reprinted 2002, pp. 121-22. Uma Chakravarty, The Social
Dimensions of Early Buddhism, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1987, p. 93.
32
pp. 19-20.
~ 97 ~
improvement in structural remains as well as an extensive use of bricks and tiles than
those of the previous periods.33 There are several epigraphs recording donations to
monasteries by a cross-section of specialised workers such as blacksmith, fishermen,
gardeners and so on.34 These new prosperous groups of the society were laity of
Buddhism, believed in Buddhism but not admitted in monasteries. The monks isolated
from ordinary community life provided an indirect service by offering the laity an
opportunity to generate merit through donations. The symbiotic relationship
functioned through the logic of donation, purity and merit.35
The new economic order of the Gupta and the post-Gupta periods is
dominated by the growing number of land grants which record transfer of properties
to various categories of donees resulted in the appearance and exploitative functions
of land intermediaries. Distinctions are made in historical writings on this period
between what was called religious grants and secular grants. The religious grants
include grants to Buddhist monasteries, other religious institutions and to individual
Brāhmaṇa and Brāhmaṇas in groups. These devedāna (that is, ‘given to gods’) and
brahmadeya (given to Brāhmaṇas) grants extended in later centuries to the creation of
agrahāras, śāsanas, landed estates of temples, maṭhas and other type of monastic
establishments.36 These land grants financially buttressed the growth of autonomous
and large mahāvihāras, as Nālandā Mahāvihāra was fulfilling its daily need through
the grant of two hundred villages during the time of I-Tsing. This is why we have
growing number of references of monastic institutions from Magadha and nearby
areas, as it was the centre of activity in the Gupta and the post-Gupta period.

33
The houses in the suburb of Rājagriha were built of brick and lime or mud masonry, the deep and red
bricks being close-jointed and rubbed smooth. See Sris Chandra Chatterjee, Magadha Architecture and
Culture, University of Calcutta, Calcutta, 1942, p. 6.
34
History, Revised Second Edition 1998, Popular Prakashan, Mumbai, Reprinted 2002, p. 151.
35
Jonathan A. Silk, Managing Monks: Administrators and Administrative Roles in Indian Buddhist
Monasticism, Oxford University Press, New York, 2008, p. 6.
36
B. D. Chattopadhyaya, “State and Economy in North India: Fourth Century to Twelfth Century” in
in Romila Thapar (ed.), Recent Perspectives of Early Indian History, Revised Second Edition 1998,
Popular Prakashan, Mumbai, Reprinted 2002, pp. 328-30.
~ 98 ~
The new pattern of economy, which was predominantly rural-agrarian in

character, centred on the self-sufficient villages as the unit of production and
distribution and at the same time was characterised by agrarian expansion on a
substantially large scale. It is linked to the decline of commerce and consequently of
commercial groups and of urban centres of early historical India.37 Both in terms of
structural activities and other forms of archaeological assemblage, the urban centres
reached an apogee of growth in the pre-Gupta period. Their steady decay in the Gupta
and the post-Gupta period had adverse effects on the economy, with the shifting of
productive activity to rural areas. At one level, the decline of urban centres as
settlement of a composite population, of crafts and artisanal production, and of
exchange, resulted in the migration of both non-producing groups such as Brāhmaṇas
as well as artisanal groups to rural areas. The artisanal groups were now rurally
localised and made subservient to landholding classes. The ritual status of many
artisanal groups declined and as a result swelled the ranks of the untouchables such as
carmakāra (leather workers), rajaka (washer man), bamboo workers, blacksmiths and
basket maker — branded as asat and adharmasaṃkara. 38 These untouchables
belonged to the lowest strata of the society and were denied accessibility of Vedic
education. The Buddhist training organism satisfied their wishes of salvation by
allowing them in their monastic institutions.
With the progressive growth of population, fluctuating trade conditions and

the emergence of feudal strongholds several new taxes were levied on the peasantry
by imperial rulers as well as by their powerful subordinates. One such term is called
the hālika-kara, which is noted in the inscriptions of the Uccakalpa rulers who, from
accounts, were the feudatories of the Imperial Gupta. 39 Hāli is a large plough,

37
R. N. Nandi, “Growth of Rural Economy in Early Feudal India” Presidential Address, Ancient India
Section, Indian History Congress, 45th Session, Annamalai, 1984, p. 03.
38
V., Jha, “Position and Status of Bamboo-workers and Basket-makers in Ancient and Early Medieval
Times” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 39th Session, Osmania University, Hyderabad,
1978, pp. 230-240; V., Jha, “Leatherworkers in Ancient and Early Medieval India” Proceedings of the
Indian History Congress, 40th Session, Waltair, 1979, pp. 99-108; S., Jaiswal, “Some Recent Theories
of the Origin of Untouchability: Historical Assessment” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress,
39th Session, Osmania University, Hyderabad, 1978, pp. 124-136.
39
Corpus Inscriptions Indicarum, Vol. III, pp. 132-34.
~ 99 ~
whereas hālika refers to the ploughman.40 The ploughman behind the plough is
connected with this particular type of tax, probably one of the types of viṣṭi tax.41 The
landlords used to call upon all their tenants to plough their land. The tenants with no
bullocks had to clear fields of all weeds, grass, roots etc. and also had to work with
spade in areas where bullocks and plough teams could not possible reach. In this
growing feudal economy, the economic pressure on the peasant and especially labour
class were increasing and their life became miserable. They joined Buddhist monastic
institution to escape their wretched life. In this way, the mahāvihāra educational
system easily got an endless supply of students.
III.2.b Social Bases

The educational system of a society is related to its total social system. It is a
subsystem performing certain functions for the on-going social system. The goals and
needs of the total social system get reflected in the functions it lays down for its
educational system and the form in which it structures the scholastic system to fulfill
those functions. The society of ancient Magadha was unique in its ideology, structure
and composition, which stimulated the growth of education. The society was
comparatively more liberal in thinking and less conservative in behaviour than other
parts of contemporary India. It was not stifled by a priest-ridden society that
squandered much of wealth on expensive sacrifices. The society of ancient Magadha
was also much diverse in nature comprising all social classes from Āryans and non-
Āryans and all religions — Buddhism, Jainism and Brāhmaṇism. Because of a
flexible social structure, Magadha probably benefited from an influx of clans from
upper India with a mixture of groups that so often brings new vitality to a culture.
The word Kīkaṭas occurs only one passage in the Rigveda seems a synonym
for Magadha and it has been concluded that the Kīkaṭas were a non-Āryan people

40
V. S. Apte, The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary: Containing appendicies on Sanskrit Prosody
and important Literary and Geographical Names of Ancient India, fourth revised edition, Motilal
Banarsidass, Delhi, 1985, pp. 1025-1026.
41
Y. B. Singh, “Hālika-Kara: Crystallization of a Practice into a Tax” in Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya
(ed.), Essays in Ancient Indian Economic History, Indian History Congress, Golden Jubilee Year
Publication Series, Vol. II, Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1987, pp. 88-89.
~ 100 ~
living in the country known as Magadha.42 The Māgadhas were legendary bards,
professional storytellers and a great source of popular culture and instruction. They
were travelling poets and reciters of old lays, the repositories of ancient folklore and
tradition, and the custodians of the balled literature of India.43
The region east of the confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna was still more
or less a foreign territory for many Brāhmaṇas ever after Patañjali. Patañjali’s
Mahābhāsya suggests that an important change took place between the second
century B.C. and the second or third century A.D. in the Gangetic valley with the
eastward spread of Brāhmaṇas.44 While the Brāhmaṇas of the second century B.C.
looked upon the eastern Ganges valley as more or less foreign territory, the
Brāhmaṇas of the second or third centuries A.D. looked upon it as their land. The
change that is recorded here concerns the eastward spread of Brāhmaṇism. The arrival
of individual Brāhmaṇa does not of itself gain a territory for Brāhmaṇism. For this to
happen, Brāhmaṇas have to be recognised as Brāhmaṇas, i.e. as people who are
members of the highest group of society by birthright. This recognition has to come
from other members of society, beginning with local rulers. All this takes time and a
prolonged the presence of Brahmins. It suggests that Brāhmaṇas living in it did not
receive the esteemed Brāhmaṇism, which they deemed themselves entitled to. The
late Brāhmaṇisation of the Gangetic valley has given space to the orthodox ideologies
and religions such as Buddhism. With this Buddhist education system also emerged
and flourished to satisfy learning passion of all classes.
During the post-Vedic age, the Āryanisation of ancient Magadha became quick
with the increasing number of Brāhmaṇas and expansion of Brāhmaṇical ideology in
the society. Brāhmaṇas acquired predominant social position in this region, which

42
J. N. Samaddar, The Glories of Magadha, Patna University Readership Lectures, second edition,
Kuntaline Press, Calcutta, 1927, p. 9.
43
Santosh Kumar Das, The Economic History of Ancient India: From the Earliest Time down to the
Invasion of India by Alexander the Great, Vol. I, second edition, Mitra Press, Calcutta, 1937, p. 408.
44
The grammarian Patañjali gave the description of the land of the Āryas, “kah punar āryāvartah/prāg
ādarsāt pratyak kālakavanād daksinena himavantam uttarena pāriyātram” means that “where is the
land of Āryas? It is the region of the east of where Śrāvastī disappears (ādarsa), west of the Kālaka
forest, south of the Himalayas, and north of the Pāriyātra mountains”. Mahābhāsya, 2.4.10.
~ 101 ~
allows us to use the expressions “Brāhmaṇical society” or “Vedic Society” for the
period during which Vedic texts were still being composed. These expressions do not
of course imply that all members of this society were Brahmins. The other varṇas
Kṣatriya, Vaiśya and Śūdra became subordinated to Brāhmaṇas. One of the tools of
this process was gurukula education system, which propagated Brāhmaṇical ideology
and religion. The rising social tension between Brāhmaṇas and other three varṇas
especially ruling class Kṣatriya resulted in the promotion of Buddhism. The Kṣatriya
varṇa also supported mahāvihāra’s didactic structure to regain his dominant social
and political status.
The social and religious life of ancient Magadha became rested on a bed lock
of co-operation. Dharmasūtras (fifth century B.C.) and Dharmaśāstras (second
century B.C.) indicate that the society was based upon four-fold classification of the
people into varṇas and the fourfold division of each individual life into āśramas. The
Kṣatriya as military people protected others from violence and maintained civic
discipline. Intellectual Brāhmaṇas and Kṣatriyas sought the path of knowledge for the
attainment of salvation. The Vaiśyas were responsible for conducting trade and
commerce, rearing cattle and controlling agriculture. The Śūdras generally professed
as artisans and craftsmen and served other three varṇas. The path of works and
service was assigned for architect, artisan, artist, merchant and the laboring class in
general for salvation. The first two aspects of such corporate life were manifested in
the saṅgha, i.e. community of the Buddhist monks.45
Another question of equal importance is the geographical location in which

Āryanisation took place. It was ancient Magadha where the two opposing streams of
different ethnic origin Āryans and Non-Āryans met and mingled for the first time in
north India and constituted a nucleus of instability.46 It is impossible for the major
Dravidian languages of south to have influenced Sanskrit in the early Vedic period
because no evidence for contact between the south and the north is available

45
pp. 10-11.
46
F. E. Pargiter, “Magadha and Videha”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and
Ireland, (Jul., 1908), p. 852.
~ 102 ~
historically before the Mauryan period, by which time some of Dravidian words had
already made their entry into Sanskrit. We are therefore, driven to the conclusion that
the donors in this period were the Dravidian languages spoken in the north-west, in
the Ganga plain and in the classical Madhayadesa, i.e. north and central Dravidian.47
Both gurukula and mahāvihāra education played a vital role in this Indianisation
process through which the first understanding of languages and then exchange of
words became possible.
Some of the passages in Manu suggest that the Gupta and the post-Gupta
period are marked by the eruption of social tensions between the upper and lower
varṇas. Manu forbids a Śūdra to collect any wealth, even though he may be in a
position to do so, because a Śūdra, who has acquired wealth, gives pain to
Brāhmaṇas. The property of the Śūdras should be regarded as the property of the
demons.48 All these provisions rather suggest that a considerable number of Śūdra
artisans had grown rich by pursuing various crafts in post-Maurya times.49 In the
matter of award of punishments and imposition of fines, etc., there was naturally a big
gulf of difference between the two higher and lower varṇas. The two varṇas – Vaiśya
and Śūdra – wanted to escape this social tension and as a result were the main
supporters of Buddhism and Buddhist education, which promoted equality and
harmony between the varṇas.
We have evidences of another type of social tension. With the elevation of the
princely and priestly class, the Vaiśyas lost the social status they once enjoyed.50 We
have seen that in early Vedic times the rathakāras as the builders of war-chariots were
on terms of friendly intimacy with the king.51 In the Taiṭṭiriya Brāhmaṇa, however

47
K. Meenakshi, “Linguistic and the Study of Early Indian History” in Romila Thapar (ed.), Recent
Perspectives of Early Indian History, Revised Second Edition 1998, Popular Prakashan, Mumbai,
Reprinted 2002, pp. 68.
48
Manu, X, p. 129.
49
Rajeshwar Prasad Singh, “Artisans in Manu”, in Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya (ed.), Essays in Ancient
Indian Economic History, Indian History Congress, Golden Jubilee Year Publication Series, Vol.II,
Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1987, p. 106.
50
Santosh Kumar Das, The Economic History of Ancient India: From the Earliest Time Down to the
Invasion of India by Alexander the Great, Mitra Press, Calcutta, second edition, 1937, p. 152.
51
Rigveda, I, 20.
~ 103 ~
they appear as a special class along with Vaiśyas and through their devotion to a
mechanical art, have low status as compared with ordinary man. Similarly though the
physician’s skill was lauded in the Rigveda, the later dislike for physician and his
profession are to be found in the Black Yajurveda. The position of the Vaiśyas, the
mass of the industrial population also underwent a change for in the Āitareya
Brāhmaṇa, they came to be regarded as being tributary to another and their function
was to be devoured by the priest and the noblemen.52
According to the medicinal practice during the later Vedic period, at least two
segments of society existed in Magadha, which independently preserved traditions.
We can identify these two societies as the descendants of Vedic society and the
society of Greater Magadha.53 We can add that Vedic ascetics practiced Vedic healing
and non-Vedic ascetics practiced non-Vedic healing. The approach to medicine in
Vedic society was “magico-religious” using sorcery, spells and amulets and its
reminiscent reflected in the Atharvaveda. It was believed that malevolent forces
produced diseases when they attacked and entered the bodies of their victims, causing
the manifestation of morbid bodily conditions. The approach to medicine in Greater
Magadha was “empirico-rational”. Here paramount emphasis was placed on the
complete knowledge of human and their relationship to environment for an
understanding of the causes of mankind’s ailments. All the maladies plaguing humans
are explained by means of three doṣas – wind, bile and phlegm – either singly or in
combination. These were two traditions of healing, which existed side by side and it
originally belonged to two different cultures. The gurukula and mahāvihāra education
system preserved and transmitted medical knowledge. Especially, the empirico-
rational approach in ancient Magadha was not possible without institutional
instruction in the discipline of medicine.
A large section of gaṇikās (public women) of ancient India by virtue of their

intellectual accomplishments and skill in the fine arts of sculpture making, painting,
music, dance, theatrical performance, etc., occupied influential rank in society. When

52
Āitareya Brāhmaṇa, VII, 29.3.
53
Bronkhorst, Johannes, Greater Magadha: Studies in the Culture of Early India, Handbook of
Oriental Studies, Section Two, V. 19, Koninklijke Brill NV, The Netherlands, 2007, pp. 55-60.
~ 104 ~
king Ajātaśatru went to pay his homage to Gautam Buddha who was staying at the
Jīvaka Āmravana Vihāra in Rājagriha, a large procession accompanied him, which
also included gaṇikās on elephants.54 Sanskrit and Pāli literatures mention that many
of the gaṇikās such as Ambapālikā, Vasantasenā, Vāsavadattā and Kāmaṇdakī were
temperate in habits, highly cultured, virtuous and religious, and they were regarded as
royal property. They patronised artists and craftsmen by commissioning their services
for the construction of temple and chaityas. It should be noted that the Buddha did not
exclude the gaṇikās from his religious fold.
III.2.c Religious Bases

Religious factors have special significance in the rise of ancient Magadha as a
learning centre. From the point of view of religion, the land of early Magadha was not
much dominated by Brāhmaṇical religion’s traditions and rituals in the beginning.
When Brāhmaṇism reached at its apex with magnification of rituals and sacrifices,
Magadha adopted two new simple religions Buddhism and Jainism to assimilated
anxious common folk of the contemporary society. Especially, the interaction
between Brāhmaṇical and Buddhist religion shaped the growth of education in
Magadha. The complication associated with Brāhmaṇical religion led to the
emergence and popularity of Buddhism. In the same way, the problems with
Brāhmaṇical mode of education i.e. gurukula also led to the growth of Buddhist mode
of education i.e. mahāvihāra.
In the post-Vedic age, people left nomadic life and accepted agriculture with
rising number of permanent settlements in the Gangetic valley. This resulted in the
increasing number of vast, complex and elaborated Vedic rituals. The aim of these
yajñas was to achieve victory in continuous wars for expansion of empire. A large
number of cattle have been sacrificed in these Vedic rituals, which was the base of
growing agricultural economy. The peasant class writhed, as there was no payment
for the sacrificial animals. They accepted Buddhism to save their main wealth i.e.
cattle. This process helped Buddhist mahāvihāras to grow in two ways: first,
Buddhist monasteries always got new entrants in the form of farmers and second, the

54
p. 13.
~ 105 ~
daily needs of mahāvihāras such as grains, milk, butter etc., were also supplied by the
peasant class.
The new religion with their concern for the salvation of the individual, and
Buddhism in particular, were attractive to Kṣatriya and traders. The Brāhmaṇas were
then purely the sacrificial priest and his main source of livelihood seems to have been
the fee at the sacrifice. The purpose of the sacrifice was propitiation of the gods and
naturally, the grandest sacrificial ceremonies would be for success in war. The priests
gained a great deal of wealth and spiritual and political power from the constant
warfare of petty princelings in the days of Buddha. The Khaṭṭiya having lost political
power turned to Buddhism for consolation. Traders suffered as robbers grew in
number between populated cities. There must have been pre-Buddhistic protest, for
which Jainism was too passive because of its extreme form of ahiṃsa to be generally
used. Buddhist ahiṃsa was practical, directed not against meat-eating as such but
against the costly royal sacrifices.55 The Kṣatriyas support of Buddhism also had to
do with the Buddhist legitimation of accumulation and investing wealth when mass
destruction of wealth was happening in yajñas. Therefore in order to conserve wealth,
meditation and yoga were accepted as alternative paths to moksha.56 That this was
central to the emergence and continuation of the traders and commercial groups is of
course evident and it has been suggested that a substantial patronage to Buddhism in
its early history was based on support from commercial groups.57
The spirit of learning and teaching was inherited in Buddhism from its
emergence. Buddhism did not touch the older ritual, nor set up a new one of its own.
It worked out a new social scheme which would make people more civilized, make it
possible for them to coexist with less friction. It is remarkable that Buddhism is a
proselyting religion and the principal function of its monks was originally to spread
the doctrine. We hear of monks, even in the time of the Buddha, going half way down
the peninsula, and not towards the Indus, though the religion as such had not spread

55
D. D. Kosambi, “Caste and Class in India”, Science and Society, Vol.8, No.3, 1944, pp. 245-246.
56
Romila, Thapar, Interpreting Early India, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1993, p. 44.
57
D. D. Kosambi, The Culture and Civilizations of Ancient India in Historical Outline, Vikas
Publication, Delhi, 1970, p. 154.
~ 106 ~
beyond the Gangetic basin at the time of his death. The monk stays in his monastery,
whereas the Brahmin had a family, and in general had closer ties with the people.58
This zeal to pursue knowledge for salvation transformed the Buddhist mahāvihāras
into learning temples, which later admitted all classes as students.
Buddhism taught different methods to attain liberation and therefore rejected

the asceticism of the Jains, with its emphasis on immobilisation and the notion of a
self, which by its very nature is inactive. Buddha in his second sermon in Benares
after his enlightenment mentions a notion of the self that presents itself as something
permanent, unchanging and pleasurable. Buddha took the driving force behind acts
i.e. ‘thirst (tṛṣṇā)’ and liberation that will be obtained when this driving force is
eliminated. Karmic retribution was limited here to deeds that are the result of desire or
intention. This requires a psychological process, not just immobilisation of body and
mind, or knowledge of the true nature of the self. This new middle path of Buddha
has been described in the Buddhist texts, which is essentially different from the other
ones available in their time.59 This simple path of salvation attracted a large number
of supporters and they got admitted to Buddhist monastery for training.
The continued practice of public religious tournaments was another agency of

popular education. The Indo-Āryan mind always took delight in logically discussing
the various questions of religion and philosophy. Buddhism specially was fond of
such discussions.60 In the age of Aśoka such discussions between different sects took
place and rock edict XII enjoins upon them for toleration, respect for the truth in each
system and restraint of speech in controversy. Hiuen Tsang refers to Buddhist
monasteries as the constant scenes of discussions for the monks residing therein and
having no care for their maintenance had ample time for study and disputations

58
D. D. Kosambi, “Caste and Class in India”, Science and Society, Vol.8, No.3, 1944, pp. 246-247.
59
Oriental Studies, Section Two, V. 19, Koninklijke Brill NV, The Netherlands, 2007, p. 52.
60
Invasion of India by Alexander the Great, Vol. I, second edition, Mitra Press, Calcutta, 1937, pp. 393-
398.
~ 107 ~
besides performing their religious exercises. 61 These religious tournaments and

discussions like modern days seminars generated and diffused both Buddhist and
Brāhmaṇical knowledge.
III.2.d Institutional Bases

The mahāvihāra education was the example of its first type of institutional
instructions in early India. The changing and growing needs of the contemporary
society demanded either new form of educational system with universal accessibility
or substantial changes in the prevalent gurukula learning apparatus. Actually
Brāhmaṇical education system did not bring revolutionary changes as it became rigid
at its zenith of development. This led to the rise of a new form of mahāvihāra
education, which adopted demands of popular culture in the form of institutional
learning apparatus. The organised changes included changes in more definite
structures such as form of organisation, roles and role content. This ultimately
affected the content and the method of teaching in educational institutions as well as
the teacher-taught relationships. These institutional changes were also one of the main
reasons behind the success, expansion and popularity of mahāvihāra instruction
system.
The mahāvihāras – as both religious and learning institution – has immense

importance for the diffusion of Buddhist religion and learning. We can say in other
words that the relationship between Buddhism and mahāvihāras were interdependent;
the survival of Buddhism and diffusion of Buddhist knowledge was not possible
without mahāvihāras. The history of Buddhist system of education is practically the
history of Buddhist vihāras or Order or saṅgha. The problems with Brāhmaṇical
religion in the post-Vedic period led to the emergence of Buddhism. The new religion
in its evolutionary period needed institutional support for the propagation and
expansion. Buddhist education and learning centred around the vihāras, as the Vedic
education centred round the gurukula, which got enlarged as mahāvihāras. The
institution of mahāvihāra worked as a lab where the new philosophies and rituals

61
S. Beal, (trans.), The Life of Hiuen-Tsiang by Hwui Li, Vol. I, first edition, Trench Trubner Com.,
London, 1888, reprinted 1911, 1914, second edition Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1973, pp. 56-
57.
~ 108 ~
were created after many additions and deletions. The monasteries studied other
religions like Brāhmaṇism and Jainism to find out their weaknesses and used those for
the benefits of Buddhism. It also trained new believers in Buddhist religion and
philosophy. Finally the mahāvihāras were developed to serve as centers of Buddhist
religious study that could both defend the faith and support themselves as
communities. They also offered a Buddhist location for the study of subjects that were
part of the cultural renaissance evident in the Gupta period.62
The rules and laws for monasteries and monks mentioned in the Vinaya Pīṭaka
sometime also helped in the promotion of Buddhist knowledge. Such as the monks
were advised to meet new devotees of Buddhism on the eighth, fourteenth and
fifteenth day of every lunar fortnight at gatherings at the monasteries, which the
monks delivered religious discourses and dispelled doubts on the points about which
questions were put to them. After the begging sessions every morning, the afternoons
were to be utilised by the householders who were allowed by the rules of monasteries
to come there and have spiritual enlightenment from the monks through conversation
and religious discourses. The householders were also permitted to invite the monks
singly to meals or by batches and these occasions were similarly utilised for purposes
of religious enlightenment. These rules provide ample opportunities for the converts
to come into frequent contact with the Buddhist monks, which helped in the
propagation of Buddhist teaching system.
Buddhism was vitally interested in the growth of a believing and pious laity
and framed certain rules, which were more observed in breach than in compliance, for
the regulation of life.63 For example, the laity was required to formally declare their
refuge with the Buddha, the Dhaṃma and the Saṅgha though it was never insisted
upon as it might go against the interests of a vihāra with the laity as its neighbor. This
means that the people who were supporting a Buddhist mahāvihāra could be
followers of Brāhmaṇism or Jainism, Śivaism or Vaiśñavism or any other sects. This

62
There is also no evidence of any other major public learning centres besides the Buddhist ones. See
Sarla Khosla, Gupta Civilization, Intellectual Publishing House, Delhi, 1982, pp. 1-26; 97-107.
63
Suresh Chandra Ghosh, The History of Education in Ancient India c. 3000 BC to AD 1192,
Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 2001, p. 67.
~ 109 ~
expanded the base of Buddhist monastery with support from all classes and led
towards their liberalisation.
Sanskrit language and classical learning had a revival during the Gupta and
post-Gupta period, with the formulation of the Dharmaśāstras and other Śmṛti
collections as a result.64 Kālidāsa, Bharthari, Bharavi and other important Sanskrit
poets and writers lived in this period, during which of many of the Purāṇas, Śmṛti and
major law codes were completed. Buddhism was undoubtedly challenged by this
movement to consolidate its own teachings and offer a comparable standard of
learning. Then mahāvihāras tuned into learning centre and acted as a centre for the
collection of Buddhist teachings and retranslations of Brāhmaṇical scriptures.65
Buddhism was based on a centralized and separate living and learning

establishment i.e. the mahāvihāra. The decentralised character of overall institutional
organisation of monastery had equipped it with an ability to function in local
environments without reference to a central authority. Each of the monasteries from
the smallest to the largest one was autonomous in nature and maintained their separate
identity suited to religious and educational needs of the locality. The geographical
separation and general self-containment of Buddhist communities led to the natural
development and dissemination of its philosophical ideas and community practices. It
became an asset for Buddhist mahāvihāras, which helped in their expansion both in
number and size.
A wider dispersal of economic and political power during the Maurya, the
Gupta and the Post-Gupta period brought in newer groups in decision-making
positions, which led to the demand for change in the educational system. The rise of
groups advocating a change in the medium of instruction at all levels to regional
languages such as Pāli vis-à-vis the groups supporting the retention of Sanskrit as far

64
K. N. Nilakanta Sastri and G. Srinivasachari (eds.), Advanced History of India, Allied Publishes,
Bombay, 1970, pp. 218-224.
65
The four major doctrinal groups with comparable bodies of scriptures (i.e. sutra, Vinaya,
abhidharma) are identified by Hsuan Tsang and I-Tsing as active are the Mahāsañghika, Sthavīra,
Mūlasarvāstivādin and Sammitya. For a discussion of the relationship of these and their origins see
Lamotte, History, pp. 529-549; Nalinaksha Dutt, Buddhist Sects in India, K. L. M. Publishers, Calcutta,
1970, pp. 60-233.
~ 110 ~
as possible is an instance in point. Sanskrit being an elite language, most of the

common folk became far from the Vedic education. The mahāvihāra education
system adopted local dialects such as Pāli for the medium of instruction, which
increased its popularity as was reflected from the growing number of students.
With the extension in grandiose of Brāhmaṇical religion, the gap between

priests and people increased a lot. The institutionalisation of the Buddhist saṅgha led
to the greater interaction between monastic establishments and the laity. It was
accessible to all. As a result of these changes Buddhist monastic institutions were
ideally suited to act as pioneers in newly settled areas or to act as nuclei of
information system as strategic points along trade routes. 66 This transformed
monasteries into learning centres, which preserved and transmitted knowledge or
information. That’s why we witness increasing number of monastic institutions in
new settled areas and along trade routes.
We can observe a tendency to the increasing use of symbolism for making

teaching concrete to the masses both in Brāhmaṇical and Buddhist art.67 The popular
art could have been used as a messenger, which could have easily spread the message
to larger number of people. For example, Aśoka exposed Buddhist Dhaṃma and
education with the help his inscriptions. Where nature failed to supply the facilities
for the propagation of his Dhaṃma, the aid of Art was invoked: huge monolithic
columns were specially fashioned for the purpose and planted in places where a
suitable rocky surface was not available to receive the emperor’s message in
inscriptions. The minor rock edict one of Aśoka itself informs us that “this message of
the emperor must be written on the rocks or wherever there are blocks or pillars of
stone”.

66
History, Revised Second Edition 1998, Popular Prakashan, Mumbai, Reprinted 2002, p. 152.
67
Invasion of India by Alexander the Great, Vol. I, second edition, Mitra Press, Calcutta, 1937, p. 399.
~ 111 ~
III.2.e Political Bases

The emergence, growth and expansion of dominant form of knowledge are
possible only by the active support of the contemporary political power. It is also true
in the case of early Magadha. We have witnessed that Magadha was the centre of
political activities in ancient India with the first time rise of state and then expansion
into pan Indian empires. What is perhaps more interesting is that the early rulers of
Magadha were not frequently associated with Vedic sacrificial rituals, even though
Magadha emerged as the most powerful of the states. We have long history of great
dynasties and kings of ancient Magadha, whose reigns were periods of prosperity and
security. The learning institutions grew naturally in peaceful and secure environment.
It is curious political phenomena that the early kings of Magadha Empire were not
Buddhist by religion but the Buddhist instruction system expanded in all over ancient
Magadha by their tolerant and inclusive religio-political policy.
Ancient Magadha achieved political unity for a long time under the reign of
Maurya and Gupta dynasty, which stimulated the growth of both gurukula and
mahāvihāra education. Especially the rule of Aśoka and Samudragupta were
expanded up to whole India with centre in Magadha. As time progressed the power of
Magadha grew under above-mentioned two monarchs and controlled the whole of the
Ganges valley by the middle of the fourth century B.C. It is also reflected from the
use of the 5-punch silver karshapanas as this was a form of accepted punch marked
coinage used throughout an ever-enlarging area. The 5-punch silver karshapanas of
Magadha-Mauryan form came to replace the other forms of local coinage and they
remain to this day the most commonly encountered type of punch marked coin. 68
The society in the Ganga plain had undergone major changes and was far
more complex than before from the Later Vedic period onwards. There was a
distribution of diverse cultural groups and a range of social hierarchies and economic
functions. In such a situation there was a need for an overall control through the
maintenance of law and order and to protect it from aggression. This took the form of
the emergence of states. The rājā as chief finally evolved into the rājā as king in

68
Michael Mitchiner, “India: Minute Silver Coins of the Early Mauryan Empire”, East and West, Vol.
33, No. ¼ (December 1983), pp. 113-123.
~ 112 ~
those janapadas where monarchy became the norm. Among these, Koŝala and
Magadha were initially important.69 Ancient Magadha was first to establish law and
order in their first state following the norms of rājadharma. In this secure
environment, both Brāhmaṇical and Buddhist enlightening system got an opportunity
to emerge itself and the king encouraged them according to their rājadharma.
The political history of Ganges valley shows that the confluence of the Ganga
and the Yamuna was not the Brāhmaṇical territory. The early kings of Magadha such
as Bimbisāra and Ajātaśatru and the rulers of Mauryan Empire were especially
interested in Brāhmaṇas and their ideas such as Chandragupta Maurya, Bindusāra and
Aśoka. The Nandas, who consolidated imperial power at Pātaliputra around 350 B.C.,
appear to have become zealous patrons of Jainism. It is only with the Sungas, who
were Brahmins themselves that Brāhmaṇas may have begun to occupy the place in
society, which they thought, was rightfully theirs. This happened around 185 B.C.
Forty or fifty years later Patañjali, the grammarian was still not ready to look upon the
Ganges valley in confluence with the Yamuna as being part of the land of the Āryas.70
It was also one of the reasons behind the emergence of non-Brāhmaṇical religions
such as Buddhism in ancient Magadha with its learning apparatus.
We cannot ignore the relationship between politics and religion in ancient

India, as it was a source of legitimacy for kingship. The emerging king of janapadas
also used Buddhism for their legitimacy, which was the main reason behind the
growth of mahāvihāra education system in ancient Magadha. The king became the
patron of the saṅgha by making a donation to it. The saṅgha in return, as the
institution embodying the authority of the religious groups, expressed its approval to
the king.71 Royal links with the new religious ideologies, particularly Buddhism,

69
1998, Popular Prakashan, Mumbai, Reprinted 2002, p.125.
70
Oriental Studies, Section Two, V. 19, Koninklijke Brill NV, The Netherlands, 2007, pp. 1-03.
71
1998, Popular Prakashan, Mumbai, Reprinted 2002, p. 126.
~ 113 ~
developed more fully in the Mauryan period. Rulers such as Bimbisāra and Ajātaśatru
of Magadha are said to have been interested in these religions, but were not major
patrons. The participation of Aśoka in the activities of the saṅgha for propagating the
power of imperial system plays an important role in the monastic chronicles of
Buddhist sects, particularly in the chronicles from Sri Lanka, the Dīpavaṃsa and the
Mahāvaṃsa and others from the various parts of Southeast Asia.72 With Aśoka the
stars of the Buddhism and Buddhist mahāvihāras were ascendant in antique
Magadha. Aśoka imbibed the true spirit of Buddhism — the virtues of compassion,
liberality, and there is no doubt that both by precepts and deeds, he made Buddhism a
live force regulating the lives of his subjects in his empire. Aśoka’s patronisation of
Buddhism increased the number of Buddhist monasteries all over his empire, which
had then stretched from Afghanistan to Andhra and Karnataka and from Gujarat to
Bengal.73
The essence of the state structure in both the pre-Gupta and the Gupta periods
consisted of two interrelated points i.e. decentralised administration and political
hierarchy.74 The process, which worked towards administrative decentralisation, was
derived from the practice of making land grants along with administrative privileges
and the breakdown of the state’s monopoly over the army.75 The beneficiaries who
received land grants from kings and their feudatories were given a wide range of
fiscal, administrative and military immunities. The ruler gave up his control over
almost all resources of revenue, including pasturage, hides and charcoal, mines for the
production of salt, forced labour and all hidden treasures and deposits. This emerging
and increasing trend of land grants provided financial support to the monastic
institution. The mahāvihāras also got grants of villages from different kings as it is

72
Romila, Thapar, The Mauryas Revisited, K. P. Bagchi, Calcutta, 1988, p. 46.
73
Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 2001, pp. 107-110.
74
R. S. Sharma, Aspects of Political Ideas and Institutions in Ancient India, second edition, revised and
enlarged, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1968, p. 216.
75
B. D. Chattopadhyaya, “State and Economy in North India: Fourth Century to Twelfth Century” in
in Romila Thapar (ed.), Recent Perspectives of Early Indian History, Revised Second Edition 1998,
Popular Prakashan, Mumbai, Reprinted 2002, p. 324.
~ 114 ~
recorded that during the time of visit of I-Tsing, Nālandā possessed about two
hundred donated villages to fulfill its daily needs.
The pre-Gupta, the Gupta and the post-Gupta periods witnessed decentralised
administrative apparatus or more appropriately of the virtual absence of any
administrative apparatus. The function of the collection of taxes, levy of forced labor,
regulation of mines, agriculture etc., together with those of maintenance of law and
order, and defense, which were hitherto performed by the state officials, were now
step by step abandoned — first to the priestly class and later to the warrior class.76
The decay of state power was comprehensive with the breakup of the army into small
garrisons as also through the process of the emergence of virtually autonomous
military officials.77 In the post-Gupta period, local units of production were coming
into prominence and this factor can be linked up with the weakening of central
authority which adopted the method of paying officials by grant of revenue or kind.78
It got reflected from the maximum freedom at the level of commerce, religion, and
education, which managed their own affairs without any interference from the state.
The autonomy of institutions such as nigmas, śreṇīs and mahāvihāras is again
crystallised by the late Gupta period. Especially, the freedom in administrative and
daily affairs stimulated the growth and expansion of mahāvihāra scholarship
machinery.
III.3. Rise of Magadha as a centre of Brāhmaṇical Learning

We have seen in the beginning of this chapter that Magadha dominantly
emerged as a centre of Buddhist learning due to favourable social, economic,
religious and institutional causes reflected from the existing large mahāvihāras. Now
we shall look at some particular factors responsible for the growth of gurukula
schooling system in ancient Magadha. The growth of Brāhmaṇical schooling system

76
R. S. Sharma, Aspects of Political Ideas and Institutions in Ancient India, second edition, revised and
enlarged, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1968, p. 255.
77
D. D. Kosambi, “Indian Feudal Trade Charters”, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the
Orient, Vol.2, 1959, p. 284.
78
Radhakrishna Choudhary, “Theory of Commendation and Sub-Infeudation in Ancient India (Based
mainly on a Critical Study of the Dudhpani Rock Inscription)”, in Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya (ed.),
Essays in Ancient Indian Economic History, Indian History Congress, Golden Jubilee Year Publication
Series, Vol. II, Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1987, p. 78.
~ 115 ~
was limited in Magadha at least till the Vedic period. It seems that the late
Āryanisation of the country of Magadha was responsible for the slow development of
gurukula culture. Throughout the period of Vedic literature, the area of Magadha – in
Bihar south of the Ganges – was regarded as an impure non-Āryan region.79 The
attitude of Āryas towards the regions lying south of the Ganges was not friendly. First
mentioned in the Atharvaveda,80 it was held in contempt and even by the time of
Buddha it had not become fully Āryanised. Those who travelled in Vaṅga and the
adjoining lands especially south of the Ganges were regarded as impure and had to
undergo a Punastoma or Sarvaprishṭha sacrifice as penance.81 The fifteenth book of
Atharvaveda contains Vrātyakhaṇda, invocation to Vrātya as chief god brings into
special relation with the puṃschali and māgadhi faith.82 The Vrātyas have been
generally placed in South Bihar and are condemned as the different and impure
speech. There is a prayascit ceremony called Vrātyastoma after which a Vrātya is
included in the Vedic fold but even then the person is designated as a Brahmabaṇdhu
or Kṣatriyabaṇdhu, which is a status lower than that of an orthodox Vedic Brāhmaṇa
or Kṣatriya. The urban background of Magadha was also regarded as heretical of
dissident views from the Brāhmaṇical perspective. It is evident from the references to
the teaching of such groups and the places where they taught. This was frequently in
the parks on the outskirts of towns. This may have been one reason why Brāhmaṇical
texts disapprove of the good snātaka going to the city.
These are some important reasons behind the late and slow growth of
gurukula tutoring in ancient Magadha, a land of heretics. The economic growth and
distinct tribal culture of Magadha did not attract Āryans and restricted the access to
Brāhmaṇical education and culture. We have different pace of growth for the Mithilā
region lying north of Ganges. Mithilā was the first region to come in the contact with
the Āryans in Bihar. Soon with the process of Āryanisation, Mithilā emerged as a

79
M. S. Pandey, Historical Geography and Topography of Bihar, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1963,
p.12.
80
R. K. Mookerji, Hindu Civilization, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay, 1957, p. 116.
81
George Buhler (trans.), The Sacred Laws of the Aryas, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1965, p. 148.
82
J. N. Samaddar, The Glories of Magadha, Patna University Readership Lectures, second edition,
Kuntaline Press, Calcutta, 1927, pp. 9-11.
~ 116 ~
great centre of Brāhmaṇical learning and philosophy and in the court of Janaka,
intellectual tournaments were held which attracted India’s leading philosophers and
Brahmavādis.83 Indeed the patronage of Brāhmaṇical learning by Janaka was on such
a scale that it made his contemporary Ajātaśatru acknowledge in disappointment that
he could hardly find any available learned man in the country, whom he could
patronise for all the learned men were running to the court of Janaka and setting there.
After the complete Āryanisation of Mithilā, Āryans turned towards isolated Magadha
after the Vedic period. With the stabilisation in economy by the expansion of
agriculture especially in Magadha, the region became ready for Āryanisation. This led
to the spread of gurukula culture in Magadha.
In the pre-Mauryan times of early Buddhism, most of the Ganges Valley was
still jungle,84 and the small settlements were conducive to independent development.
Gradually settlements proliferated into village communities of landowners and
peasant proprietors. The rise of mighty Indian empires and the wielding together of a
large part of India into one empire under the strong rule of Mauryan and Guptas
sovereigns had also led to an increased demand for popular schools where the three
R’s could be learnt. This provided natural benefit to the expansion of gurukulas, as
the hermits of saints were usually located in forests.
With the growth of population in ancient Magadha, different occupations

emerged, specialisation evolved, and people formed themselves into guilds for the
production and distribution of goods. The existence of guilds and the increasing use
of money accelerated the growth of trade in Magadha. The knowledge of various
crafts and professions were demanded by the society. The Buddhist laity had to
depend on the monks who were experts in the knowledge of the sacred lore for
instruction in religious education but for education in areas including medicine, which
helped them to earn their living they obviously had to go to Brāhmaṇical schools.

83
B. P. Sinha, ‘Higher Education in Ancient India’ in Devendra Thakur (ed.), Studies in educational
Development, Vol. 3, Higher Education and Employment, Deep & Deep Publications, New Delhi,
1996, pp.15-16.
84
E. J. Rapson (ed.), The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India, Macmillan Co., New
York, 1922, pp. 198-201.
~ 117 ~
Gurukulas provided training in knowledge such as astronomy, medicine, architecture,

archery etc. The guild also emerged as centre of Brāhmaṇical scholarship.
The use of medicinal herbs attested here and there in the Rigveda – that is by a
limited and occasional documentation from which it is possible to draw out only few
fragments about the knowledge and experiences already acquired in that time –
represents a really advanced evolutive phase regarding the oldest beginning of the
medical practice and particularly of therapeutics. At the end of the Vedic age and
during a period of time nearly coincident to the advent of Jainism and Buddhism, a
large cultural movement in Magadha began during which the different branches of
knowledge part among themselves and everyone goes for its own gradual
development, for example medicine science.85 The growth of Brāhmaṇical learning
was the source of knowledge revolution in ancient Magadha.
The creation of a pan-Indian state by Magadha twice with a detailed

administrative framework reaching down to the provincial and still lower levels no
doubt sharpened, among other things, the image of various functionaries,
professionals, and traders.86 More importantly, Magadha witnessed a great spurt in
India’s early historic urban growth. The basic importance of this stage seems to be the
fact that during this period many new regions, especially the lower Gangetic valley
where the precise beginning of the early historic period is still uncertain, came to
develop or were about to develop a clear and unmistakable urban base.87 This second
urbanisation in the Gangetic valley provided ample opportunities for Brāhmaṇas to
settle down in towns for their survival, which led to the diffusion of Brāhmaṇical
culture and education. Also the outskirts of cities served as space for the
establishment of gurukulas.

85
Mario Vallauri, “Ancient Indian Medicine”, East and West, Vol. 5, No.2, 1954, p. 101.
86
Dilip K. Chakrabarti, “Buddhist Sites across South Asia as Influenced by Political and Economic”,
World Archaeology, Vol. 27, 1995, p. 196.
87
D. K. Chakrabarti, The Archaeology of Ancient Indian Cities, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1994,
p. 248.
~ 118 ~
With the spread of Āryans in ancient Magadha, the gurukula schooling also
got diffused as it was inherited in their culture and religion. The gift of learning is
superior to all gifts. The importance of studies especially Vedic learning was so great
that even householders and not merely bonafide students enjoyed learning it. The best
of Brāhmaṇa should study the Vedas and give instructions to his own peoples. Manu
mentions the study of Vedas and teaching of the Vedas to pupils as among the six
duties of every Brāhmaṇa. Even Vānapṛaṣrasthins were enjoined to study the Vedas.
It was therefore laid down that gifts should not be made to unlearned Brāhmaṇa.
Manu says, “To a Brāhmaṇa who has not studied the Vedas, oblations must not be
offered, as no one casts fire-offerings in the ashes”.88
From the Chāndogya89 and the Bṛhadāraṇyaka90 Upaniṣad we learn that the
kings used to help learned and Brāhmaṇas for the cultivation of knowledge even in
early times. The king constructed houses for them and made them settled there with
granted stipends for learning Vedas. All kinds of teachers and learned men had
honorariums ranging from 500 to 1000 paṇas according to their merit.91 Kauṭilya92
says, “Brāhmaṇas shall be provided with forests for religious learning, such forests
being rendered safe from the dangers from animate and inanimate objects and being
named after the tribal names of the Brāhmaṇas settled therein”. Those learned in the
Vedas were granted brahmadeya lands yielding sufficient produce, which were
exempted, from taxes and fines.93 Endowments to learned Brāhmaṇas took the form
of agrahāras or village settlement. For example, the Chicakole Plates of
Devendravarman record the grant of a village as an agrahāra to six Brāhmaṇas for
supporting ascetic teachers and their pupils.94

88
Manu, III, 168.
89
5.11.5.
90
2.1.1; 3.1.1.
91
R. Shamasastry (trans.), Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra, Mysore Printing and Publication, Mysore, 1961, p.
308.
92
Ibid, pp. 52-55.
93
Ibid, p. 52.
94
Epigraphica Indica, III, pp. 130-34.
~ 119 ~
Royal patronage of Brāhmaṇical learning was as old as the Rigveda.

Numberless hymns of the Rigveda show the grateful dānastutis of ṛṣis in praise of
their patrons. The emerging king patronised Brāhmaṇa scholars for their legitimacy.
The king performed major yajñas with the help of Brāhmaṇas because it was claimed
by those who performed the ritual as well as it was a belief of the king that through
the yajña, the gods conferred their approval on the king. The Ikṣākus of Koŝala, the
Janakas of Videha and the kings of Benares were renowned patrons of learning. The
great scholar Magadhan King Ajātaśatru enjoyed the company of the learned and
supported Brāhmaṇical learning centres.95 Under Ajātaśatru successors, Darsaka and
Udayi Brāhmaṇism and Brāhmaṇical system of learning was certainly dominant in the
Magadhan Empire and continued to be so under Nandivaṛdhana and Mahanandin of
the Sisunāga dynasty. 96 Chandragupta Maurya remained a firm believer in
Brāhmaṇism faith till his last years when he was drawn to Jainism, and Bindusāra
followed his father’s Brāhmaṇical faith and maintained at Pātaliputra a court of
learned persons.97 Some of the kings were themselves leaders of thought and drew
even Brāhmaṇa students for instruction in the special truths of which they were the
repositories. Such were Janaka of Videha, Ajātaśatru of Magadha,98 Pravahana Jaibali
of the Pañchāla country and Aśwapati Kaikeya.
III.4. Magadha as a Learning Centre

It is well known that Aśoka issued his inscriptions with a view to promote
amongst his people Dharma or the Law of Piety composed in vernacular dialects.
This allows that they were meant to suit the people of the different provinces and
implies a certain percentage of literacy among the people of ancient India. In the
words of Mookerji,

95
Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 2001, pp. 104-105.
96
Ibid, p. 106.
97
Ibid, pp. 106-107.
98
The Kaushitaki Upaniṣad inform us how the Brāhmaṇa scholar Gargya Balaki well read in the Veda
was silenced by the display of the superior knowledge of Ajātaśatru and wished to become his student
with fuel in hand.
~ 120 ~
“the care taken to publish the imperial edicts and commemorative records by
incising them in imperishable characters, most skillfully executed on rocks and pillars
in great cities, on main line of communication or at the sacred spots frequented by
pilgrims implies that a knowledge of reading and writing was widely diffused and
many people must have been able to read the documents. The same inference may be
drawn from the fact that the inscriptions are composed not in any learned scholastic
tongue but in vernacular dialects intelligible to the common people and modified
when necessary to suit local needs”.99
The main thrust area of Aśoka was ancient Magadha with capital Pātaliputra,
which are reflected from large number of inscriptions recovered in this area. This also
shows the wide spread area of literacy in ancient Magadha compared to other regions
which are contributed by existing gurukulas and mahāvihāras. Now we shall examine
the existing centres of knowledge both gurukulas and mahāvihāras on the land of
early Magadha.
III.4.a. Gurukulas in Magadha

It is mentioned before that there was late start of Brāhmaṇical education in the
land of Magadha but when it started, the pace of spread of gurukulas was faster and
was stimulated by the rich natural resources, prosperous economy and distinct liberal
culture of the region. We have already seen the reasons of this as because the learning
and teaching of Vedas was inherited in Brāhmaṇical religion and it was the primary
qualification for the recognition of a person as a Brāhmaṇa. The Śruti and the Śmṛti
both mention that the Brāhmaṇas, who neither study nor teach the Vedas nor maintain
the sacred fires, become of the conduct of Śūdras. Ancient Magadha held hermitages
of teachers of repute of various denominations who formed the greatest attraction for
the prince Siddhārtha who walked all the way from Kapilvastu to the famous hill
guarded capital of Magadha, Rājagriha. We get references of a number of gurukulas
from both Brāhmaṇical and Buddhist literatures scattered in all over ancient Magadha
acting as isolated and independent units of learning. The gurukulas were generally
cottage type of structure made of perishable materials like straw, grass, branches,
bamboo etc., which limit us to get its archaeological remains after a long time.

99
R. K. Mookerji, Aśoka, third revised edition, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1962, reprinted 1972, pp.
138-39.
~ 121 ~
We get references of two types of gurukulas from the Vedic corpus in ancient
Magadha. The prominent type of the hermitages under either one or many teachers
was generally established in the forest. We have two kinds of gurukulas in the forests.
First, some of the centres of learning were the hermitages of renowned ṛṣis and the
Vedic priests, who were permanently living in forests in their thatched cottage.
Second, other learned men who retired to the forest in their old age also acted as
teachers and accepted passionate scholars as students. Hiuen Tsiang also refers to
such forest hermitage as seats of learning. The other category of gurukulas were run
by bands of ascetics, who established themselves near the centre of population such as
towns, capitals, trade centres and religious centres etc., in view of the facilities so
afforded for attracting recruits. We read of Śvetaketu who after receiving his
education, first at Benares and then at Takṣaśīlā, comes in the course of his travel to a
village where he meets a group of 500 ascetics who after ordaining him taught him all
their arts, texts and practices.100
In the post-Vedic period especially from the period of Mauryan, the land of
ancient Magadha emerged as a prominent centre of Brāhmaṇical erudition with active
support of many monarchs. One of the capitals of early Magadha, Pātaliputra became
a nested place for renowned brāhmana scholars. The academic council or Senate of
Pātaliputra became famous in all over India and produced many great Brāhmaṇical
thinkers. There was great demand for diploma or degrees under the seal of Pātaliputra
academy, and it is said that even in these days some fake degrees with forged seal of
Pātaliputra were in vogue. The learned men from the Academy of Pātaliputra also
started their gurukulas for the transmission of Brāhmaṇical knowledge, culture and
religion and admitted students on large scale. The first economist of India, Kauṭilya or
Chāṇakya or Viṣṇugupta was perhaps born in the land of Magadha and had his school
and disciples here; while Kāmaṇdaka, who followed in the footsteps of the father of
economics can also be claimed to ancient Magadha. That the Science of Economics,
which is associated, the Science of Politics was systematically studied here is on
record while the Mahābhārata testifies the fact that the ministers of Magadha were

100
Santosh Kumar Das, The Educational System of Ancient Hindus, Gyan Publication House, New
Delhi, reprinted 1996, p. 323.
~ 122 ~
learned in statecraft. Upavarṣa and Varṣa,101 Pànini and Piṅgala,102 Vararuchi103 and
Patañjali104 rose to eminence in ancient Magadha and were trained from the Senate of
Pātaliputra, who was running their independent gurukulas. Piṅgala was a great scholar
of Chandas and is the author of Chandoviciti and is regarded as anuja of Pànini.
Vyadi is another distinguished grammarian whose book on grammar Sangrahasutra
was written much before Patañjali, who had very much admired the quality of
Piṅgala’s work. 105 It was in this land that Āryabhaṭṭa; the father of scientific
astronomy was born, while it was also the home of ṛṣis like Chyavaṇya and Dadhīchī.
History records the existence of certain Brāhmaṇical monastic and religious

corporations in ancient Rājagriha, which were composed of Jaṭilas, Nirgraṇṭhas,
Paribbājakas and Ājīvikas. Both the inner circles and outskirts of Rājagriha were
covered with the Vedic schools. Along the main streets of Rājagriha chaityas,
Ayurveda hospitals, nurses quarter, almshouses, rest houses, guesthouses, gāndharva
vidyālayas and other structures including veterinary establishments rested among
thick groves and specious garden. 106 Banyan, Bamboo, Mango, Lodhra, Pippala,
Tamāla, Palmyra, Vakula, Mādhavī and Champaka groves with lotus pools and lily
ponds were in abundance, where Brāhmaṇas usually established their gurukulas. The
city and suburb were watered by tributaries of the Saraswati, hot water streams,
Pañchānā, Godāvarī, Gomati and other streamlets besides numerous tanks and hot
springs. The town of Rājagriha was covered with dense forests. The city was bounded
by five hills named Ṛishigiri, Vaibhāra, Pāṇḍava, Vaipulya and Gṛidhrakūṭa with
lovely peaks and colourful foliage. In the present time, they are known as Sonagiri,

101
Varṣa was the teacher of Pànini.
102
Piṅgala was the guru of the sons of Bindusāra and especially of Aśoka. J. N. Samaddar, The Glories
of Magadha, Patna University Readership Lectures, second edition, Kuntaline Press, Calcutta, 1927, p.
3.
103
Vararuchi, the Buddhist Brāhmana was one of the ministers of Nanda.
104
There are many references in Patañjali to Pātaliputra that one can not but conclude that a portion, if
not the whole of his Mahābhāsya was written at the capital. Mahābhāsya, I, 15.
105
1996, p. 19.
106
p. 6.
~ 123 ~
Vaibhāra, Vipula, Ratnagiri and Udaigiri (Plate III.3.).107 On the five sacred hills
nestled the peaceful cottages of Siddhas, the cave dwellings of high souled Munis and
the abodes of Gāndharvas and Nāgas. In one artificial cell known as Pippala Cave
behind the Jarāsandha-kā-Baithak, Buddha used to sit for meditation after midday
meal. Later Mahākaśyapa resided in the identical cave. The house is claimed as the
earliest structural construction of the age in India.108

107
pp. 14-15.
108
Ibid, p. 17.
~ 124 ~
Plate III.3. Plan of Old Rājagriha
Source: J. N. Samaddar, The Glories of Magadha, Patna University Readership Lectures, second
edition, Kuntaline Press, Calcutta, 1927.
~ 125 ~
We learn from Buddhist literature that Buddha after stealing away from his
father’s palace went to the hermitage of one of the ascetic living in the forest near the
Rājagriha hills, Ālāra Kālāma by name. He taught Gautama the doctrine of
nothingness. Gautama describes his progress thus: “Very speedily I learned the
doctrine and so far as concerns uttering with mouths and lips the words”.109 In the
hermitage of Ālāra Kālāma, many ṛṣis were reciting the hymns of the Rigveda and
many others were singing passages from the Sāmaveda and the Atharvaveda. In
another part of the hermitage, saints who had seen the end of various śāstras like the
Purāṇas, Nyāya, Tatva, Ātmaviveka, Śabdaśāstra, the Vedas with their Vedāngas and
who were well-versed in the science of matter with its actions and qualities, in the
speech of birds and lower animals were discussing with one other the subtle points of
their respective branches of study.110 At the time of Buddha, a teacher Sanjaya also
resided at Rājagriha with about 250 disciples. 111 Among them were two young
disciples, namely, Sāriputra and Moggallāna. Achalagāma, a neighbouring forest
village maintained two shrines of Sūrya and Chandra. Their worship was conducted
according to Vedic rites. Rest houses, wells, tanks, prapās (centre for distributing
drinking water), houses, slops, store yards, Vedic schools for education,
gāndharvaśālās (schools of music), astrologers, incantators, omen readers, serpent
worshippers and magicians nestled among the forests on either sides of a road to the
temples.112
Halfway between Rājagriha and Nālandā was situated the famous garden
house, which is recorded as Ambalaṭṭhika of Bimbisāra. It was very close to a
prosperous Brāhmaṇa village, where a Vedic institution was run on a grand scale on a
valuable land granted by king Bimbisāra himself. The establishment enjoyed royal
endowments.113

109
Delhi, reprinted 1996, pp. 55-56.
110
Ibid, pp. 58-59.
111 D. C. Ahir, Buddhist Shrines in India, B.R. Paperback, New Delhi, second edition, 2000, p. 62.
112
p.16.
113
Ibid, p. 17.
~ 126 ~
Even Gaya region became famous when Buddha achieved enlightenment here
but simultaneously Brāhmaṇical education system also became diffused. Buddhism
and Brāhmaṇical religions both performed their learning activities in the land of
Gaya. In the eighth century during the reign of Dharmapāla, a devout Buddhist king, a
chaturmukha liṇga was installed by one Kesava even within the very precincts of the
Bodh-Gaya temple for the benefit of the Śivaite Brāhmaṇa scholars then residing at
Bodh-Gaya.114 Broadley found a Siva image and excavated a Brāhmaṇical temple at
Nālandā, predominantly a Buddhist site.115 The gurukulas in Bodhgaya were famous
as a centre for arts and culture especially the art of sculpture making. Hiuen Tsiang
recorded that the temple of Mahābodhi and the full size image of the Buddha
enshrined in the main sanctuary of the temple had been executed by a Śivaite
Brāhmaṇa artist together with another craftsman who also was a Brāhmaṇa.
The kings, as the numerous South Indian inscriptions testify, usually gave the
endowments to the village assemblies who used to watch over the management of the
seats of Brāhmaṇical learning in the locality. Even when a king wanted to bestow
patronage to a poet, he did it through some village assembly.116 The ascetics used to
live together in organised manners. The priests who lived in gurukulas were not all
lonely recluses or celibate anchorites cut from the society and the family. Some of
them formed family groups living with their wives and children but not pursuing
wealth or fame or material advancement like ordinary householders. Thus they lived
in the world but were not of it. They had frequent touch with the cities and the royal
court by means of respectful invitations to the domestic ceremonies of the kings and
rich men and the visits made by the latter to their hermitages in a spirit of pilgrimage.
III.4.b. Mahāvihāras in Magadha

The institution of mahāvihāras in the cool retreats of Magadha kept burning
the lights of learning with unorganised Brāhmaṇical gurukulas. The creative energy

114
p. 34.
115
Frederick M. Asher, “The Former Broadley Collection, Bihar Sharif”, Artibus Asiae, Vol. 32, No.
2/3, 1970, p. 108.
116
~ 127 ~
and spiritual illumination of Buddhist monasteries contributed for the amelioration of

lot of bewildered humanity and for the solution of the knotty problems of life. We get
an account of Buddhist monasteries in India from the itineraries of many Chinese,
Tibetan and Korean pilgrims who visited India and were attracted by the fame of the
Buddhist monasteries as places of wisdom. Hiuen Tsiang found above 50 monasteries
and more than 10000 ecclesiastics of the Mahāyāna school in the country of ancient
Magadha. 117 The recovered archaeological evidences also verify the account of
foreign travellers because the mahāvihāras were large buildings built of bricks and
stones. One can not say for certain that the historical ruins between Pātaliputra on the
one hand and Rājagriha and Gaya on the other have been comprehensively studied
and mapped, but the available reports unmistakably points out the historical validity
of the Rājagriha-Bihar Sharif-Pātaliputra alignment (Plate III.4.).118 In this part of the
present chapter, we shall deal with the noticeable mahāvihāras existing in ancient
Magadha. It will be a type of short introductory notes. The detailed and general
description of the evolution and organisation of the mahāvihāras will be discussed in
the next chapter.

117
S. Beal (trans.), Si-Yu-Ki Buddhist Record of Western World translated from the Chinese of Hiuen
Tsiang (A.D. 629), Vol. I, first edition, London, 1884, reprinted Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1969,
p. 86.
118
~ 128 ~
Plate III.4. Major Buddhist Sites in Ancient Magadha
Source: Dilip K. Chakrabarti, The Archaeology of the Deccan Routes: The Ancient Routes from the
Ganga Plain to the Deccan, Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 2005.
Rājagriha was a symbol of the Buddhist faith that dominated the early ages of
Buddhist austerity and penance, of mountain solitude and of the constant
contemplation, which consummated in salvation. The focus region in ancient
Magadha is the area between Pātaliputra and Rājagriha. This is an area, which has
been explored by a large number of scholars including Cunningham119 and Beglar.120
This is the region was in constant attention in Buddhist religion and learning from the
life of Buddha. After the enlightenment, Buddha came to the Veṇuvana surrounded
by bamboos in Rājagriha. During the lifetime of Buddha, two stūpas were erected at

119
A. Cunningham, Report of a tour in Bihar and Bengal in 1879-80: from Patna to Sunargaon,
Archaeological Survey of India, No. 15, Indological, Delhi. 1969. A. Cunningham, Report of tours in
the Central Provinces and Lower Gangetic Doab in 1880-81, Archaeological Survey of India, No.17,
Indological, Delhi, 1969. A. Cunningham, Report of tours in North and South Bihar in 1880-81,
Archaeological Survey of India, No.16, Indological, Delhi, 1969.
120
J. D. Beglar, Report of a Tour through the Bengal Province in 1872-73, Government of India,
Calcutta, 1878.
~ 129 ~
the gate of Veṇuvana, one containing the relics of Añña-koṇḍañña and the other those
of Moggallāna.121 This site became famous as the first Buddhist monastery, along the
steep bank of the Karandaka Lake of thousand lotuses.122 King Ajātaśatru met Buddha
in the mango grove of Jīvaka and listened to his religious discourses that were
delivered in the monastery, which the famous court physician had built for him as
mentioned in Dīgha-Nikāya (See plan of Old Rājagriha, Plate III.). Enclosed by a
copper coloured twenty-seven feet high and provided with sleeping accommodations,
the monastic establishment contained cells, huts, pavilions and a private chamber for
the use of Buddha and his order. 123 Pāli texts mention various places besides
Veṇuvana in and around Rājagriha- Sītavaṇa, Jīvaka’s Ambavaṇa, Pipphaliguhā,
Udumbarikārāma, Moranivāpa with its Paribbājākārama, Tapodārāma, Indasālaguhā
in Vediyagiri, Sattapaṇṇiguhā, Laṭṭhivana, Maddakucchi, Supatitthacetiya,
Pāsānakacetiya, Sappasondikapabbhāra and the pond Sumāgadhā. At the time of the
death of Buddha, there were eighteen large monasteries in Rājagriha. After the
parinirvāṇa at Kuśinagara, Ajātaśatru built a stūpa over the relics of Buddha and
brought and deposited the relics on the eastern side of Veṇuvana where he used to
rest. Later on Aśoka had this stūpa renovated. He took away most of the relics from
that place for distributing the same among the numerous stūpas he gradually erected
all over India.
Kukkuṭārāma Mahāvihāra
Hiuen Tsang refers to the old monastery of Kukkuṭārāma as lying 100 li east
of Mohana River and this is now in ruins. This monastery was where the Buddhist
once lived along with the Tīrthikas and they use to call meetings by gong beating.124
Fa-Hien had called it Chi-tsu and placed it three li south of Bodh Gaya.125 R. D.

121
Anita Sharma, Early Indian Buddhism: A Study of the Contributions of Major Urban Centres to its
Developments, Vidyanidhi Prakashan, Delhi, 2004, p. 84.
122
p. 49.
123
Ibid, p. 50.
124
R. K. Mukherjee, Ancient Indian Education: Brāhmaṇical and Buddhist, fourth edition, Motilal
Banarsidass, Delhi, 1969, pp. 516-517.
125
p. 82.
~ 130 ~
Banerjee had identified Kukkuṭārāma of Hiuen Tsiang with modern Gurpa Hill
showing three peaks on the Gaya-Calcutta line about 25 miles to the east of Gaya.
Pandey fully agrees with Banerjee’s identification of Kukkuṭārāma with the Gurpa
hill.126
Pātaliputra Mahāvihāra
In speaking of the monastery at Pātaliputra, Hiuen Tsiang127 says,
“By the side of the Tope of Aśoka there had been made a
Mahāyāna monastery, very grand and beautiful; there is also a
Hinayāna one; the two together containing six or seven hundred
monks, grave and decorous, each in his proper place – a striking
sight. The rules of demeanour and the scholastic arrangements in
them are worthy of observation. Monks of the highest virtue from all
quarter and students, inquires wishing to find out the truth and the
grounds of it all resort to these monasteries”.
There is a resident Brāhmaṇa teacher in the former, who is named Mañjuśrī

(after the famous Bodhisattva) and who is much looked up to by the leading
mendicants under the Greater Vehicle throughout the kingdom.128
During the time of Chandragupta II, the learned and far famed teacher of
Mahāyāna, Radhaswami was living in the monastery of Pātaliputra.129 The wisdom
and knowledge of this old teacher had deep impact on the contemporary society that
the land of the Buddha was widely made known. The Pātaliputra monasteries
appeared to have also specialised in medicine both theory and practice. Fa-hien refers
to two large hospitals giving free treatment and medicines to the mahāvihāras.130 We

126
M. S. Pandey, Historical Geography and Topography of Bihar, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1963, p.
48.
127
p. 93.
128
J. Legge (trans.), The Travels of Fa-hien: A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms, being an account of the
Chinese monk Fa-hien of his travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist
books of discipline, Master Publication, New Delhi, 1981, p. 78.
129
H. A. Giles (trans.), The Travels of Fa-hsien: A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms, Routledge & Kegan
Paul, London, 1956, second edition, Indological Book House, Varanasi, 1972, p. 46.
130
~ 131 ~
have archaeological evidence of this as in excavations at Kumhrar, not only the

monastery’s remains were unearthed but also on a clay seal where we have the
inscription in the Gupta Brāhmī script ārogyavihārabhikshusaṅghasya – the Buddhist
monastery’s ārogyavihāra hospital-cum-sanatorium.131
Jītavaṇa Mahāvihāra
In Fa-Hien’s time the chief place for higher Buddhist education in ancient
Magadha was the Jītavaṇa monastery near Pātaliputra. The campus of Jitavana
mahāvihāra were having chapels for preaching and halls for meditation, mess rooms
and chambers for monks, bath houses, a hospital, libraries and reading rooms with
pleasant shady tanks and a great wall encompassing all. The libraries were richly
furnished not only with orthodox Buddhist literature but also with Vedic or the non-
Buddhist works and with treatises on the arts and science taught in India at the time.
The monastery was well situated being conventionally near the city and yet far from
the distracting sights and noises of the world. Moreover the park afforded a perfect
shade and was a delightful place for walking in during the heat and glare of the
tropical day. It had streams and tanks of cool clear water; it was free from noxious
stinging creatures; it was a favourite resort of the good and devotional people of all
regions.132
Tiloshika Mahāvihāra
Between 40 and 50 miles in a south west direction from the Kukkuṭārāma and
about 20 miles to the west of Nālandā was the large and famous establishment of the
Tiloshika monastery, originally erected by the last descendent of King Bimbisāra. It
has four courts with three-storeyed halls, lofty terraces and a succession of open
passage. Hiuen Tsiang found it above 1000 brethren all Mahāyānists.133 A famous

131
1996, pp. 19-20.
132
Thomas Watters (trans.), On Yuan-Chwang’s travels in India (A.D. 629-695), T.W. Rhys Davids
and S.W. Busshell (eds.), Vol. I, second edition, Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1973, p. 386.
133
London, 1888, reprinted 1911, 1914; second edition Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1973, pp.
102-105.
~ 132 ~
Buddhist scholar and master of the law Jñānachandra by name were in this monastery
when I-Tsing visited it. I-Tsing mentions this monastery as two yojanas distant from
Nālandā. 134 Another Chinese pilgrim Wu-hing, who landed in Southern India at
Nagapatam, visited this monastery. Wu-hing learned the logical system of Jīna and
Dharmakīrti from a teacher of logic living nearby.135 Tiloshika has been identified
with modern Tillāra, west of Nālandā.136 Broadley also describes a monastery at
Tillāra near Hilsa from where he obtained some of the finest sculptures and
carvings.137
Guṇamati Mahāvihāra
Another famous monastery in the locality of Magadha was on the slope of a
mountain with its high bases baked by the ridge and chambers hewn out of the cliff.
This was built in honour of Guṇamati Bodhisattva who was vanquished during a
discussion with the great Śāmkhya doctor Mādhava. Cunningham believed that the
Guṇamati monastery was located at village Dharawat near Barābar hill.138
Śīlabhadra Mahāvihāra
Not far from the Guṇamati Monastery on the way from Pātaliputra to Gayā,
was another famous monastery built by the Śāstras-master Śīlabhadra, who was
originally a scion of the Brāhmaṇical royal family of Samataṭa. He was travelling
through India in search of the wise and came to Nālandā and received instruction
under Dharmapāla and became Dharmapāla’s most eminent disciples.139 Cunningham

134
J. Takakusu, A Record of Buddhist Religion as Practiced in India and the Malay Archipelago by I-
Tsing, first edition, London, 1896, Reprinted Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1966, p. 184.
135
R. K. Mookerji, Ancient Indian Education: Brāhmaṇical and Buddhism, second edition, Macmillan,
London, 1951, p. 556.
136
A., Cunningham, The Ancient Geography of India: the Buddhist period including the campaigns of
Alexander, and the travels of Hiuen-Tsiang, Low Price Publication, Delhi, 1963, p. 456.
137
A. M. Broadley, “The Buddhist Remains of Bihar”, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol.
40, No. 1, pp. 209-302.
138
and S.W. Busshell (eds.), Vol. I, second edition, Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1973, p. 143.
139
p. 110.
~ 133 ~
has identified the site of the Śīlabhadra monastery with the Kauwadol hill and its
surroundings on the basis of the remains of a monastery in its vicinity.140
Vajrāsana or Mahābodhi Mahāvihāra

When the sacred shrine at Bodh Gaya came to be known, as Mahābodhi is not
certain. In his inscription, Aśoka calls it Sambodhi.141 Fa-hien who saw it in 409 AD
did not mention the name. However, Hiuen Tsang who visited it two centuries later,
calls it the Mahābodhi Vihāra. The Mahābodhi Saṅghārāma in Gayā built by a former
king of Ceylon named Meghabarṇa with the permission of the Gupta Emperor
Samudragupta. Its buildings formed six courts and terraces and halls of three storeys
that were enclosed by walls between 30 and 40 feet high; the sculpture and pointing
were perfect. There were nearly 1000 ecclesiastics, all Mahāyānists of the Sthavira
school, and all perfect in the Vinaya observance.142 The history of the Mahābodhi is
one of fluctuating fortunes linked to the shifting patronage and political events. The
site of Bodhgayā was first marked by a tree shrine (Plate III.5.) in the Śunga period
(second to first century BC), which consisted of a two-storied structure enclosing the
tree.143 Later the Chinese pilgrim Fa-hien attested structural temple on the site and at
Bodhgayā the local population maintained three large monasteries.144 The evidences
of Kuṣāṇa phase at Bodhgayā shrine show constructional activities of an additional
nature that were carried out during later part of the Indo-Scythian period.145 The
crowning parts of the earliest hemispherical stūpa were developed and elaborated to
several stories, which gradually increased from five to thirteen Bhūmis. The ideals of
the Vedic Brāhmaṇas and of the Buddhism met spiritually on a common religious

140
Archaeological Survey of India Reports, Vol. VIII, p. 40.
141
D. C. Ahir, Buddhist Shrines in India, B.R. Paperback, New Delhi, second edition, 2000, p. 10.
142
and S.W. Busshell (eds.), Vol. II, second edition, Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1973, p. 136
143
John Guy, “The Mahābodhi Temple: Pilgrim Souvenirs of Buddhist India”, The Burlington
Magazine, Vol. 133, No. 1059 (Jun., 1991), p.358.
144
S. Beal (trans.), Si-Yu-Ki Buddhist Records of Western World translated from the Chinese Hiuen
Tsiang (A.D. 629), Vol. II, first edition, London, 1884, reprinted Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1969,
p. lxiii.
145
Arun Kumar Singh, The Archaeology of Magadha Region, Ramanand Vidya Bhawan, New Delhi,
1991, p. 124.
~ 134 ~
platform at Bodhgayā. The development consummated in pyramidal and conical

forms of Brāhmaṇa-Buddhist temples as evidenced in the towering temple of
Bodhgayā in the replica of Bharhut of the third century BC and in the plaque of about
the same period that was unearthed at Kumrahar (Pātaliputra).146 The Tibetan monk
Dharmasvāmin observed in 1234 about the decline that ‘they bring the offerings of
curds, milk and aromatics from afar in vessels. Thus they worship the Bodhi-tree and
keep it constantly moist. The monks who once occupied the nearby monasteries had
fled’.147

146
p. 33.
147
G. Roerich (trans.), Biography of Dharmasvāmin, K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute, Patna, 1959, p.
67.
~ 135 ~
Plate III.5. Relief Depicting the Mahābodhi tree-shrine at Bodhgayā
Source: Indian Museum, Calcutta.
~ 136 ~
The mahāvihāra of Mahābodhi was visited by I-Tsing who worshipped the

image of the real face of Buddha.148 He also refers to the miraculous power possessed
by the Nāga Mahāmukilinda of this mahāvihāra.149 For the purpose of announcing
hours to the monastic, there was a clepsydra in this monastery where a bowl is
immersed sixteen times between morning and midday.150 The Chinese pilgrim Hiuen-
Chiu in the middle of the seventh century who remained here for four years visited
this monastery.151 The Chinese pilgrims – Taou-le,152 Hiuen-Ta’I,153 Hiuen-hau,154
Taou-sing155 and Yuan-hwui156 also visited it. Mocha-deva, a Cochin-Chinese also
visited it and died here.157 Samghavarmā, a man of Samarkand also visited it.158 Hwui
Lun a Korean pilgrim otherwise called Prajñāvarmā also refers to this monastery.159
The Chinese pilgrim Wu-hing, the Dhyāna master also visited it with his Sanskrit
name Prajñadeva.160 The Tibetan monk Dharmasvāmin, who made his pilgrimage to
the land of Buddhism, was among the last in a long line of pilgrims to visit the
important site at Bodhgaya.161 During his residence here, Atiśa “thrice defeated the
Tīrthikas heretics in religious controversy and thereby maintained the superiority of

148
Tsing, first edition, London, 1896, Reprinted Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1966, p. XXXII.
149
Ibid, p. 39.
150
Ibid, p. 145.
151
London, 1888, reprinted 1911, 1914; second edition Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1973, p.
XXVIII.
152
Tsing, first edition, London, 1896, Reprinted Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1966,, p. XXIX.
153
Ibid, p. XXX.
154
Ibid, p. XXX.
155
Ibid, p. XXXI.
156
Ibid, p. XXXII.
157
Ibid, p. XXXIV.
158
Ibid, p. XXXVI.
159
Ibid, p. XXXVII.
160
London, 1951, p. 556.
161
John Guy, “The Mahābodhi Temple: Pilgrim Souvenirs of Buddhist India”, The Burlington
Magazine, Vol. 133, No. 1059 (Jun., 1991), p. 356.
~ 137 ~
Buddhism over all other religions in Magadha”.162 When Abhayakara Gupta was at
the head of the Buddhist hierarchy of Magadha (that is, towards the end of the
eleventh and the beginning of twelfth century) there was less than one thousand
monks at Mahābodhi as compared with three thousand at Vikramaśīlā and one
thousand at Odāntapurī.163
Nālandā Mahāvihāra
Nālandā Mahāvihāra emerged as the largest and the most famed Buddhist
learning institution on the land of Magadha. In this regard, Nālandā needs to be
studied in detail, which will be done in the chapter V. Here we shall have an
introduction to the Mahāvihāra of Nālandā. It seems that during the time of Buddha,
Nālandā was a well-developed and prosperous town with adequate population.164
Many a time, with his favourite disciple Ananda, Buddha visited Nālandā and stayed
at the Pavarika mango-grove, where a small vihāra was constructed. Over the
centuries, this small vihāra got expanded into mahāvihāra and got transformed into a
temple of learning.
Hiuen-Tsiang gave the name of the royal founder of Nālandā as Śakrāditya.

Śakrāditya was popularly known as Kumāragupta I, who reigned in 415-55 A.D.
Successive Gupta Emperors like Buddhaguptarājā, Puragupta, and Narasimhagupta
etc., went on constructing monasteries of their own on the different sides of the
original structure, following the example set by Śakrāditya. After Vajra, we learn
from Hiuen Tsiang that a King of Central India built a great sanghārāma to north of
Vajra and an encircling with one gate.165 King Harsavardhana of Kanauj appears to be
the King of Central India.166 The monastery of Nālandā came to the Pālās as a cultural

162
S. C. Das, Indian Pundits in the Land of Snow, K. L. Mukhopadhyay Firma, Calcutta, 1965, p. 51.
163
P. N. Bose, Indian Teachers of Buddhist Universities, Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar, pp.
84, 157-58.
164
J. Takakusu (trans.), A Records of Buddhist Religion as Practiced in India and Malay Peninsula by
I-Tsing, 1st edition, London, 1896, reprinted Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1966, p. 59.
165
S. Beal (trans.), The Life of Hiuen-Tsiang by Hwui Li, Vol. I, first edition, Trench Trubner Com.,
London, 1888, reprinted 1911, 1914, second edition, Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1973, p. 216.
166
H. C. Roychaudhary, Political History of Ancient India, University of Calcutta, Calcutta, 1972, p.
225.
~ 138 ~
legacy of the past, which they being Mahāyāna Buddhists were bound to cherish.
Now it developed as a citadel of the Tantric cult.167 The first Pāla kings — Gopāla
and then Dharmapāla, built monasteries here. Devapāla identifies himself with the
cause of Nālandā and it was during his time that Nālandā emerged as an international
university.
The splendor and vastness of Nālandā Mahāvihāra emerged after the

excavation of the site. In the light of archeological findings, the campus had fourteen
temples and thirteen monasteries168 in opposite direction. The structure of whole
monastery was well planed and arranged in such a way that students and teachers
could meditate and venerate along with their study. It is believed that out of the total
number of 10000 resident monks at Nālandā, as many as 1510 belonged to the rank of
teachers.169 The number of students residing at Nālandā counted to 10,000 by Hiuen
Tsang170 while at the time of I-Tsing, the number of students exceeded three thousand
more.171 Basham believes that all these figures are not compatible with the finds of
the excavations; he thinks the number could have exceeded 1000.172 Hewing closer to
the number given by I-Tsing, Sankalia assumed approximately 4000 students lived at
Nālandā. The fame of Nālandā attracted students and teachers from all parts of India
as well as from abroad. Some of these came from China, Tibet, Mongolia173 and
Korea.174 Again, we learn from I-Tsing that after Hiuen Tsiang’s visit and before him,
in the interval of about fifty years as many as fifty-six-foreign students and scholars

167
C. S. Upasak, Nālandā: Past and Present, Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, Nalanda, 1977, p. 11.
168
There are 11 monasteries in the site of n but during excavation, the monastery I emerged with its
two parts, which named as monastery lA and IB.
169
S. Beal (trans.), Life of Hiuen Tsang by Hwui Li, Vol. I, first edition, London, 1888, reprinted
Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1973, p.112.
170
Ibid, p.118.
171
J. Takakusu (trans.), A Record of Buddhist Religion as Practiced in India and Malay Archipelago by
I-Tsing, first edition, London, 1896, reprinted Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1966, p. 154.
172
A. L. Basham, The Wonder that was India, Sidgwich and Jacson Com., London, first edition, 1967,
third revised edition, 2003, p. 166.
173
174
Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1973, pp. XXIX, XXX and XXXVI.
~ 139 ~
visited India. All students and teachers lived as a community in their allotted rooms
within the campus and were provided with free food, cloth and all stuffs of daily
needs from the administration of mahāvihāra. There was close touch between the
professors and the students. I-Tsing observed, “I used to converse with teachers so
intimately that I was able to receive invaluable instructions personally from them”.175
The elements of both secular and religious knowledge, of philosophical and

practical subjects, entered into the curriculum of Nālandā Mahāvihāra. Properly
speaking, it comprises the study of the five subjects, viz. Sabdavidyā (grammar and
lexicography), Silpasthanavidyā (arts), Chikitsavidyā (medicine), Hetuvidyā (logic),
and Adhyatmavidyā (philosophy).176 Hiuen Tsiang also narrates that the students at
Nālandā studied the Great Vehicle (Mahāyāna Buddhism) and the works belonging to
the eighteen sects. They also studied even ordinary works, such as the Vedas and
other books, the works on Magic (Atharvaveda), Samkhya, and they thoroughly
investigated the miscellaneous works.177 The study of astronomy, law, mathematics,
arts and medicine were also carried out at Nālandā. I-Tsing mentions that he studied
medicine at Nālandā but later he left because it was not so vocative. This is almost a
common feature of all the monasteries of ancient Magadha. Apart from this, the daily
life of residents was disciplined to keep them healthy and fresh.178
The above-mentioned, wide range of courses was taught in Pāli with limited
use of Sanskrit, which was a must language to be acquired before admission. One
should also note the two basic types of exercises in all faculties, namely the lecture
and the dispute. Every day about hundred pulpits for preaching at Nālandā was
arranged and the students attended these discourses without any fail, even for a

175
176
London, 1951, p. 586; S. K. Das, The Education System of The Ancient Hindus, Gyan Publication, New
Delhi, 1996, p. 538.
177
S. Beal (trans.), Si-Yu-Ki Buddhist Records of Western World translated from the Chinese Hiuen
Tsiang (A.D. 629), Vol. II, first edition, London, 1884, reprinted Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1969,
p. 121.
178
Pintu Kumar, Cultural Life at Nālandā University, History and Culture, The Icfai University
Journal, Vol. IV, Nos. 1 & 2, January & April 2010, p. 103.
~ 140 ~
minute.179 The platform with a number of stone column-bases had the pulpit for the
teacher to address students, who were seated in the courtyard.180 An oral debate like
seminar, conference, debate of modern days were conducted on all issues that served
to establish, defend or refute a particular theory and allowed to develop a new
philosophy. It is evident from the account of Hiuen-Tsiang about Nālandā, who says
“the brethren are often assembled for discussion to test intellectual capacity to reject
the worthless and advance the intelligent and the day is not sufficient for asking and
answering profound questions.181
Nālandā functioned as an autonomous and self-sufficient body with enough

funds and staffs at its disposal to carry on the work to which it dedicated itself. The
management of administration was in hands of both the teachers and the students, on
the high and lower level respectively. The most intellectual and senior scholar would
be head of the monastery called the treasure of the good law. This scholar was given
the responsibility of appointing all other staffs such as Vihārapalas (the keepers or the
custodian of the gate), lay servants, the Karmadāna (the sub director of the monastery
to exercise a general superintendence over all monastic works), the Sthavira, and the
presiding priest etc.182
The library of Nālandā Mahāvihāra was situated in a special area known as

Dharmagaṇja (Mart of Religion). Dharmagaṇja comprised three huge buildings
called Ratnasāgara (Ocean of Jewels), Ratnadadhī (Sea of Jewel) and Ratnaraṇjaka
(Jewel-adorned), of which Ratnasāgara 183 comprising of nine-storied building

179
Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1973, p.112.
180
B. N. Misra, Nālandā (Sources and Background), Vol. I, B.R. Publishing Corporation, Delhi, 1998,
p. 31.
181
Thomas, Watters (trans.), On Yuan-Chwang’s travels in India (A.D 629-695), T.W. Rhys Davids
and S.W. Busshell (eds.), Vol. II, second edition, Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1973, p. 165 and S.
Beal (trans.), Si-Yu-Ki Buddhist Record of Western World translated from the Chinese of Hiuen Tsiang
(A.D. 629), Vol. II, first edition, London, 1884, reprinted Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1969, p.162.
182
Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1973, p. 108.
183
According to Tibetan sources, this building was burned down by irate tīrthikas mendicant in the
revenge for an insult by young monks: Satis Chandra Vidyabhusana, A History of Indian Logic:
Ancient, Medieval and Modern Schools, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1978, p. 147.
~ 141 ~
specialised in the collection of rare sacred works.184 The wealth of its libraries grew
day by day as I-Tsing mentions that after expiry of Buddhist scholar at Nālandā, his
collection of manuscript was added to the library.185 After Hiuen Tsang, the two
Korean monks Tche-Hong and Hoeiye, and another Chinese monk Ke-ye came to
study in these libraries.186
The historians are not unified about the reasons behind the degradation of the
ancient Nālandā Mahāvihāra. Some buildings were damaged and it is possible that at
least part of Nālandā was destroyed by fire since heaps of ashes and charcoal were
found at excavation.187 Nālandā together with the mahāvihāra of Vikramaśīlā and
Odāntapurī suffered gravely during the conquest of Bihar by the Muslim General
Muhammad Bhakhtiyār Khalji between A.D. 1197 and 1206 and many monks were
killed or forced to leave.188 The destruction though might not have been total right
away, since in A.D. 1234, as the Tibetan monk Dharmasvāmin visited Nālandā, he
found some building unscathed with some pundits and monks residing under the
leadership of Rāhulasribhadra.189 The decline of Nālandā was significant as it was not
only marked the decline of the organised learning in ancient Magadha and India but it
also marked the beginnings of the middle ages with the advent of Islam.
Yasovarmmapura Mahāvihāra
The Yasovarmmapura Mahāvihāra was a famous centre of Buddhist learning
during ninth and tenth century A.D. or even much before. Yasovarmmapura was

184
H. N. Sastri, Nālandā and its Epigraphic Materials, Memories of the Archeological Survey of India,
No. 66, p. 07ff.
185
I-Tsing, first edition, London, 1896, reprinted Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1966, p. xvii.
186
Abhendra Kumar Singh, Rise of Nālandā: A Seat of Learning, in R. Panth (chief editor), Nālandā-
Buddhism and the World, Research Volume- VII, Nava Nālandā Mahāvihārā, Nālandā, 2001, p. 34.
187
p.203; H. D. Sankalia, University of Nālandā, Indian Historical Institute Series, Oriental Publication,
New Delhi, 1972, p. 246.
188
Lama Chimpa and Alaka, Chattopadhyaya (trans.), Lama Tārānātha: History of Buddhism in India,
K. P. Bagchi Com., Calcutta, 1980, p. 139.
189
G. N. Roerich (ed. and trans.), Biography of Dharamāswāmin, K.P. Jayaswal Research Institute,
Patna, 1959, pp. 90, 90-95.
~ 142 ~
identified with modern Ghosrawan village, which lies exactly eight miles South-East
distant from Bihar Sharif on the Bihar-Ranchi Road in the neighbourhood of
Pawapuri.190 At this place a Buddhist inscription of sometime between the middle of
the ninth and the middle of the tenth centuries A.D. was found by Capitan Kittoe in
March 1848 and finally edited by Frank Kielhorn describing Viradeva was given
patronage by the Pala ruler Devapāla with numerous idols mutilated or entirely, which
shows that there have been more than one Buddhist temple of the tāntric period on
this spot for the mound is extensive.191 Broadley also visited the village in 1872 and
states that one thousand three hundred and fifty feet of the South of the Vihāra of
Viradeva are the remains of another temple of considerable size where he had
discovered a standing figure of Buddha six feet high.192 Besides much before the
establishment of the Pala empire, Yasovarman- the King of Kanauj (725-752 AD) had
founded a town at Ghosrawan and this he did either to commemorate his victory over
the Lord of Magadha and Gauda or to mark the site of the battle.193 But it does not
indicate the date of the foundation of the Ghosrawan monastery. On the basis of a
large number of images belonging to Brāhmaṇical gods and goddesses along with
Buddhist images at that place we can presume that the monastery of Ghosrawan was
founded during the fifth or sixth century AD.194
Viradeva whose description has been given in the eulogy, started on his travels
and came to the Nālandā Mahāvihāra from where he went to Vajrāsana and after
spending some time there, he again came back to a place called Yasovarmmapura
Mahāvihāra (Ghosrawan). At this place he established himself as a religious monk
scholar of considerable eminence and was honoured by King Devapāla. At

190
F. Kielhorn, ‘A Buddhist Inscription from Ghosrawa’, Indian Antiquary, Vol. XVII, 1888, p. 311.
But Cunningham locates with the present town of Biharsharif- Archaeological Survey of India Reports,
III, Vol. VIII, p. 36.
191
F. Kielhorn, ‘A Buddhist Inscription from Ghosrawa’, Indian Antiquary, Vol. XVII, 1888, p. 309
192
A. M. Broadley, The Buddhistic Remains of Bihar, Bharati Prakashan, Varanasi, 1979, pp. 59-60.
193
R. S. Tripathy, History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest, first edition, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi,
1937, p. 201.
194
Raj Kumari Devi, ‘Ghosrawan Monastery: An Ideal Seat of Buddhist Learning’ in R. Panth (ed.),
Nālandā – Buddhism and the World, Research Volume VII, Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, Nalanda, 2001,
p. 212.
~ 143 ~
Yasovarmmapura monastery he stayed for pretty long time and devoted his time in
studies and religious practices. Later he was appointed head of the Mahāvihāra of
Nālandā.
Odantapurī Mahāvihāra
The original name of the vihāra was Uḍyantapurī ‘the flying city’, which had
been softened by Tibetans into Odantapurī or Udantapurī.195 The mahāvihāra was so
called because it was situated on a hill and if viewed from the plain area, it looked as
if a city (puri) were flying (udyanta) in the sky. The geographical and strategic
advantage coupled with its hallowed glamour must have impelled the Buddhists of the
eight century AD to select this as the site of the second major mahāvihāra in
Magadha for meditation, teaching and other connected religious and educational
activities.196 It should be in the middle of the typical plain area, because two others
namely Vajrāsana and Nālandā founded earlier were close to hills. Odantapurī
Mahāvihāra was identified with modern town of Bihārsharif, the headquarters of
Nālandā district. Bihārsharif lies on the old route between Rājagriha and the Ganges,
as the religious preachers and traders alike going followed this to Vaisālī and Śrāvastī.
Ambalaṭṭhika (lying between Rājagriha/Nālandā and Pātaligama/ the Ganges), where
Buddha stayed in the last year of his physical life, is no other than Uddandapura,
which stands for the later Bihārsharif. Also we know that Bihārsharif is an old famous
historical place being the find spot of the fragment of a sandstone pillar, 14 feet high,
bearing two important Gupta inscriptions one of the time of Kumāragupta and the
other of Skandagupta.197 The most detailed investigation of the Bihar Sharif sector
was conducted by Broadley198 who found a large number of monastic sites and
inscriptions in the area between Bihar Sharif and Rājagriha. He describes monastic

195
Lama Chimpa and Alaka Chattopadhyaya (trans.), Lama Tārānātha: History of Buddhism in India,
K. P. Bagchi Com., Calcutta, 1980, pp. 263-264.
196
Yogendra Mishra, ‘The University of Odantapurī circa A. D. 725-1197’ in P. N. Ojha (ed.) Homage
to Bhikkhu Jagdish Kashyap, Shri Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, Nalanda, 1986, p. 171.
197
D. R. Patil, The Antiquarian Remains in Bihar, Kasiprasad Jaiswal Research Institute, Patna. 1963,
pp. 44-45.
198
A. M. Broadley, “The Buddhist Remains of Bihar”, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol.
40, No. 1, pp. 209-312.
~ 144 ~
ruins and sculptures at Icchos, Mubarakpur, Afzalpur, Daphthu, Ghosrawan and

Tetrawan in the general area of Bihar Sharif with Odāntapurī Mahāvihāra.
Odantapurī was established by Gopāla, the first king of Pāla dynasty about the
middle of the eighth century AD.199 The first Buddhist monastery in Tibet Sam-ye
was built in 749 A.D. on the model of Odantapurī mahāvihāra with the assistance of
Śāntarakṣitā, the earliest scholar associated with Odantapurī. If this tradition is true
then at least the nucleus of this college at Odantapurī must go back the Pāla period.200
The king of Magadha fortified the monastery and stationed some troops with whom
the monks joined in repulsing the invaders.201 Tārānātha especially noted the non-
royal character of the Buddhist monastery at its initial stage202 because it was an
unusual feature. He mentioned that this monastery does not owe itself to the grace of
any king or minister. The architect, sculptors and artists who worked for the
construction and its images were paid and maintained from the money obtained in
exchange of the gold received from the vetala203. Although there is no indication of its
maintenance, it may be gathered from the Tibetan sources that the monarchs of Pāla
dynasty maintained Odantapurī. Also it must have been getting financial support from
the Tibetan Buddhists and the rich merchants and feudal chiefs of ancient
Magadha.204

199
F. E. Keay, Ancient Indian Education: An Enquiry into its Origin, Development and Ideas, Cosmo
Publication, New Delhi, 1980, p. 106; V. A. Smith, Early History of India from 600 BC to the
Muhammadan Conquest including the Invasion of Alexander the Great, Clarendon Press, Oxford,
fourth revised edition, 1962, p. 398; S. Dutt, The Buddhist Monks and Monasteries of India: Their
History and Their Contribution to Indian Culture, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1988, p. 354.
200
p.116; R. K. Mookerjee, Ancient Indian Education: Brāhmaṇical and Buddhism, second edition,
Macmillan, London, 1951, p. 577.
201
Lama Chimpa and Alaka, Chattopadhyaya (trans.), Lama Tārānātha: History of Buddhism in India,
202
Ibid, pp. 262-264.
203
Taranatha mentions that Odantapurī Vihāra was built by a Buddhist monk Uḍya-upasaka with the
gold he had got as a reward from a tīrthika yogi of Magadha for assisting him in attaining the Vetal-
siddhi.
204
Yogendra Mishra, ‘The University of Odantapurī circa A. D. 725-1197’ in P. N. Ojha (ed.) Homage
to Bhikkhu Jagdish Kashyap, Shri Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, Nalanda, 1986, p. 174.
~ 145 ~
Odantapurī Mahāvihāra was famous as a stronghold of Tantric Buddhism.

There was no less than fifty teachers and a thousands monks at Odantapurī with up to
twelve thousand monks gathering there on special occasions205 as compared with
three thousand monks at Vikramaśīlā and one thousand at Mahābodhi.206 The 53rd
Siddha, Yoga-pa also known as Yogī-pa lived in Odantapurī, was of the caṇḍāla caste
and his guru was Sabara-pa. Taranatha places him during the reign of Mahapāla, son
of Mahipāla. 207 The 94th Siddha Ratnākara Śanti, also known as Śānti-pa and
Ratnākaraśānti-pa one of the dwārapaṇditas of Vikramaśīlā was ordained in the
Sarvāstivāda school of Odantapurī.208 Even Atiśa or Dīpāñkara Śrījñāna, the high
priest of Vikramaśīlā took the sacred vow at his nineteenth year from Śila Rakṣitā, the
Mahāsañghika ācārya of Odantapurī monastery and a monk of Odantapurī vihāra,
Prabhākara by name was the translator of Sāmudṛka-vyañjanu-varṇana into
Tibetan.209 The highest respect was paid to the greatest scholar. From Tibetan records
we learn that when Nayapāla (Chāṇakya) visited the convocation of the mahāvihāra
of Odantapurī none of the senior scholars stood up to salute him but when Atiśa came
all stood up in reverence to him.210 This vihāra contained a splendid library, which
was destroyed by Bhakhtiyār and his troops. The mahāvihāra was totally destroyed in
1199 A.D, which was the thirty-eighth regnal year of Govindapāladeva who ascended
the throne in 1161 A.D.211

205
K. P. Bagchi Com., Calcutta, 1980, pp. 262; 289; 313.
206
P. N. Bose, Indian Teachers of Buddhist Universities, Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar, 1923,
pp. 84, 157-58.
207
208
Vidyabhusana, Satis Chandra, A History of Indian Logic: Ancient, Medieval and Modern Schools,
Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1978, p. 140.
209
S. C. Das, Indian Pundits in the Land of Snow, K. L. Mukhopadhyay Firma, Calcutta, 1965, p. 51.
210
1996, p. 22.
211
Santosh Kumar Das, The Education System of The Ancient Hindus, Gyan Publication New Delhi,
1996, p. 382.
~ 146 ~
III.5. Connection between Mahāvihāras of Ancient Magadha

All mahāvihāras of ancient Magadha were interconnected and interdependent
to each other in the sphere of organisational and academic activities. The free flow of
information and scholars between these monasteries provide an example of highly
developed institutional instruction system, which further stimulated independent
process of the diffusion of religious and secular knowledge. Buddhist ideology with
same objective, these scholastic institutions automatically came near to each other.
Especially subjects related to Buddha’s religion were freely discussed in these
monasteries, which led to development in Buddhism and Buddhist knowledge system.
The scholars also joined other monastery after the completion of their study in one
monastery to enrich their knowledge. Nālandā, Vikramaśīlā and Odāntapurī
mahāvihāras had exchange of teachers between themselves – there was perceptible
mobility among scholars. Many scholars like Śantarakkhita and Kamalashīla are
associated both with Nālandā and Odāntapurī. Dīpāñkarasrijnyama Atiśa was
associated with Odantapurī, Nālandā and Vikramaśīlā. Ratnākaraśānti was ordained in
Odāntapurī and became a dwārapaṇdita of Vikramaśīlā and then to Somapura vihāra
in Bengal. Abhayaragupta was a scholar at Vajrāsana, Nālandā and finally at
Vikramaśīlā.212 Often the personality of kulapati such as Atiśa influenced political
events. When war was going on between the Kalachuri aggressor King Karna and the
Pala king, Atiśa played the part of a peacemaker.213
III.6. Prospect of Magadha Education

The success of learning system could be judged through the mirror of its
prospect and career of their scholars. Education in ancient Magadha had wider
implications for the society. The learned men of gurukulas and mahāvihāras always
got respect in the society with suitable employment. The vocational learning was
much in demand for easy availability of work. All the peoples of the age who had
enlarged their faculty of learning or excelled in the skill of fine arts and crafts, flocked
to towns where they found ready patronage from royal houses or Śeths and Sāukārs.

212
1996, p. 23-24.
213
C. S. Upasak, Nālandā: Past and Present, Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, Nalanda, 1977, p. 11.
~ 147 ~
A special department consisting of three amātyas under the central government,

according to Kauṭilya was maintained to look after the interests of the artisans. They
secured employments at the clubs or association of citizens or under prosperous
guilds. Certain artists functioned as travelling instructors. Certain artisans and artists
were maintained by wealthy nāgarakas as their companions and confidential friends
whose advice was always sought on all matters public or private. They were popularly
known as vidūṣakas i.e. professional jesters and humourists. Many Sanskrit dramas
were enlivened by vidūṣakas.214
The mahāvihāras were the main centre for the propagation of Buddhism and
Buddhist knowledge. After the completion of their study, most of the learned men
became teachers in the monastery itself and started training new entrants for their
salvation. Scholars from mahāvihāras of ancient Magadha also went to foreign lands
to help in the development of Buddhism in Central Asia, China, Tibet and Ceylon.
The Tibetan Tri Pīṭaka clearly shows the contributions made by the books and
scholars of Nālandā in building up the culture and civilization of the country.

214
p. 22.
~ 148 ~

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Chapter III

Ancient Magadha: A Centre of Learning

As previously mentioned in the introductory chapter, the ancient land of

Plate III.1: Ganges Plain: Principal Sites

III.1. Rise of Magadha as Learning Centre

III.2. Rise of Magadha as a Centre of Buddhist Learning

III.2.a Economic Bases

The beginning of intensive agriculture led to evolution of circuit of exchange

The growing intensive cultivation, rise of trade and increase in population

The new pattern of economy, which was predominantly rural-agrarian in

With the progressive growth of population, fluctuating trade conditions and

III.2.b Social Bases

Another question of equal importance is the geographical location in which

A large section of gaṇikās (public women) of ancient India by virtue of their

III.2.c Religious Bases

Buddhism taught different methods to attain liberation and therefore rejected

The continued practice of public religious tournaments was another agency of

besides performing their religious exercises. 61 These religious tournaments and

III.2.d Institutional Bases

The mahāvihāras – as both religious and learning institution – has immense

Buddhism was based on a centralized and separate living and learning

as possible is an instance in point. Sanskrit being an elite language, most of the

With the extension in grandiose of Brāhmaṇical religion, the gap between

We can observe a tendency to the increasing use of symbolism for making

III.2.e Political Bases

We cannot ignore the relationship between politics and religion in ancient

III.3. Rise of Magadha as a centre of Brāhmaṇical Learning

With the growth of population in ancient Magadha, different occupations

Gurukulas provided training in knowledge such as astronomy, medicine, architecture,

The creation of a pan-Indian state by Magadha twice with a detailed

Royal patronage of Brāhmaṇical learning was as old as the Rigveda.

III.4. Magadha as a Learning Centre

III.4.a. Gurukulas in Magadha

History records the existence of certain Brāhmaṇical monastic and religious

Plate III.3. Plan of Old Rājagriha

III.4.b. Mahāvihāras in Magadha

and spiritual illumination of Buddhist monasteries contributed for the amelioration of

Plate III.4. Major Buddhist Sites in Ancient Magadha

There is a resident Brāhmaṇa teacher in the former, who is named Mañjuśrī

have archaeological evidence of this as in excavations at Kumhrar, not only the

Vajrāsana or Mahābodhi Mahāvihāra

platform at Bodhgayā. The development consummated in pyramidal and conical

Plate III.5. Relief Depicting the Mahābodhi tree-shrine at Bodhgayā

Source: Indian Museum, Calcutta.

The mahāvihāra of Mahābodhi was visited by I-Tsing who worshipped the

Hiuen-Tsiang gave the name of the royal founder of Nālandā as Śakrāditya.

The splendor and vastness of Nālandā Mahāvihāra emerged after the

The elements of both secular and religious knowledge, of philosophical and

Nālandā functioned as an autonomous and self-sufficient body with enough

The library of Nālandā Mahāvihāra was situated in a special area known as

ruins and sculptures at Icchos, Mubarakpur, Afzalpur, Daphthu, Ghosrawan and

Odantapurī Mahāvihāra was famous as a stronghold of Tantric Buddhism.

III.5. Connection between Mahāvihāras of Ancient Magadha

III.6. Prospect of Magadha Education

A special department consisting of three amātyas under the central government,

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