Town Planning in Ancient India c6.13

c6.13

But Maine's proposition stands true so far as it relates to a University town, a temple city, or a town noted for its specialities in local arts and manufactures. The famous University town of ancient Nālandā had, I presume, a humble origin in a Buddhist monastery under a revered Sthavira like Sāriputra renowned far and wide for his learning and piety. Many disciples approached him, sat at his feet, drank deep of his religious lore; some chose to remain under his inspiring influence; some after completing their training left to spread their activities in other climes. The disciples began to pour in in growing numbers. With royal or local help the monastery grew beyond its ‘local habitation and name’. In course of time it developed into so well-organised a University as that of the renowned Nālandā. A ‘kulapati’ is a sage who trains and maintains ten thousand disciples. Hence his hermitage can be nothing short of a University town; nay, in strength of students it can favourably compare with the best residential Universities of the modern world. The great ‘Naimishāraṇya’ of mythological fame, where all the Purāṇas and Upapurāṇas are said to have been narrated by the sage Sauti amidst a vast congregation of inquisitive hermits listening to him with rapt and respectful attention, gives us a fair idea of an Indo-Aryan University. Navadvīp of Bengal with its Bhaṭṭapallī famous for ages as a great centre of Sanskrit learning can be likened to a University.