17/02/2020
Ruins of Nalanda University :
It has been called “one of the first great universities” in recorded history
In 1193, the Nalanda University was sacked by Turkic Muslim invaders under Bakhtiyar Khilji, a milestone in the decline of Buddhism in India.
The Persian Historian Minhaj-i-Siraj , in his chronicle the Tabaqat-I-Nasiri, reported that 1000s of monks were burned alive & 1000s beheaded as Khilji tried his best to uproot Buddhismand plant Islam by the sword the burning of the library continued for several months. “smoke from the burning manuscripts hung for days like a dark pall over the low hills."
Nalanda University was one of the first universities in the world, founded in the 5th Century BC, one of the world's first residential universities, it had dormitories for students.
In its heyday it accommodated over 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers. university was considered an architectural masterpiece, & was marked by a lofty wall and one gate. Nalanda had eight separate compounds and 10 temples, along with many other meditation halls & classrooms.
Courses were drawn from every field of learning, Buddhist & Hindu, sacred & secular, foreign & native. Students studied science, astronomy, medicine, & logic as diligently as they applied themselves to metaphysics, philosophy, Samkhya, Yoga-shastra, the Veda, & the Buddhism.
library was located in a 9 storied building, meticulous copies of texts were produced. It attracted pupils & scholars frm Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia & Turkey. During the period of Harsha the monastery is reported to have owned 200 villages given as grants.
The library of Nalanda, known as Dharma Gunj (Mountain of Truth) or Dharmagañja (Treasury of Truth), was the most renowned repository of Buddhist knowledge in the world at the time. Its collection was said to comprise hundreds of thousands of volumes, so extensive that It burned for months when set aflame by Muslim invaders.
The library had three main buildings as high as nine stories tall, Ratnasagara (Sea of Jewels), Ratnodadhi (Ocean of Jewel).