Historical Geography of Ancient India c8.362

c8.362

After Buddha's passing away, five kings named Śakrāditya, Buddhagupta, Tathāgatagupta, Bālāditya and Vajra built five monasteries at Nālandā (Watters, On Yuan Chwang, II, pp. 164-5). The University of Nālandā received royal recognition in the year 450 A.D. (S. C. Vidyābhūṣaṇa, History of Indian Logic, p. 515). According to the Tibetan account the quarter in which the University with its grand library was located was called Dharmagañja or Piety Mart. It consisted of three grand buildings called Ratnasāgara, Ratnodadhi, and Ratnarañjaka respectively. In the Ratnodadhi which was a nine-storeyed building, the sacred scripts called Prajñāpāramitā and the Tantric work Samājaguhya were kept (Ibid., 516). Dharmapāla, a native of Kāñcīpura, modern Conjeeveram in Madras, studied in this University and acquired great distinction. In course of time he became the head of this University (Ibid., p. 302; cf. Beal, Buddhist Records of the Western World, II, p. 110). Śīlabhadra, a Brahmin, who came from the family of the king of Samataṭa (lower Bengal), was a pupil of Dharmapāla. He, too, became the head of this University (Beal, Buddhist Records of the Western World, II, p. 110). I-tsing who started for India in 671 A.D. arrived at Tāmralipti at the mouth of the Hooghly river in 672 A.D. He studied at Nālandā, the centre of Buddhist learning, at the east end of the Rājagaha Valley (I-tsing, A Record of the Buddhist Religion, Intro., p. XVII). He said that venerable and learned priests of the Nālandā University used to ride in sedan chairs and never on horseback (Ibid., p. 30). According to him the number of priests exceeds 3,000 in the Nālandā monastery. There are eight halls and three hundred apartments in this monastery. The worship can only take place separately (Ibid., p. 154). I-tsing spent a number of years in studying Buddhist literature at this University. The Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang also was a student of this University for several years. According to him there were thousands of similar institutions in India but none comparable to Nālandā in grandeur. There were 10,000 students who studied various subjects including literature both Buddhist and Brahmanical and discourses were given from 100 pulpits every day. There were lecture halls and all necessary materials for the vast concourse of the teachers and the taught were supplied. The revenues of about 100 villages were remitted for this purpose and two hundred of these villages supplied in turn the daily needs of the inmates. Hence the students here were so abundantly supplied that they did not require to ask for the four requisites, viz., food, clothes, bedding and medicine. From morning till night the students and the teachers engaged themselves in discussions. Learned men from different cities used to come there in large numbers to settle their doubts, and the students of Nālandā were regarded as the best students wherever they went. Nālandā was meant for advanced students and the students had to pass a severe preliminary test. The University of Nālandā was surely the embodiment of the highest ideal of education. For further details, see B. C. Law, The Magadhas in Ancient India, R.A.S., Monograph No. 24, pp. 41–43; Hīrānanda Śāstrī, Nālandā and its Epigraphic material (M.A.S.I., No. 66); Nīlakanta Śāstrī, Nālandā, published in the Journal of the Madras University, Vol. XIII, No. 2; A. Ghosh, A Guide to Nālandā, Delhi, 2nd ed., 1946; Nālandā in Ancient Lit., 5th Indian Oriental Conference, 1930; R. K. Mookerjee, The University of Nālandā, J.B.O.R.S., XXX, Pt. II, 1944; A.S.I., Reports, Eastern Circle, 1901-2, 1915-16, 1919-1920, 1920-21; J.B.O.R.S., March, 1923; B. and O. District Gazetteers, Patna, by O’Malley, pp. 217–223. For an account of excavations at Nālandā vide A.S.I., Annual Reports, 1930-34, pp. 130–140; 1936-37 (1940).