Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c32.s2.40

c32.s2.40

**Destruction of Vikramaśīlā by Moslems.** As related by the author of *Tabakāt-i-Nāsari* [Raverty, i, 552], "the greater number of the inhabitants of that place were Brahmans (Bhikshus?), and the whole of these Brahmans had their heads shaven; and they were all slain. There were a great number of books on the religion of the Hindus (Buddhists) there; and when all these books came under the observation of the Musalmans, they summoned a number of Hindus that they might give them information respecting the import of those books; but the whole of the Hindus had been killed. On becoming acquainted (with the contents of those books), it was found that the whole of that fortress and city was a college, and, in the Hindu tongue, they call a college Bihār (Vihāra)."