Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c32.s1.34

c32.s1.34

It may also be noted that Hiuen Tsang himself soon counted as one of the best products of Nālandā by his mastery of Mahāyāna Buddhism. For instance, when the emperor Harsha, while touring through Orissa, found there the dominance of Hīnayāna, whose priests ridiculed him for his misplaced gifts to Nālandā, he at once answered them by sending for four accomplished teachers of Mahāyāna from Nālandā. The four teachers selected for this deputation to Orissa included Hiuen Tsang himself, besides three others named Sāgaramati, Prajñāraśmi, and Siṁharaśmi [*Life*, p. 160]. Assam also was another kingdom which asked for Hiuen Tsang's spiritual ministration. Its king, Kumāra (Bhāskaravarman) sent for him with a letter carried by a special messenger to Śīlabhadra, the Abbot of Nālandā, whose delay in sending him caused the dispatch by the king of two more messengers and a threat of a military invasion of Nālandā and its destruction! [ib., pp. 170, 171. 187]. The King of Assam was in his turn given a similar rebuff by his more powerful chief, Harsha, asking him to send back the Chinese Pilgrim, then his guest, on pain of "losing his head". Thus Hiuen Tsang was very much in request for his learning which he had acquired as a student of Nālandā University.