I felt a strange sensation when I visited the Nalanda University, like when you visit a college you couldn’t secure admission to. As the visit to the world heritage site unfolded, that strange feeling turned into a shock brought on by the ruinous sight.
From the entry queue, to the site entrance, was enchanted by the long covers of well-maintained gardens. Then I saw it. What used to be one of the first residential universities of the world, an architectural masterpiece in its time, had been divested by time until just stacks of bricks remained.
Now serving, among other things, as a milestone for the start of decline of Buddhism in India, this building drove me to enquire into history as to what went wrong.
The institution was established during the Gupta Emperors in 450 AD. Built with a capacity to house up to 10,000 students and 2000 teachers, the complex had numerous compounds, dormitories for students, temples, meditation halls, a library and almost every other possible educational infrastructure. Researchers and archaeologists believe that the colossal library had a collection of around 9 million volumes. Conceptually, the institution was clearly ahead of its time.
The University is said to have been at its pinnacle when the complex was put on fire in 1193, reportedly by an army led by Bakhtiyar Khilji.
The guide took us to the dormitories to show the remains of students’ rooms. Stone beds and study tables, with small circular pits at one corner, which were probably used as ink pots. In the basement lay the kitchen. Archaeologists believe that it was the kitchen because of the burnt rice found in the structure. The rice grains are kept at the Nalanda museum with other items salvaged during the excavations.
As I explored further, I stepped into a gateway, from which winding stairs took me to a long corridor. There were rooms on either sides of the corridor which I assume, must have been the classrooms. This is the only place in the whole structure with the roof intact.
I tried imagining how it must have been with all the students, kind of like my school’s corridor used to be. As I was leaving the premises, I looked at the ruins one more time, and completed the imagination with what it could have been like to look at the campus in its glory.
– Factfile –
Wiki/Nalanda
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
A nice write up ! Congratulations !!
Nalanda Vishwavidyalaya was considered as an architectural masterpiece of medieval times. The name "Nalanda" in Sanskrit means "giver of knowledge": a combination of "nalam" (lotus, representing knowledge) and "da" ("to give").
It is said that Nalanda flourished for seven hundred years until its destruction in 12th century. After massive invasion by Muslim invader Bakhtiyar Khilji the enthusiasm for Buddhist learning had long declined and there was no ruler in the region with enough clout to restore the institution to its former glory. As a result, Nalanda has languished in its ruins ever since.
In the 21st century many ambitious plans for the revival of Nalanda have been announced. Let's hope we can preserve the remains (though very few are existing) of this internationally famous oldest university.
"Mr.Dhananjay, thanks for your comments. However, your stance is highly communal and it looks at history in a crooked way. our site is a forum for discussing the beauty of our country's heritage. we do not want to discuss religion and its problems. so we have edited your comment to remove the objectionable part."
thank you
Editors
Ruins of Nalanda is the very famous tourist place in India and located in Bihar. Thousands of Tourist comes every year to see this ruins. Since i belong to bihar so that i have the great knowledge about it.
If not wrong ,Nalanda ruins is a world's oldest university whhich shows that 5th century A.D era..Wlak through this architecture structure shows that India was leading in imparting Knowledge to the whole world in that Era..Great place to visit..
I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article and i am hoping the same best work from you in the future as well.
This is one of the good articles you can find in the net explaining everything in detail regarding the topic. I thank you for taking your time sharing your thoughts and ideas to a lot of readers out there.
The love of beauty in its multiple forms is the noblest gift of the human cerebrum.