Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c32.s1.50

c32.s1.50

Thon-mi first approached the famous Brahman Sanskritist, Lipidatta by name, and, having learnt Sanskrit and the scripts under him, repaired to the Nālandā University, and there placed himself under the tuition of the teacher named Āchārya Devavid Siṁha, who imparted to him instruction in both Brahmanic and Buddhist sacred literature. It is said that Hiuen Tsang came to Nālandā just at the time when the Tibetan student was staying there. The next notice of Nālandā that we get is in connexion with the Tibetan King Thi-srong-den-stan (A.D. 743-789), who invited to Tibet the two Indian sages Padma Sambhava, a native of Udyāna, and Śānta Rakshita, a native of Gaur, who was then the Chancellor of the Nālandā University. In Tibet the two Indian scholars became involved in a religious controversy with a great Chinese scholar and, being unable to defeat him, induced the king to send for the famous Professor of Tantras at Nālandā named Kamalaśīla in A.D. 750. Kamalaśīla, in the presence of the assembled court, vanquished his opponent who was then asked by the king to leave Tibet.