Education in Ancient India c7.s3.16

c7.s3.16

Rush for Admission from India and Abroad: There was a great rush for admission to the Nālandā University. Students from all parts of India and also from distant foreign countries were anxious to get the benefit of its instructions. Fa Hsien, Yuan Chwang and I-tsing were not the only Chinese scholars that were attracted to Nālandā by its fame as a centre of learning. During the short interval of thirty years between the visits of Yuan Chwang and I-tsing, Thon-mi, Hiuen Chiu, Taou-hi, Hwui-nieh, Āryavarman, Buddhadharma, Taou-sing, Tang and Hwui Lu, hailing from distant countries like China, Korea, Tibet and Tokhara had visited Nālandā and spent considerable time there in studying and copying manuscripts.¹ The standard of admission was naturally high; ‘of those from abroad, who wished to enter the schools of discussion, the majority, beaten by the difficulties of the problems, withdrew; and those who were deeply versed in old and modern learning were admitted, only two or three out of ten succeeding²’.