Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c6.91

c6.91

Nālanda has already been referred to above in connection with the visits of the Chinese scholars. Its site has been identified with the modern Baragaon, seven miles north of Rajgir, in Bihar. Nāgārjuna, about 300 A.D., and Ārya Deva, about 320 A.D., are said to have been the earliest scholars to take interest in Nālanda as an educational institution, but it was not till about 450 A.D. that it assumed the character of a university when it came under the recognition of the king of Magadha. It must have been at the height of its prosperity about the time of the visits ⁴ of Hiuen-Tsiang and I-Tsing in the seventh century A.D. The latest limit of the existence of Nālanda as a university centre which is known with certainty is 750 A.D., when a certain Kamalśila was teaching the Tantric philosophy there. But it probably existed until about 850 A.D., for it is known that there was for some time intercourse between Nālanda and the later university of Vikramaśilā, which was not founded till about 800 A.D. According to Tibetan accounts the quarter in which the Nālanda University, with its grand library, was located, was called Dharmaganja (“Piety Mart”). It consisted of three grand buildings called Ratnasāgara, Ratnodadhi, and Ratnaranjaka. In Ratnodadhi, which was nine-storied, there were the sacred scripts called *Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra*, and Tāntric works such as *Samāja-guhya*, etc. After the Turuska raiders had made incursions in Nālanda, the temples and *chaityas* there were repaired by a sage named Mudita Bhadra. Soon after this, Kukutasiddha, minister of the king of Magadha, erected a temple at Nālanda, and while a religious sermon was being delivered there, two very indigent Tīrthika mendicants appeared. Some naughty young novice-monks, in disdain, threw washing-water on them. This made them very angry. After propitiating the sun for twelve years, they performed a *yajna*, fire sacrifice, and threw living embers and ashes from the sacrificial pit into the Buddhist temples, etc. This produced a great conflagration which consumed Ratnodadhi. It is, however, said that many of the Buddhist scriptures were saved by water which leaked through the sacred volumes of *Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra* and *Tantra*.’¹