Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c32.s1.26

c32.s1.26

**Admission.** The conditions of admission to Nālandā show that it was run as an institution of higher learning or postgraduate studies. The institution was noted for its specialization in the last stages of a University education, for aiding in the solution of doubts, and training in the arts of disputation and public speaking. "Hence," says Hiuen Tsang (Watters, ii, 165), "foreign students came to the establishment to put an end to their doubts and then became celebrated." Some of these, according to I-tsing [ed. Takakusu, p. 26], came even from Mongolia. From the *Life* of Hluen Tsang [pp. xxvii-xxxvi] we learn that several foreign scholars from distant countries like China, Korea, Tibet, and Tokhara came to India for study at Nālandā, and securing valuable MSS. of Buddhism, during the short interval of forty years between the visits of Hiuen Tsang and I-tsing. They also came to achieve fame as scholars. I-tsing, like Hiuen Tsang, also testifies to this fact: "There eminent and accomplished men assemble in crowds, discuss possible and impossible doctrines, and after having been assured of the excellence of their opinions by wise men, become far famed for their wisdom" (p. 177). Thus Nālandā was practically a Research Institute for advanced students and was the highest court of judges of intellectual worth. The stamp of its approval was necessary for any opinion to gain currency in the country. The highest academic degree or distinction of the times was a Fellowship of Nālandā. As noted by Hiuen Tsang, "those who stole the name of Nālandā brother were all treated with respect wherever they went" (Watters, ib.). No wonder that this highly coveted and valued degree was liable to be "*stolen*". Hence it was by no means an easy matter to obtain admission to Nālandā. The entrance examination of Nālandā was very strict, so that its standard might be in keeping with that of its studies. The percentage of failures at the Matriculation Examination was necessarily very large. According to Hiuen Tsang, only about 20 per cent could succeed in obtaining admission to the University by passing its entrance test, and yet the University was never in want of students whose strength was 10,000 at that time! The doors of the University, comprising mainly "schools of discussion", were jealously guarded by the specialists in discussion, expert religious controversialists, who were always ready with difficult problems to try the competence of the claimants for admission. "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 succeeding" [Watters, ii, 165].