The University of Nalanda c10.154

c10.154

It appears from the records of Hiuen Tsiang's biographer and also of I-Tsing that there was an astronomical observatory at Nālandā and that Astronomy formed part of the students' curriculum. Hwui Li, for instance, says, "The observatories seem to be lost in the vapours (of the morning) and the upper rooms tower above the clouds."¹ And if we now read the above remark with the following: "From the windows one may see how the winds and clouds (produce new forms) and the soaring eaves the conjunctions of the sun and the moon (may be observed)"² then two interpretations are possible. Either the words are a poetic description of the beauty and grandeur of the place; or they signify, as Havell thinks, that Nālandā was a royal observatory.³ His supposition is also based on another fact, namely, that Nālandā had a Clepsydra, or a water-clock which according to Hiuen Tsiang, says he, gave correct time for all Magadha.⁴