The University of Nalanda c11.5

c11.5

We have said previously that even though Nāgārjuna and Āryadeva were connected with Nālandā, as statements of Hiuen Tsiang would appear to show, still they cannot be said to have any real connexion with the University. For the University itself was of a posthumous origin. So also would be with Rahulabhadra, “who held office as a teacher in Śrī Nālandā when King Śrī Candra erected 14 fragrant halls and 14 incomparable religious schools.”² Likewise, even Asaṅga and Vasubandhu will have to be excluded from the list of pandits who actually lived and worked in the University if we agree with Kimura¹ that they lived in 390-400 A.D., that is, some 50 years before the rise of the University. But against this we have very strong evidence to prove that they lived not only when the University was actually founded but some 60 years after. It has been shown almost conclusively by Takakusu that Asaṅga and Vasubandhu lived in the latter part of the fifth century A.D.² The only other difficulty in including them among the pandits of Nālandā is that they might not have proceeded to Nālandā but accomplished all their work either at Peshawar (Puruṣapura) or Ayodhyā, as the University had just come into existence. The difficulty, however, will be to a great extent solved if we presume that Vasubandhu who took such a prominent part in converting Bālāditya (Narasimhagupta) to Buddhism must also be taking a very great interest in the institutions at Nālandā.