Nalanda
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Nalanda
| नालंदा |
The ruins of Nalanda Mahavihara
|
|
|
| Location |
Nalanda district, Bihar, India |
| Coordinates |
 25°08′12″N 85°26′38″ECoordinates: 25°08′12″N 85°26′38″E |
| Type |
Centre of learning |
| Length |
800 ft (240 m) |
| Width |
1,600 ft (490 m) |
| Area |
12 ha (30 acres) |
| History |
| Founded |
5th century CE |
| Abandoned |
13th century CE |
| Events |
Likely ransacked by Bakhtiyar Khilji in c. 1200 CE |
| Site notes |
| Excavation dates |
1915–1937, 1974–1982[1] |
| Archaeologists |
David B. Spooner, Hiranand Sastri, J.A. Page, M. Kuraishi, G.C. Chandra, N. Nazim, Amalananda Ghosh[2]:59 |
| Public access |
Yes |
| Website |
Nalanda (ASI) |
|
Nalanda (
Hindi:
नालंदा;
IAST:
Nālandā;
/naːlən̪d̪aː/) was an acclaimed
Mahavihara, a large
Buddhist monastery in the ancient kingdom of
Magadha (modern-day
Bihar) in
India. The site is located about 95 kilometres southeast of
Patna near the town of
Bihar Sharif, and was a centre of learning from the fifth century CE to
c. 1200 CE.
[4]:149
The highly formalized methods of
Vedic learning helped inspire the establishment of large teaching institutions such as
Taxila, Nalanda, and Vikramashila
[5] which are often characterised as India's early universities.
[4]:148[6]:174[7][8]:43[9]:119 Nalanda flourished under the patronage of the
Gupta Empire in the 5th and 6th centuries and later under
Harsha, the emperor of
Kannauj.
[10]:329
The liberal cultural traditions inherited from the Gupta age resulted
in a period of growth and prosperity until the ninth century. The
subsequent centuries were a time of gradual decline, a period during
which the
tantric developments of Buddhism became most pronounced in eastern India under the
Pala Empire.
[10]:344
At its peak, the school attracted scholars and students from near and far with some travelling all the way from
Tibet,
China,
Korea, and
Central Asia.
[6]:169
Archaeological evidence also notes contact with the Shailendra dynasty
of Indonesia, one of whose kings built a monastery in the complex.
Much of our knowledge of Nalanda comes from the writings of pilgrim monks from East Asia such as
Xuanzang and
Yijing who travelled to the Mahavihara in the 7th century.
Vincent Smith
remarked that "a detailed history of Nalanda would be a history of
Mahayanist Buddhism". Many of the names listed by Xuanzang in his
travelogue as products of Nalanda are the names of those who developed
the philosophy of Mahayana.
[10]:334 All students at Nalanda studied
Mahayana as well as the texts of the eighteen (
Hinayana) sects of Buddhism. Their curriculum also included other subjects such as the
Vedas, logic, Sanskrit grammar, medicine and
Samkhya.
[11][5][12][10]:332–333
Nalanda was very likely ransacked and destroyed by an army of the Muslim
Mamluk Dynasty under
Bakhtiyar Khilji in
c. 1200 CE.
[13]
While some sources note that the Mahavihara continued to function in a
makeshift fashion for a while longer, it was eventually abandoned and
forgotten until the 19th century when the site was surveyed and
preliminary excavations were conducted by the
Archaeological Survey of India.
Systematic excavations commenced in 1915 which unearthed eleven
monasteries and six brick temples neatly arranged on grounds 12 hectares
in area. A trove of sculptures, coins, seals, and inscriptions have
also been discovered in the ruins many of which are on display in the
Nalanda Archaeological Museum situated nearby. Nalanda is now a notable
tourist destination and a part of the Buddhist tourism circuit.
Etymology
A number of theories exist about the etymology of the name,
Nālandā. According to the
Tang Dynasty Chinese pilgrim,
Xuanzang, it comes from
Na alam dā meaning
no end in gifts or
charity without intermission.
Yijing, another Chinese traveller, however, derives it from
Nāga Nanda referring to the name (
Nanda) of a snake (
naga) in the local tank.
[14]:3 Hiranand Sastri, an archaeologist who headed the excavation of the ruins, attributes the name to the abundance of
nālas (lotus-stalks) in the area and believes that Nalanda would then represent
the giver of lotus-stalks.
[15]
Early history
A statue of Gautama Buddha at Nalanda in 1895.
Nalanda was initially a prosperous village by a major trade route that ran through the nearby city of
Rajagriha (modern
Rajgir) which was then the capital of
Magadha.
[16] It is said that the
Jain thirthankara,
Mahavira, spent 14 rainy seasons at Nalanda.
Gautama Buddha too is said to have delivered lectures in a nearby mango grove named
Pavarika and one of his two chief disciples,
Shariputra, was born in the area and later attained
nirvana there.
[4]:148[10]:328 This traditional association with Mahavira and Buddha tenuously dates the existence of the
village to at least the 5th–6th century BCE.
Not much is known of Nalanda in the centuries hence.
Taranatha, the 17th-century Tibetan Lama, states that the 3rd-century BCE
Mauryan and Buddhist emperor,
Ashoka, built a great temple at Nalanda at the site of Shariputra's
chaitya. He also places 3rd-century CE luminaries such as the
Mahayana philosopher,
Nagarjuna, and his disciple,
Aryadeva,
at Nalanda with the former also heading the institution. Taranatha also
mentions a contemporary of Nagarjuna named Suvishnu building 108
temples at the location. While this could imply that there was a
flourishing centre for Buddhism at Nalanda before the 3rd century, no
archaeological evidence has been unearthed to support the assertion.
When
Faxian, an early Chinese Buddhist pilgrim to India, visited
Nalo, the site of Shariputra's
parinirvana, at the turn of the 5th century CE, all he found worth mentioning was a
stupa.
[7]:37[14]:4
Nalanda in the Gupta era
Rear view of the ruins of the Baladitya Temple in 1872.
Nalanda's datable history begins under the
Gupta Empire[17] and a seal identifies a monarch named Shakraditya (
Śakrāditya) as its founder. Both
Xuanzang and a Korean pilgrim named Prajnyavarman (
Prajñāvarman) attribute the foundation of a
sangharama (monastery) at the site to him.
[7]:42 Shakraditya is identified with the 5th-century CE Gupta emperor,
Kumaragupta I (
r. c. 415 – c. 455 CE), whose coin has been discovered at Nalanda.
[6]:166[10]:329 His successors,
Buddhagupta, Tathagatagupta,
Baladitya, and Vajra, later extended and expanded the institution by building additional monasteries and temples.
[14]:5
The Guptas were traditionally a
Brahmanical dynasty.
Narasimhagupta (Baladitya) however, was brought up under the influence of the Mahayanist philosopher,
Vasubandhu.
He built a sangharama at Nalanda and also a 300 ft (91 m) high vihara
with a Buddha statue within which, according to Xuanzang, resembled the
"great Vihara built under the
Bodhi tree".
The Chinese monk also noted that Baladitya's son, Vajra, who
commissioned a sangharama as well, "possessed a heart firm in faith".
[7]:45[10]:330
The post-Gupta era
The post-Gupta period saw a long succession of kings who continued
building at Nalanda "using all the skill of the sculptor". At some
point, a "king of central India" built a high wall along with a gate
around the now numerous edifices in the complex. Another monarch
(possibly of the
Maukhari dynasty) named Purnavarman who is described as "the last of the race of
Ashoka-raja", erected an 80 ft (24 m) high copper image of Buddha to cover which he also constructed a pavilion of six stages.
[7]:55
However, after the decline of the Guptas, the most notable patron of the Mahavihara was
Harsha, the 7th-century emperor of
Kannauj.
Harsha was a converted Buddhist and considered himself a servant of the
monks of Nalanda. He built a monastery of brass within the Mahavihara
and remitted to it the revenues of 100 villages. He also directed 200
households in these villages to supply the institution's monks with
requisite amounts of rice, butter, and milk on a daily basis. Around a
thousand monks from Nalanda were present at Harsha's royal congregation
at Kannauj.
[4]:151[14]:5
Much of what is known of Nalanda prior to the 8th century is based on the travelogues of the Chinese monks,
Xuanzang (
Si-Yu-Ki) and
Yijing (
A Record of the Buddhist Religion As Practised in India and the Malay Archipelago).
Xuanzang in Nalanda
8th century
Dunhuang cave mural depicts Xuanzang returning from India.
Xuanzang (also known as Hiuen Tsang) travelled around India between the years of 630 and 643 CE,
[9]:110 and visited Nalanda first in 637 and then again in 642, spending a total of around two years at the monastery.
[18]:237 He was warmly welcomed in Nalanda where he received the Indian name of Mokshadeva
[14]:8 and studied under the guidance of
Shilabhadra, the venerable head of the institution at the time.
[7]:111
He believed that the aim of his arduous overland journey to India had
been achieved as in Shilabhadra he had at last found an incomparable
teacher to instruct him in
Yogachara,
a school of thought that had then only partially been transmitted to
China. Besides Buddhist studies, the monk also attended courses in
grammar, logic, and Sanskrit, and later also lectured at the Mahavihara.
[18]:124
In the detailed account of his stay at Nalanda, the pilgrim describes the view out of the window of his quarters thus,
[19]
Moreover, the whole establishment is surrounded by a brick wall,
which encloses the entire convent from without. One gate opens into the
great college, from which are separated eight other halls standing in
the middle (of the Sangharama). The richly adorned towers, and
the fairy-like turrets, like pointed hill-tops are congregated together.
The observatories seem to be lost in the vapours (of the morning), and the upper rooms tower above the clouds.
Xuanzang was a contemporary and an esteemed guest of Harsha and catalogued the emperor's munificence in some detail.
[7]:55 According to Xuanzang's biographer,
Hwui-Li, Nalanda was held in contempt by some
Sthaviras
for its emphasis on Mahayana philosophy. They reportedly chided King
Harsha for patronising Nalanda during one of his visits to
Odisha, mocking the "sky-flower"
[clarification needed] philosophy taught there and suggesting that he might as well patronise a
Kapalika temple.
[10]:334
When this occurred, Harsha notified the chancellor of Nalanda, who sent
the monks Sagaramati, Prajnyarashmi, Simharashmi, and Xuanzang to
refute the views of the monks from
Odisha.
[20]:171
Xuanzang returned to China with 657 Buddhist texts (many of them
Mahayanist) and 150 relics carried by 20 horses in 520 cases, and
translated 74 of the texts himself.
[9]:110[18]:177
In the thirty years following his return, no fewer than eleven
travellers from China and Korea are known to have visited famed Nalanda.
[14]:9
Yijing in Nalanda
A map of Nalanda and its environs from Alexander Cunningham's 1861–62 ASI report which shows a number of ponds (pokhar) around the Mahavihara.
Inspired by the journeys of
Faxian and Xuanzang, the pilgrim,
Yijing (also known as I-tsing), after studying
Sanskrit in
Srivijaya, arrived in India in 673 CE. He stayed there for fourteen years, ten of which he spent at the Nalanda Mahavihara.
[4]:144 When he returned to China in 695, he had with him 400 Sanskrit texts which were subsequently translated.
[21]
Unlike his predecessor, Xuanzang, who also describes the geography
and culture of 7th-century India, Yijing's account primarily
concentrates on the practice of Buddhism in the land of its origin and
detailed descriptions of the customs, rules, and regulations of the
monks at the monastery. In his chronicle, Yijing notes that revenues
from 200 villages (as opposed to 100 in Xuanzang's time) had been
assigned toward the maintenance of Nalanda.
[4]:151 He described there being eight halls with as many as 300 apartments.
[6]:167
According to him, daily life at Nalanda included a series of rites that
were followed by all. Each morning, a bell was rung signalling the
bathing hour which led to hundreds or thousands of monks proceeding from
their viharas towards a number of great pools of water in and around
the campus where all of them took their bath. This was followed by
another gong which signalled the ritual ablution of the image of the
Buddha. The
chaityavandana was conducted in the evenings which included a "three-part service", the chanting of a prescribed set of hymns,
shlokas,
and selections from scriptures. While it was usually performed at a
central location, Yijing states that the sheer number of residents at
Nalanda made large daily assemblies difficult. This resulted in an
adapted ritual which involved a priest, accompanied by lay servants and
children carrying incense and flowers, travelling from one hall to the
next chanting the service. The ritual was completed by twilight.
[10]:128–130
Nalanda in the Pala era
The
Palas
established themselves in North-eastern India in the 8th century and
reigned until the 12th century. Although they were a Buddhist dynasty,
Buddhism in their time was a mixture of the
Mahayana practised in Nalanda and
Vajrayana, a
Tantra-influenced
version of Mahayanist philosophy. Nalanda was a cultural legacy from
the great age of the Guptas and it was prized and cherished. The Palas
were prolific builders and their rule oversaw the establishment of four
other Mahaviharas modelled on the Nalanda Mahavihara at
Jagaddala,
Odantapura,
Somapura, and
Vikramashila respectively. Remarkably, Odantapura was founded by
Gopala, the progenitor of the royal line, only 6 miles (9.7 km) away from Nalanda.
[10]:349–352
Inscriptions at Nalanda suggest that Gopala's son,
Dharmapala,
who founded the Mahavihara at Vikramshila, also appears to have been a
benefactor of the ancient monastery in some form. It is however,
Dharmapala's son, the 9th century emperor and founder of the Mahavihara
at Somapura,
Devapala,
who appears to have been Nalanda's most distinguished patron in this
age. A number of metallic figures containing references to Devapala have
been found in its ruins as well as two notable inscriptions. The first,
a
copper plate inscription unearthed at Nalanda, details an endowment by the
Shailendra King,
Balaputradeva of
Suvarnadvipa (
Sumatra in modern-day
Indonesia). This
Srivijayan
king, "attracted by the manifold excellences of Nalanda" had built a
monastery there and had requested Devapala to grant the revenue of five
villages for its upkeep, a request which was granted. The
Ghosrawan
inscription is the other inscription from Devapala's time and it
mentions that he received and patronised a learned Vedic scholar named
Viradeva who was later elected the head of Nalanda.
[4]:152[7]:58[22]:268
The now five different seats of Buddhist learning in eastern India
formed a state-supervised network and it was common for great scholars
to move easily from position to position among them. Each establishment
had its own official seal with a
dharmachakra flanked by a deer on either side, a motif referring to Buddha's deer park sermon at
Sarnath. Below this device was the name of the institution which in Nalanda's case read, "
Śrī-Nālandā-Mahāvihārīya-Ārya-Bhikṣusaḿghasya" which translates to "of the Community of Venerable Monks of the Great Monastery at Nalanda".
[10]:352[14]:55
While there is ample epigraphic and literary evidence to show that
the Palas continued to patronise Nalanda liberally, the Mahavihara was
less singularly outstanding during this period as the other Pala
establishments must have drawn away a number of learned monks from
Nalanda. The Vajrayana influence on Buddhism grew strong under the Palas
and this appears to have also had an effect on Nalanda. What had once
been a centre of liberal scholarship with a Mahayanist focus grew more
fixated with Tantric doctrines and magic rites. Taranatha's 17th-century
history claims that Nalanda might have even been under the control of
the head of the Vikramshila Mahavihara at some point.
[10]:344–346[14]:10
The Mahavihara
While its excavated ruins today only occupy an area of around 1,600
feet (488 m) by 800 feet (244 m) or roughly 12 hectares, Nalanda
Mahavihara occupied a far greater area in medieval times.
[7]:217
It was considered an architectural masterpiece, and was marked by a
lofty wall and one gate. Nalanda had eight separate compounds and ten
temples, along with many other meditation halls and classrooms. On the
grounds were lakes and parks.
[citation needed]
Nalanda was a residential school, i.e., it had dormitories for
students. In its heyday, it is claimed to have accommodated over 10,000
students and 2,000 teachers. Chinese pilgrims estimated the number of
students to have been between 3,000 and 5,000.
[23]
The subjects taught at Nalanda covered every field of learning, and
it attracted pupils and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet,
Indonesia,
Persia and
Turkey.
[24]
Xuanzang
left detailed accounts of the school in the 7th century. He described
how the regularly laid-out towers, forest of pavilions, harmikas and
temples seemed to "soar above the mists in the sky" so that from their
cells the monks "might witness the birth of the winds and clouds".
[25]:158
The pilgrim states: "An azure pool winds around the monasteries,
adorned with the full-blown cups of the blue lotus; the dazzling red
flowers of the lovely kanaka hang here and there, and outside groves of
mango trees offer the inhabitants their dense and protective shade."
[25]:159
Library
It is evident from the large numbers of texts that Yijing carried
back with him after his 10-year residence at Nalanda, that the
Mahavihara must have featured a well-equipped library. Traditional
Tibetan sources mention the existence of a great library at Nalanda
named
Dharmaganja (
Piety Mart) which comprised three large multi-storeyed buildings, the
Ratnasagara (
Ocean of Jewels), the
Ratnodadhi (
Sea of Jewels), and the
Ratnaranjaka (
Jewel-adorned). Ratnodadhi was nine storeys high and housed the most sacred manuscripts including the
Prajnyaparamita Sutra and the
Guhyasamaja.
[4]:159[6]:174
The exact number of volumes in the Nalanda library is not known. But it is estimated to have been in the hundreds of thousands.
[26] The library not only collected religious manuscripts but also had texts on such subjects as
grammar, logic, literature,
astrology,
astronomy, and medicine.
[27]
The Nalanda library must have had a classification scheme which was
possibly based on a text classification scheme developed by the Sanskrit
linguist,
Panini.
[28]:4 Buddhist texts were most likely divided into three classes based on the
Tripitaka's three main divisions: the
Vinaya,
Sutra, and the
Abhidhamma.
[29]:37
Curriculum
In his biography of Xuanzang, Hwui-Li states that all the students of
Nalanda studied the Great Vehicle (Mahayana) as well as the works of
the eighteen (
Hinayana) sects of Buddhism. In addition to these, they studied other subjects such as the
Vedas,
Hetuvidyā (Logic),
Shabdavidya (Grammar and Philology),
Chikitsavidya (Medicine), the works on magic (the
Atharvaveda), and
Samkhya.
[10]:332–333
Xuanzang himself studied a number of these subjects at Nalanda under Shilabhadra and others.
[7]:65
Besides Theology and Philosophy, frequent debates and discussions
necessitated competence in Logic. A student at the Mahavihara had to be
well-versed in the systems of Logic associated with all the different
schools of thought of the time as he was expected to defend Buddhist
systems against the others.
[7]:73 Other subjects believed to have been taught at Nalanda include law, astronomy, and city-planning.
[5]
Tibetan tradition holds that there were "four
doxographies" (Tibetan:
grub-mtha’) which were taught at Nalanda:
[30]
- Sarvastivada Vaibhashika
- Sarvastivada Sautrantika
- Madhyamaka, the Mahayana philosophy of Nagarjuna
- Chittamatra, the Mahayana philosophy of Asanga and Vasubandhu
In the 7th century,
Xuanzang
recorded the number of teachers at Nalanda as being around 1510. Of
these, approximately 1000 were able to explain 20 collections of sutras
and shastras, 500 were able to explain 30 collections, and only 10
teachers were able to explain 50 collections. Xuanzang was among the few
who were able to explain 50 collections or more. At this time, only the
abbot
Shilabhadra had studied all the major collections of sutras and shastras at Nalanda.
[31]
Administration
The Chinese monk
Yijing
wrote that matters of discussion and administration at Nalanda would
require assembly and consensus on decisions by all those at the
assembly, as well as resident monks:
[32]
If the monks had some business, they would assemble to discuss the
matter. Then they ordered the officer, Vihārpāl, to circulate and report
the matter to the resident monks one by one with folded hands. With the
objection of a single monk, it would not pass. There was no use of
beating or thumping to announce his case. In case a monk did something
without consent of all the residents, he would be forced to leave the
monastery. If there was a difference of opinion on a certain issue, they
would give reason to convince (the other group). No force or coercion
was used to convince.
Xuanzang also noted:
[25]:159
The lives of all these virtuous men were naturally governed by habits
of the most solemn and strictest kind. Thus in the seven hundred years
of the monastery's existence no man has ever contravened the rules of
the discipline. The king showers it with the signs of his respect and
veneration and has assigned the revenue from a hundred cities to pay for
the maintenance of the religious.
Influence on Buddhism
Buddha Shakyamuni or the Bodhisattva
Maitreya, gilt copper alloy, early 8th century, Nalanda
A vast amount of what came to comprise
Tibetan Buddhism, both its
Mahayana and
Vajrayana traditions, stems from the teachers and traditions at Nalanda.
Shantarakshita,
who pioneered the propagation of Buddhism in Tibet in the 8th century
was a scholar of Nalanda. He was invited by the Tibetan king,
Khri-sron-deu-tsan, and established the monastery at
Samye, serving as its first abbot. He and his disciple
Kamalashila (who was also of Nalanda) essentially taught Tibetans how to do philosophy.
[33] Padmasambhava, who was also invited from Nalanda Mahavihara by the king in 747 CE, is credited as a founder of Tibetan Buddhism.
[14]:11
The scholar
Dharmakirti (
c. 7th century), one of the Buddhist founders of Indian
philosophical logic, as well as one of the primary theorists of
Buddhist atomism, taught at Nalanda.
[34]
Other forms of Buddhism, such as the Mahayana Buddhism followed in Vietnam, China,
Korea
and Japan, flourished within the walls of the ancient school. A number
of scholars have associated some Mahayana texts such as the
Shurangama Sutra, an important sutra in East Asian Buddhism, with the Buddhist tradition at Nalanda.
[10]:264[35]
Ron Epstein also notes that the general doctrinal position of the sutra
does indeed correspond to what is known about the Buddhist teachings at
Nalanda toward the end of the Gupta period when it was translated.
[36]
Historical figures associated with Nalanda
Traditional sources state that Nalanda was visited by both
Mahavira and the
Buddha in
c. 6th and 5th century BCE.
[1] It is also the place of birth and nirvana of
Shariputra, one of the famous disciples of Buddha.
[4]:148
- Aryabhata[37]
- Aryadeva, student of Nagarjuna[8]:43
- Atisha, Mahayana and Vajrayana scholar
- Chandrakirti, student of Nagarjuna
- Dharmakirti, logician[34]
- Dharmapala
- Dignaga, founder of Buddhist Logic
- Nagarjuna, formaliser of the concept of Shunyata[8]:43
- Naropa, student of Tilopa and teacher of Marpa
- Shilabhadra, the teacher of Xuanzang[20]
- Xuanzang, Chinese Buddhist traveller[7]:191
- Yijing, Chinese Buddhist traveller[7]:197
Decline and end
The decline of Nalanda is concomitant with the disappearance of
Buddhism in India. When Xuanzang travelled the length and breadth of
India in the 7th century, he observed that his religion was in slow
decay and even had ominous premonitions of Nalanda's forthcoming demise.
[18]:145
Buddhism had steadily lost popularity with the laity and thrived,
thanks to royal patronage, only in the monasteries of Bihar and Bengal.
By the time of the Palas, the traditional Mahayana and Hinayana forms of
Buddhism were imbued with Tantric practices involving secret rituals
and magic. The rise of Hindu philosophies in the subcontinent and the
waning of the Buddhist Pala dynasty after the 11th century meant that
Buddhism was hemmed in on multiple fronts, political, philosophical, and
moral. The final blow was delivered when its still-flourishing
monasteries, the last visible symbols of its existence in India, were
overrun during the Muslim invasion that swept across Northern India at
the turn of the 13th century.
[7]:208[14]:13[22]:333[38]
In around 1200 CE,
Bakhtiyar Khilji, a
Turkic chieftain out to make a name for himself, was in the service of a commander in
Awadh. The Persian historian,
Minhaj-i-Siraj in his
Tabaqat-i Nasiri,
recorded his deeds a few decades later. Khilji was assigned two
villages on the border of Bihar which had become a political no-man's
land. Sensing an opportunity, he began a series of plundering raids into
Bihar and was recognised and rewarded for his efforts by his superiors.
Emboldened, Khilji decided to attack a fort in Bihar and was able to
successfully capture it, looting it of a great booty.
[13] Minhaj-i-Siraj wrote of this attack:
[39]
Muhammad-i-Bakht-yar, by the force of his intrepidity, threw himself
into the postern of the gateway of the place, and they captured the
fortress, and acquired great booty. The greater number of the
inhabitants of that place were Brahmans, and the whole of those Brahmans
had their heads shaven; and they were all slain. There were a great
number of books there; and, when all these books came under the
observation of the Musalmans, they summoned a number of Hindus that they
might give them information respecting the import of those books; but
the whole of the Hindus had been killed. On becoming acquainted [with
the contents of those books], it was found that the whole of that
fortress and city was a college, and in the Hindui tongue, they call a
college [مدرسه] Bihar.
The End of the Buddhist Monks, A.D. 1193 from Hutchinson's Story of the Nations depicts Khilji trying to make sense of a manuscript.
This passage refers to an attack on a Buddhist monastery (the "Bihar" or
Vihara)
and its monks (the shaved Brahmans). The exact date of this event is
not known with scholarly estimates ranging from 1197 to 1206. While many
historians believe that this monastery which was mistaken for a fort
was Odantapura, some are of the opinion that it was Nalanda itself.
[13] However, considering that these two Mahaviharas were only a few kilometres apart, both very likely befell a similar fate.
[7]:212[14]:14
The other great Mahaviharas of the age such as Vikramshila and later,
Jagaddala, also met their ends at the hands of the Turks at around the
same time.
[10]:157,379
Another important account of the times is the biography of the Tibetan monk-pilgrim,
Dharmasvamin,
who journeyed to India between 1234 and 1236. When he visited Nalanda
in 1235, he found it still surviving, but a ghost of its past existence.
Most of the buildings had been damaged by the Muslims and had since
fallen into disrepair. But two viharas, which he named
Dhanaba and
Ghunaba, were still in serviceable condition with a 90-year-old teacher named
Rahula Shribhadra instructing a class of about 70 students on the premises.
[4]:150
Dharmasvamin believed that the Mahavihara had not been completely
destroyed for superstitious reasons as one of the soldiers who had
participated in the desecration of a Jnananatha temple in the complex
had immediately fallen ill.
[40]
While he stayed there for six months under the tutelage of Rahula
Shribhadra, Dharmasvamin makes no mention of the legendary library of
Nalanda which possibly did not survive the initial wave of Turkic
attacks. He, however, provides an eyewitness account of an attack on the
derelict Mahavihara by the Muslim soldiers stationed at nearby
Odantapura (now
Bihar Sharif)
which had been turned into a military headquarters. Only the Tibetan
and his nonagenarian instructor stayed behind and hid themselves while
the rest of the monks fled Nalanda.
[10]:347[40]
Contemporary sources end at this point. But traditional Tibetan works
which were written much later suggest that Nalanda's story might have
managed to endure for a while longer even if the institution was only a
pale shadow of its former glory. The Lama, Taranatha, states that the
whole of Magadha fell to the Turks who destroyed many monasteries
including Nalanda which suffered heavy damage. He however also notes
that a king of Bengal named
Chagalaraja and his queen later patronised Nalanda in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, although no major work was done there.
[4]:151
An 18th-century work named
Pag sam jon zang recounts another
Tibetan legend which states that chaityas and viharas at Nalanda were
repaired once again by a Buddhist sage named Mudita Bhadra and that
Kukutasiddha, a minister of the reigning king, erected a temple there. A
story goes that when the structure was being inaugurated, two indignant
(Brahmanical)
Tirthika
mendicants who had appeared there were treated with disdain by some
young novice monks who threw washing water at them. In retaliation, the
mendicants performed a 12-year penance propitiating the sun, at the end
of which they performed a fire-sacrifice and threw "living embers" from
the sacrificial pit into the Buddhist temples. The resulting
conflagration is said to have hit Nalanda's library. Fortunately, a
miraculous stream of water gushed forth from holy manuscripts in the
ninth storey of Ratnodadhi which enabled many manuscripts to be saved.
The heretics perished in the very fire that they had kindled.
[7]:208[10]:343[14]:15
While it is unknown when this event was supposed to have occurred,
archaeological evidence (including a small heap of burnt rice) does
suggest that a large fire did consume a number of structures in the
complex on more than one occasion.
[7]:214[14]:56 A stone inscription notes the destruction by fire and subsequent restoration at the Mahavihara during the reign of
Mahipala (
r. 988 –
1038).
[14]:13
The last throne-holder of Nalanda,
Shakyashribhadra, fled to Tibet in 1204 at the invitation of the Tibetan translator
Tropu Lotsawa (
Khro-phu Lo-tsa-ba Byams-pa dpal). In Tibet, he started an ordination lineage of the
Mulasarvastivada lineage to complement the two existing ones.
[citation needed]
The remains
Excavated ruins of the monasteries of Nalanda.
After its decline, Nalanda was largely forgotten until
Francis Buchanan-Hamilton
surveyed the site in 1811–1812 after locals in the vicinity drew his
attention to a vast complex of ruins in the area. He, however, did not
associate the mounds of earth and debris with famed Nalanda. That link
was established by Major Markham Kittoe in 1847.
Alexander Cunningham and the newly formed
Archaeological Survey of India conducted an official survey in 1861–1862.
[2]:59
Systematic excavation of the ruins by the ASI did not begin until 1915
and ended in 1937. A second round of excavation and restoration took
place between 1974 and 1982.
[1]
The remains of Nalanda today extend some 1,600 feet (488 m) north to
south and around 800 feet (244 m) east to west. Excavations have
revealed eleven monasteries and six major brick temples arranged in an
ordered layout. A 100 ft (30 m) wide passage runs from north to south
with the temples to its west and the monasteries to its east.
[1][7]:217
Most structures show evidence of multiple periods of construction with
new buildings being raised atop the ruins of old ones. Many of the
buildings also display signs of damage by fire on at least one occasion.
[14]:27
All the monasteries at Nalanda are very similar in layout and general
appearance. Their plan involves a rectangular form with a central
quadrangular court which is surrounded by a verandah which, in turn, is
bounded by an outer row of cells for the monks. The central cell facing
the entrance leading into the court is a shrine chamber. Its strategic
position means that it would have been the first thing that drew the eye
when entering the edifice. With the exception of those designated 1A
and 1B, the monasteries all face west with drains emptying out in the
east and staircases positioned in the south-west corner of the
buildings.
[7]:219[14]:28
Monastery 1 is considered the oldest and the most important of the
monastery group and shows as many as nine levels of construction. Its
lower monastery is believed to be the one sponsored by Balaputradeva,
the Srivijayan king, during the reign of Devapala in the 9th century.
The building was originally at least 2 storeys high and contained a
colossal statue of a seated Buddha.
[14]:19
A map of the excavated remains of Nalanda.
The most iconic of Nalanda's structures is Temple no. 3 with its
multiple flights of stairs that lead all the way to the top. The temple
was originally a small structure which was built upon and enlarged by
later constructions. Archaeological evidence shows that the final
structure was a result of at least seven successive such accumulations
of construction. The fifth of these layered temples is the most
interesting and the best preserved with four corner towers of which
three have been exposed. The towers as well as the sides of the stairs
are decorated with exquisite panels of Gupta-era art depicting a variety
of stucco figures including Buddha and the
Bodhisattvas, scenes from the
Jataka tales, Brahmanical deities such as
Shiva,
Parvati,
Kartikeya, and
Gajalakshmi,
Kinnaras playing musical instruments, various representations of
Makaras,
as well as human couples in amorous postures. The temple is surrounded
by numerous votive stupas some of which have been built with bricks
inscribed with passages from sacred Buddhist texts. The apex of Temple
no. 3 features a shrine chamber which now only contains the pedestal
upon which an immense statue of Buddha must have once rested.
[7]:222[14]:17
Temple no. 2 notably features a
dado
of 211 sculptured panels depicting a variety of religious motifs as
well as scenes of art and of everyday life. The site of Temple no. 13
features a brick-made smelting furnace with four chambers. The discovery
of burnt metal and
slag
suggests that it was used to cast metallic objects. To the north of
this temple lie the remains of Temple no. 14. An enormous image of the
Buddha was discovered here. The image's pedestal features fragments of
the only surviving exhibit of mural painting at Nalanda.
[14]:31–33
Numerous sculptures, murals, copper plates, inscriptions, seals,
coins, plaques, potteries and works in stone, bronze, stucco and
terracotta have been unearthed within the ruins of Nalanda. The Buddhist
sculptures discovered notably include those of the Buddha in different
postures,
Avalokiteshvara,
Jambhala,
Manjushri,
Marichi, and
Tara. Brahmanical idols of
Vishnu, Shiva-Parvathi,
Ganesha,
Mahishasura Mardini, and
Surya have also been found in the ruins.
[1]
A number of other ruined structures survive. Nearby is the
Surya Mandir, a
Hindu temple.
[citation needed] The known and excavated
ruins extend over an area of about 150,000 square metres, although if
Xuanzang's account of Nalanda's extent is correlated with present excavations, almost 90% of it remains unexcavated.
[citation needed] Nalanda is no longer inhabited. Today the nearest habitation is a village called
Bargaon.
Surviving Nalanda manuscripts
Fleeing monks took some of the Nalanda manuscripts. A few of them
have survived and are preserved in collections such as those at:
Revival efforts
In 1951, the
Nava Nalanda Mahavihara (
New Nalanda Mahavihara), a modern centre for
Pali and
Buddhism in the spirit of the ancient institution, was founded by the
Government of Bihar near Nalanda's ruins.
[44] It was
deemed to be a university in 2006.
[45]
September 1, 2014, saw the commencement of the first academic year of a modern
Nalanda University, with 15 students, in nearby
Rajgir.
[46]
It has been established in a bid to revive the ancient seat of
learning. The university has acquired 455 acres of land for its campus
and has been allotted ₹2727 crores (around $454M) by the Indian
government.
[47] It is also being funded by the governments of China, Singapore, Australia, Thailand, and others.
[48]
Tourism
Nalanda is a popular tourist destination in the state attracting a number of Indian and overseas visitors.
[49] It is also an important stop on the Buddhist tourism circuit.
[48]
Nalanda Archaeological Museum
The
Archaeological Survey of India
maintains a museum near the ruins for the benefit of visitors. The
museum exhibits the antiquities that have been unearthed at Nalanda as
well as from nearby
Rajgir. Out of 13,463 items, only 349 are on display in four galleries.
[50]
Xuanzang Memorial Hall
The Xuanzang Memorial Hall at Nalanda
The Xuanzang Memorial Hall is an Indo-Chinese undertaking to honour
the famed Buddhist monk and traveller. A relic, comprising a skull bone
of the Chinese monk, is on display in the memorial hall.
[51]
Nalanda Multimedia Museum
Another museum adjoining the excavated site is the privately run Nalanda Multimedia Museum.
[52] It showcases the history of Nalanda through
3-D animation and other multimedia presentations.
Gallery
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A sign detailing the history of Nalanda.
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A teaching platform in the ruins of Nalanda
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Sculpted stucco panels on a tower
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See also
References
Shown within India
A sign detailing the history of Nalanda.
Bronze found at Nalanda
Rear view of stupa no. 3
A teaching platform in the ruins of Nalanda
Sculpted stucco panels on a tower
A statue of Avalokiteshvara found at Nalanda.
Nalanda Ruins
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