The University of Nalanda c13.185

c13.185

In Buddhism and Buddhist institutions there was no room for the Hindu social classification. Instead of the threefold or fourfold division of humanity into various compartments, we find that the whole of it was reduced to a harmonious unity, without any distinctions of caste and creed. The result was that the aim of all those students who had become Bhikkhus, (others may, afterwards, as I-Tsing says,² revert to the worldly life and if they had not embraced Buddhism, to their respective castes and also their professions) was to achieve distinction in the Buddhist order. Offices such as that of a Therā, that is to say, the Head of *Bhikkhus* in the *sangha*, or when the Buddhist monasteries were transformed into Houses of Learning, the posts such as that of a professor, or Door-keepers of the University, who were eminent men,¹ or the abbot of the University, were greatly prized. As I-Tsing puts it, "Those white robed (laymen) who come to the residence of a priest and read chiefly Buddhist Scriptures with the intention that they may one day become tonsured and black-robed, are called 'children' (*mānava*)."² "To the great mass of students," says Rashdall, with reference to European students, "the University was simply the door to the Church: and the door to the Church, at that time meant the door to professional life."³ These words, though true to a great extent so far as the Buddhist students are concerned, need an explanation. Both the Indian and the European students looked to the Church to give them a profession, yet the profession of each vitally and materially differed from the other. The Buddhist *Bhikkhu*, who became, say, the head of the *sangha* or the abbot of the University in later times, derived no material gain. Honour and power were the only emoluments of his services, and of his high office. Unlike the European priest he was not given any pay or money in any form or shape. He dedicated himself to the cause of humanity, and to do this work, the only thing the *sangha* did was to provide him with all the necessaries of life, suitable to his high post.⁴