The University of Nalanda c13.205

c13.205

To the critic, however, who bases his opinion only on Hiuen Tsiang's statement, namely, that "from morning till evening they (the students of Nālandā) engage in discussions,"¹ or on that of I-Tsing that "there (in Nālandā and Valabhi) eminent and accomplished assemble in crowds and discuss possible and impossible doctrines,"² and to the critic who knows well the result of these discussions, the following demerits may appear: That the frequent debates were hardly in consonance with the facts of actual life; that very often, in these discussions, the ideal or desire for truth receded into the background; and that, on the contrary, it made the student dogmatic and disputatious. Thus, the education of this type he may characterise as Rashdall does³, while pointing out the defects of the Mediaeval European educational system, "as a melancholy record of misdirected energy, stupid routine, and narrow one sidedness."