Tribes in Ancient India c50.398

c50.398

Besides Nālandā, Magadha had other great seats of Buddhist learning which attracted students from all parts of India and beyond, such as the Universities of Odantapuri and Vikramaśilā. In the eighth century A.D., Gopāla, the founder of the Pāla dynasty of Bengal, founded a great monastery at Uddandapura or Otantapuri in Bihar.⁷ As a University, the glories of Vikramaśilā were hardly inferior to those of Nālandā. Hither too came students from Tibet, and Tibetan works tell us how Dīpaṅkara or Śrījñāna Atīsa, a native of Bengal, who was at the head of the University from 1034-8 A.D., was induced to go to Tibet and establish the Buddhist religion there.⁸