The University of Nalanda c14.18

c14.18

Scholars are not unanimous as to the identification of the site of the University. Cunningham's suggestion² that the modern village Śilās near Baragaon is the site of the University is rejected by Samaddar, as also the view of Vidyabhusana, who identified it with Sultānganj in Bhāgalpur district. "The best identification," says Samaddar,³ "is that by Nundo Lal De⁴ who identifies it with Pātharaghāta, a steep hill overhanging the Ganges. The hill is about six miles to the north of Colgong, twenty-four miles to the east of Bhāgalpur and twenty-eight to the east of Champānagar." The identification fulfils the description of the Tibetan accounts of the place. So this is generally accepted as the correct identification of the Vikramaśilā University. Banerji-Sastri rejects the identification of De. He says that except that the hill is mentioned in the Tibetan accounts, the place in no other way answers the description of the Tibetans. He suggests Keur—a place three miles south-east from Hulasganj and just behind the south-west corner of Hilsa police-station—as a plausible and proper site of Vikramaśilā. For, he says, "Keur is in direct line with Nālandā and Odantapuri and within 15 miles of Nālandā, and with its close similarity with Nālandā remains, amply satisfies every known detail of Vikramaśilā."¹