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The University of Nalanda c15: Chapter IX. Nālandā—An International University

The University of Nālandā c15

Language
English

Chapter IX. Nālandā—An International University

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FERGUSSON compared Nālandā with Monte Cassino, one of the greatest interprovincial Universities of Mediaeval Europe.¹ From the evidence that is at hand, we think, we can assign it a still loftier position, *viz.*, of an international University.

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¹ Fergusson, *Indian and Eastern Architecture*, p. 136.

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Streams of pilgrim-students wended their way to Nālandā in search of knowledge from China, Tibet and Korea.² In India itself the princes of Magadha³ in Central India, of Kashmere⁴ and sons of many lords and nobles came to study at Nālandā from such distant provinces as Kāñchipura⁵ (modern Conjeeveram) in the South, Puruṣapura⁶ (modern Peshawar) in the North and Samatata in the East.⁷ Moreover, it was at Nālandā that King Harṣa,⁸ the overlord of Northern and Central India and the King of Yavadvīpa (Java) and Suvarṇadvīpa (Sumatra), Mahārāja Bālaputradeva,⁹ built *vihāras* for students to prosecute their studies.

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² Beal, *J. R. A. S.*, XIII, N. S., p. 556.

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³ Prince Bālāditya, afterwards King Narasimhagupta, *see* Takakusu, *J. R. A. S.*, 1905, p. 44.

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⁴ Padmasambhava, *see* Waddell, o.c., p. 26. Not from Kashmere proper but from its North-West, *i.e.*, from the country about Ghazni.

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⁵ Dharmapāla, *see* Hiuen Tsiang, o.c., II, p. 228.

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⁶ Asaṅga and Vasubandhu, *see* Takakusu, *J. R. A. S.*, 1905, p. 35.

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⁷ Hiuen Tsiang, o.c., II, p. 110.

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⁸ *Ibid.*, p. 170.

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⁹ Nālandā Copper-plate of Devapāladeva, *Ep. Ind.*, XVII, p. 327.

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Among the pilgrims, who came from foreign countries, Hiuen Tsiang was perhaps the first to visit Nālandā, for Fa-hien does not seem to have visited it.

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Whatever Hiuen Tsiang and his famous successor I-Tsing had to say about Nālandā, has already been noted to a considerable extent in the preceding pages. Consequently, we shall confine ourselves here to that account of Nālandā which deals with the pilgrims' studies at Nālandā and the treatment that was accorded to them.

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The University sent four men of distinguished position some seven yojanas in advance to receive Hiuen Tsiang. Refreshing himself at the guest-house belonging to the University, Hiuen Tsiang entered Nālandā, with some two hundred priests and about a thousand lay patrons, recounting his praises, and carrying standards, umbrellas, flowers and perfumes.¹

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The authorities at Nālandā had issued instructions to the servants that every comfort and convenience should be given to the pilgrim from China so that he might feel at home, and that all the commodities used by priests and all appliances of religion were for his convenience.²

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The biographer has given a graphic description of his (Hiuen Tsiang's) life at Nālandā. After the pilgrim was relieved of the fatigue of the journey, he was taken to Śīlabhadra, the head of the University. To him, Hiuen Tsiang disclosed his object in coming to the University, viz., to learn the principles of Yogaśāstra from Śīlabhadra himself, and then requested him to receive him (Hiuen Tsiang) as a pupil. The request being granted, he was taken to the college of Bālāditya-rāja (Narasimhagupta) and took his residence in the dwelling of Buddhabhadra, having four storeys (or, the fourth storey), who entertained him for seven days. After this, he went to reside in the dwelling to the north of the abode of Dharmapāla, where he was provided with every sort of charitable offering. Each day, he received 120 Jambiras, 20 Pinbong-tseu (pūga, areca nut), 20 tau kau (nutmegs), an ounce of camphor and a ching (peek) of Mahāśāli rice. “This rice,” says Hwui Li, “is as large as

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(1) Hwui Li, o.c., p. 106.

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the black bean, and when cooked is aromatic and shining, like no other rice at all. It grows only in Magadha, and nowhere else. It is offered only to the king or to religious persons of great distinction, and hence the name Mahāśāli (rice offered to the great householder).

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Every month, he was presented with three measures of oil and a daily supply of butter and other things, according to his need.

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A pure brother (Upāsaka) and a Brahman, relieved from all religious duties, accompanied him, with a riding elephant.¹

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¹ Ibid., pp. 109-110.

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Such hospitality was not bestowed upon Hiuen Tsiang alone. "In the Nālandā convent," continues the same author, "the abbot entertains a myriad priests after this fashion, for besides the Master of the Law (Hiuen Tsiang), there were men from every quarter; and where in all their wanderings have they met such courteous treatment as this?"²

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² Ibid., p. 110.

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After paying a visit to all the sacred places and having paid his reverence to them, the pilgrim-student returned to Nālandā and took seriously to his studies.

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The Master of the Law, as our student was called, heard the explanation of the Yoga-śāstra, three times; the Nyāya Anusāra-śāstra, once; the Hin-hiang-tui fā-ming, once; the Hetuvidyā-śāstra and the Śabdavidyā and the tsah-liang-śāstras, twice; the Praṇya-mūla-śāstra-ṭīkā, and the Śata-śāstra, thrice; then he heard the explanation of Kośa, Vibhāṣā and the Shat-padābhidharma; finishing these, he devoted his attention to the non-Buddhist studies.³

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³ Ibid., p. 121.

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The pilgrim inspired so much confidence and struck his tutor so much with his devotion, zeal and mental abilities, that we find Śilabhadra deputing Hiuen Tsiang on his return visit to Nālandā, to expound, to the congregation, the Mahāyāna-samparigraha-śāstra and comments on the difficulties of the Vidyā-mātra-siddhi-śāstra.¹ But Hiuen Tsiang occupied a much more honourable post at Nālandā, than even the teacher and expounder of the above works. He attempted, in a work called Hwui-Tsung, to reconcile the two contradictory doctrines: that there is nothing to be attained by effort; and its opposite, that we may attain the one true nature (by Yoga). The composition, when presented to Śīlabhadra and to the assembly of eminent pandits was very highly spoken of and it was included in the curriculum for study.²

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¹ Ibid., p. 157.

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² Hwui Li, o.c., p. 158. Very recently Yuanchwang's (Hiuen Tsiang's) Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi-śāstra's Sanskrit restoration is published in J. B. O. R. S., XIX, December, 1933.

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Rising thus higher and higher from one post of honour to another, the pilgrim reached the pinnacle of glory, when he defeated the heretic of the Shun-si (Lokāyata) sect, who came to debate with the monks of Nālandā. In this debate, Hiuen Tsiang not only showed complete mastery over the various schools of Buddhism, but a unique knowledge of the philosophical systems of others, viz., the Bhūtas, Nirgranthas, the Kāpālikas, and the Jutikas, the Sāmkhyas and the Vaiśeṣikas. We shall only refer to his refutation of the Sāmkhya system, it being the most important of the group.

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He first states the philosophy of the opponent, viz., the Sāmkhya. Says he: "As to the heretics called Sāmkhyas, they establish twenty-five principles; from prakṛti or mūla prakṛti proceeds mahat; from mahat proceeds ahaṃkāra; from this proceeds the five subtle particles (called tanmātrā); from these proceed the five elements; from these the seven organs (of sense and action). These twenty-four, all minister to and cherish the Soul (ātman), which accepting and using the help thus given, excludes and removes itself. This being done, then the soul remains pure and uncontaminated."³

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³ Hwui Li, o.c., p. 162.

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Thus showing that he was thoroughly conversant with the Sāmkhya philosophy, he turns to its refutation. Addressing the heretic he said, " You say that in the presence of your twenty-five principles, the character of the Soul is distinct and diverse but by intermingling with the other twenty-four it becomes substantially and intimately one. And you say that Nature (*Prakṛti*) is hypnotised by union with the three *guṇas* of *sattva*, *rajas* and *tamas*, and by intermingling of these three, is perfected the *mahat* and other twenty-three principles; thus you affirm that these twenty-three principles are perfected by the three *guṇas*. But if you constrain your *mahat* and the others, to lay hold of the three and so to become perfect, as in case of a crowd or a forest and without this intermingling they are false,—how then do you say that ‘all things are true?’

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" Again, *mahat* and the rest, being each perfected by the three, then each one so perfected is the same as the whole; but if each is the same as the whole, then the office of each ought to be the same, and then, where is the force of the three forming the substance of all? Again, if one is the same as all, then the mouth and the eye functions, and so on, are the same as the functions of nature.

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Again, if each function discharges the duties of all, then the mouth and the ear, and so on, ought to smell perfumes and colours; for if not, what is the meaning of the assertion that the three *guṇas* make one common substance? How can any sensible man formulate such principles?

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" But again, *prakṛti* and *ātman*, both being eternal, ought to be in their hypostases identical; how, then, can one, in distinction from the other, by intermingling, produce *mahat*, and so on?

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" But again, with respect to the nature of *ātman*, if it is eternal, then it is the same as *prakṛti*—but if they are the same, then what need of speaking of *ātman*?—and then the *ātman* is not able to accept the aid of the twenty-four principles, and there can be no possibility of establishing the different offices of " subject " and " object."¹

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¹ *Ibid.*, pp. 163-164.

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Hiuen Tsiang's refutation of the *Sāṃkhya-śāstra* appears strikingly original and unique to us who are acquainted with that of Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja or Vallabha.

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It appears that Hiuen Tsiang probes the very vitals of the system; and the way in which he proves the futility of the *ātman*, by showing it to be identical with *prakṛti*, and incapable of intermingling with it, dazzles us at first sight.

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But a little examination of his objections against the Sāṃkhya would reveal that Hiuen Tsiang assumes too much. At least so it appears from the translation before us, and unless there is a mistake in the translation, or his biographer has not been able to represent his master's views well, we do not see any reason why the opponent should have been silenced and accepted defeat. We shall point out a few defects in Hiuen Tsiang's arguments. His objection that there is no force in the three forming the substance of the whole (all the principles) as each (as he proves) is the same as the whole, and thus the office of each ought to be the same, is thoroughly opposed to the chemical principles on which the *Sāṃkhya*-system is based. Because, if our body is constituted by the five-elements, "perfected," as Hiuen Tsiang would put it, it does not mean that our body is as good as and equal to every one of the elements. Only when the five elements combine that the body can be created, and Hiuen Tsiang seems to have missed this point. Likewise, only the combination of the three *guṇas* and a stir in their equilibrium can produce the *mahat*, and so *mahat* cannot be said to be equal to the three *guṇas*.

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Again, Hiuen Tsiang assumes too much, when he says that *prakṛti* and *ātman* both being eternal are identical (unless his opponent had said so, which is not reported). All things which are eternal are not identical; for they have some distinguishing characteristics and we know that *Puruṣa* and *Prakṛti* do possess such characteristics.

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The foundations, therefore, on which Hiuen Tsiang builds his arguments are untenable, and so his refutation of the Sāmkhya-system, though strikingly original, is unconvincing.

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If the discussion is suggestive of the power of Hiuen Tsiang as a debator, it also suggests the capacity and greatness of the University which could convert a traveller into such a learned debator, who could talk on all the then known philosophies with so much accuracy. No wonder, then, if Hiuen Tsiang speaks about the University in such highly glowing terms which would make any institution proud.¹ And we think he was amply rewarded for the arduous and weary journey that he undertook for learning the Yogaśāstra and the like from the pandits of Nālandā.

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¹ We have already elsewhere referred to Nālandā's fame and so we do not repeat it here.

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In the interval that follows after the visit of Hiuen Tsiang in about 629 A. D. and the visit of I-Tsing in 671 A. D., that means in 40 years, according to I-Tsing, about 57 pilgrims visited India from China, Japan, Korea,² and we mention below names of those pilgrims who went to Nālandā for study. Those who came by sea, via, Tāmralipti are grouped under the caption "Pilgrims who came by the Southern route;" those by land, via, Mongolia, Turkastan and Tibet are grouped as "Pilgrims who came by the Northern route."

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² I-Tsing, Nan-hae-ki-kwei-niu-fā-ch'uen, referred to by Beal, J.R. A. S., XIII, N.S., p. 556.

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We proceed with the pilgrims who visited Nālandā by the Northern route. The Shaman Yuan Chiu went to India through Tibet. He stayed at Jalandhara, where he studied the Sanskrit language, the Buddhist Sūtras and the Vinaya. Thereafter, he reached Nālandā, where he remained three years and made the acquaintance of a priest called Shin-Kwong. He also met here a noted priest of Ceylon, from whom, he received a copy of the Yoga and the sacred books. In 664 A. D., he paid a second visit to India and also to Nālandā, where I-Tsing was then residing.³

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³ Ibid., pp. 563-564.

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Tao Hi, a Doctor of the Law, called Śrideva in Sanskrit, went to Nālandā, and studiously applied himself to the Great Vehicle. He left more than 400 Chinese Sūtras and Śāstras at Nālandā. I-Tsing did not meet him but saw his chamber.¹

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¹ Ibid.

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In 638 A. D., perhaps immediately after Hiuen Tsiang returned to China, Āryavarma—a Corean—left Chaugan and came to Nālandā. Here he engaged himself in copying many Sūtras and became well versed in the Vinaya and the Abhidhama. He died at Nālandā at the age of about 70.²

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² Ibid.

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Another Corean—Hwui Nieh—a Doctor of the Law, came to Nālandā in almost the same year as Āryavarma. Here he dwelt for a long time, re-adjusting and studying. I-Tsing, while arranging some Chinese books at Nālandā, saw under the title this record: "Whilst dwelling under the Tooth-brush Tree, the Corean priest Hwui Nieh wrote this record." On inquiring at the temple, the priests said that he died there the same year at the age of about sixty. The Sanskrit works he wrote were preserved at Nālandā.³

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³ Ibid., p. 565.

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Bodhidharma, a man of the Tukhāra country, of great bodily size and strength, first went to China and became a priest there. Afterwards, he went to India to adore the sacred vestiges. I-Tsing says that he met him at Nālandā. This pilgrim appears to be a globe-trotter, because from Nālandā, he again proceeded to Northern India and died at the age of fifty.⁴

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⁴ Ibid., p. 566.

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Taou-sing, a Doctor of the Law, called in Sanskrit Candradeva, went to India in the year 649 A. D. When he visited Nālandā, he was much honoured by the King on account of his youth.⁵

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⁵ Ibid.

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The pilgrims who came to Nālandā by the Southern route:—

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A priest of the Mahāyāna School called Tang or "the lamp", came to India by sea, landed at Tāmralipti, studied and perfected himself in Sanskrit and proceeded to Nālandā.¹

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¹ Ibid., pp. 558-559.

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Another priest, Taou-Lin of King Chau, whose Sanskrit name was Śilaprabhā, also landed at Tāmralipti and then went to Nālandā. Here he studied Koṣa. After a year or two, he proceeded to Vulture Peak.²

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² Ibid.

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Hwui-Ta, a priest of Kung chow, also came to India after visiting Malaya, etc., via, Tāmralipti. He says that Nālandā was some 60 stages from this place. He stayed at Nālandā for ten years.³

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³ Ibid., p. 561.

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The priest Wou King studied at Nālandā, Yoga, Koṣa and other works, and died at Nālandā.⁴

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⁴ Ibid., p. 562.

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We have spoken of and described the land route from China. The sea route to India from China was by way of Java, Sumatra, the Straits of Malacca, the coast of Burma and Arakān, to Tāmralipti on the Eastern Coast of India. Here the voyage ended and the traveller then proceeded on foot to various holy places. Some adventurous travellers preferred the route of Ceylon from Quedah.

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How many more pilgrims must have come to Nālandā may well be imagined from the names mentioned above. These are the names of students whom I-Tsing had the opportunity to know. There must be many more, for whom no records are available to us.

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I-Tsing, a pilgrim as famous as Hiuen Tsiang, also belongs to the group of travellers who came to India and Nālandā by the Southern route. From China he started for India, in A. D. 671 and arrived at Tāmralipti, at the mouth of the Hooghly, in A. D. 673.⁵

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⁵ I-Tsing, o.c., p. XVIII.

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At Nālandā he stayed for ten years, and we have noted elsewhere his minute observation of the customs and manners of the priests and the life of students. "I lived in the Nālandā Vihāra", says he, "for ten years."¹ No mention is made about his studies at Nālandā; but we know that, besides collecting some 400 Sanskrit texts, amounting to 500,000 ślokas, I-Tsing translated the hymn of 150 verses composed by Mātṛketa, in praise of Buddha when he was staying in the Nālandā monastery (A. D. 675-685). It is called Sārdhaśataka-Buddhapraśamsāgāthā.² The reasons for translating this hymn are given by him. "The author (Mātṛketa) treats generally of the Six Pāramitās, and expounds all the excellent qualities of the Buddha, the World-honoured One. These charming compositions are equal in beauty to the heavenly flowers, and the high principles which they contain rival in dignity the lofty peaks of a mountain. Consequently in India all who compose hymns imitate his style, considering him the father of literature. Even men, like the Bodhisattvas Āsaṅga and Vasubandhu, admired him greatly.

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¹ Ibid., p. XXXIII.

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² Ibid., p. 156, n. 3.

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"Throughout India, every one who becomes a monk is taught Mātṛketa's two hymns, as soon as he can recite the five and ten precepts.

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"This course is adopted by both the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna schools; there are six reasons for this. Firstly, these hymns enable us to know the Buddha's great and profound virtues. Secondly, they show us how to compose verses. Thirdly, they ensure purity of language. Fourthly, the chest is expanded in singing them. Fifthly, the nervousness in assembly is overcome by reciting them. Sixthly, by their use, life is prolonged, free from disease. After one is able to recite them, one proceeds to learn other Sūtras. But these beautiful literary productions have not as yet been brought to China."³

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³ Ibid., p. 157-158.

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The University continued to flourish for five centuries more after the visit of I-Tsing. During that long period, many other pilgrim-students must have gone to Nālandā in search of knowledge, hearing of its greatness from Hiuen Tsiang, I-Tsing and others. Unfortunately, we have no record of these visitors. We know of one student, son of a minister of Tibet, who came to India and studied at Nālandā. The circumstances under which he visited India are given below.

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"The King of Tibet, Srong-tsan was very anxious to introduce art of writing into Tibet. He sent several young men to India but they returned back on account of difficulties on the way. Thereafter, Thonmi, the son of Anul, a brave, talented minister of the king, undertook to visit India for the purpose of studying the Indian Languages. The king furnished him with a large quantity of gold, to enable him to make presents to the Indian princes and professors of Sanskrit learning. He travelled southward to India and hearing of the fame of a Brāhmaṇ, named Lipidatta, noted for proficiency in the art of writing, he went to him. Under Lipidatta, his intelligence developed and the lamp of knowledge being lighted he learnt the sections of Nāgari and Gāthā characters. Having finished his education under Lipidatta, he proceeded to the great monastery of Śri Nālandā and having placed himself under the tuition of Āchārya Devavid Siṃha, he studied the sacred literature of the Brāhmaṇas and Buddhists. ✓

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While Thonmi Sambhata was studying at Nālandā, the great Chinese pilgrim traveller, Hiuen Tsiang, visited the monastery. The splendour and usefulness of that institution, increased in the first century B. C. by Saraha, the tutor and spiritual guide of Nāgārjuna, were still undiminished."¹

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¹ Das, *Indian Pandits in the Land of Snow*, pp. 47-48.

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The work of the University was not confined to the teaching of students who were within its precincts. It sent out scholars to China, Corea, Japan, and Ceylon to light the lamp of knowledge in these foreign lands. Spade-work in this direction was already done by such luminaries as Kumārājīva, Guṇavarman, Paramārtha, the translator of the life of Vasubandhu,¹ in the early years of the fifth century, just before the time when Nālandā was developing into a University. After these, some fifty monks, majority of them from Central India, went to China and though the records at our disposal do not say that they were from Nālandā, it would not be wrong to say that many of them must have been from Nālandā. We know for certain that in the beginning of the eighth century, Subhākara Siṃha,² a pandit of the Nālandā University proceeded to China. Four works are ascribed to him in the present collection of Tripiṭaka, as his translations from Sanskrit into the Chinese. We mention two of his translated works:

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¹ See Bose, The Indian Teachers in China, pp. 58-59.

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² Ibid., p. 119.

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(1) Susiddhikara mahā-tantra.
(2) Subāhu-Kumāra Sūtra.

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Political conditions in China made it unsafe for the Indian pandits to go to that country. Very few pandits had, therefore, proceeded to China in the 9th and 10th centuries. In the latter part of the 10th century, however, a great Indian pandit, Dharmadeva, from the Nālandā University visited China. He proved to be one of the most famous translators of the Song Dynasty (A. D. 960-1127). He was appointed a member of the Imperial Board for the translation of Indian Buddhist Texts. By the year 981 A. D., he translated no less than 46 works into Chinese. In appreciation of the great services rendered by him in the propagation of Chinese Buddhism, the Emperor Theitsun conferred upon him the title of Kwhan Kiao-tash. Majority of the works translated by him consist of Tantras and Dhāraṇīs. To mention a few of them:

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(1) Vasudhārā-dhāraṇī.
(2) Mahā-daṇḍa-dhāraṇī.
(3) Buddha-hṛdaya-dhāraṇī.

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These names, however, are taken from the works translated by him, under the name of Fa-tien. He translated 72 new works in 19 years (A.D. 982-1001) under his new name Fahien. Besides these, he translated the most popular work of the Mahāyāna Buddhism, viz., Sukhāvativyūha. In order to encourage others to work like Dharmadeva, the Emperor bestowed another title of Hhuen Kiao shan, even though Dharmadeva was dead.¹

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¹ Bose, o.c., pp. 130-135.

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Perhaps the last pandit to visit China from Nālandā, was Pou-t'o-ki-to, who was described as the "Śramaṇa of the Temple of Nālandā of Central India." He offered some relics of Buddha and Sanskrit Texts to the Emperor.²

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² Ibid., p. 140.

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We have not referred to the pandits who proceeded to China from Central India. But we think that these pandits from Central India must be no other than the pandits of Nālandā, because Nālandā was the greatest and the most flourishing Buddhist institution in Central India.

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If Nālandā was an international University, it was the greatest University in India at that time and not only in Central India as Fergusson³ puts it. Says he, " What Cluny and Clairvaux were to France in the Middle Ages, Nālandā was to Central India." To substantiate our statement we shall have to repeat some portions of the Chapter " Famous Pandits of Nālandā."

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³ Fergusson, o.c., p. 137.

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From the earliest period of its history, Nālandā was the centre of attraction for students, and with the lapse of time, as its fame spread far and wide as a great Temple of Learning, not only students from different parts of India flocked to Nālandā for education but even kings of Kanauj and other parts of India, as well as kings of such distant countries as Java and Sumatra and Burma (Kāmarupa) began to show their interest in the institution.

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We shall, therefore, turn our attention to these students and kings. The interest which Buddha and his band took in Nālandā, then a small but a rich village, we have noted in a previous chapter.¹

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Perhaps the first student to go to Nālandā, from a province that was farthest from it, viz., Kosala in Southern India, even before Nālandā had attained the position of a University, was Nāgārjuna.² He, probably, sowed the seeds of the foundation of the University.

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Leaving, however, tradition behind, it appears for certain that Āsaṅga and Vasubandhu, both of them brothers, came to Nālandā from Peshawar (Puruṣapura) from the North. And here they found suitable soil for the cultivation of their genius, and contributed immensely to Buddhism, by expounding it and refuting the attacks against it.

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The part which Dharmapāla and Śīlabhadra played in maintaining the lofty position that Nālandā possessed in India as well as abroad, we have already noticed. Now this Dharmapāla was a native of Kāñcipura (Beal identifies it with Conjeeveram),³ and he travelled all the way from this city, hundreds of miles away, to receive knowledge at Nālandā, in Maghadha.

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His successor, Śīlabhadra, who belonged to the family of the king of Samatata (in the East), wandered from place to place in India in search of religious truth. He called a halt only when he came to Nālandā because he thought that Nālandā's pandits would show him the way to truth and therefore to deliverance from the chain of miseries.⁴

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Viradeva, while King Devapāladeva was ruling over Magadha, came to Nālandā from Nagarahāra (a town in the immediate vicinity of Jalālābād).⁵ He did not go to Nālandā to study, for he had already mastered the Vēdas and other Śāstras.⁶ His object in going to Nālandā was, perhaps, to

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(1) Chapter III, p. 36.
(2) Hiuen Tsiang, o.c., II, p. 97 and Taranath, o.c., p. 72.
(3) Hiuen Tsiang, o.c., II, p. 228, n. 118.
(4) Ibid., p. 110.
(5) Cunningham, Ancient Geography of India, I, p. 43.
(6) Ghosrawa Inscription, Ind. Ant., XVII, p. 311.

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get his merit recognised. And he realised his ambition when “ he was permanently appointed to govern Nālandā.”¹

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We have already spoken of Nālandā as the home of most versatile pandits, whose assistance was sought by King Harṣa to vanquish the Hīnayānists. Reference was also made to the important position that Nālandā held in public, religious and philosophical controversies, so much so that 1000 pandits from Nālandā alone were summoned to attend the great assembly convened by Śri Harṣa, to discuss and examine the work composed by Hiuen Tsiang.

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Nālandā's great fame attracted the attention of the king of such distant countries as Java and Sumatra. “With the mind attracted by the manifold excellences of Nālandā, he (Mahārāja Bālaputradeva, the King of Suvarṇadvīpa) built there (at Nālandā) a monastery which was the abode of the assembly of monks of various good qualities and was white with the series of stuccoed and lofty dwellings.”²

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These lines speak volumes in favour of the greatness of Nālandā.

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First, Nālandā was renowned not for one or two outstanding qualities, but they were, as the inscription says; “manifold”. Nālandā, again, as it appears from other lines, was a centre where “venerable *bhikṣus* assembled from the four quarters,” was an abode where “resided Bodhisattvas well-versed in *Tantras*, and the eight great holy personages,” was a storehouse of old manuscripts (Dharma Ratnas), to copy which learned men flocked to Nālandā, and finally it was an emporium which supplied medicine to the sick, alms to the beggar, garments to the naked, and shelter to the homeless. In Nālandā were thus combined all the diverse features. It was at once a monastery for the monks to reside, a University, and a library (which feature is really subsumed under the

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(1) *Ibid.*, Lines, 11-12.
(2) *The Nālandā Copper-plate of Devapāladeva, Ep. Ind.*, XVII, p. 327, verse 32.

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former), a hospital, and finally a free institution, catering to all the needs of the poor.

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The second point worth noting, in the lines just quoted, is that Nālandā was even in the 9th century A.D., in the same flourishing condition, *i.e.*, a great centre of Buddhist lore that it was when Hiuen Tsiang and I-Tsing visited it.

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We have thus shown that Nālandā was far greater than Monte Cassino, and held a more important position in India than Cluny and Clairvaux in France.

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It was truly an international University. And what Buddhism did for religion, Nālandā did for learning. “Races belonging to different climates, habits and languages were drawn together, not in the clash of arms, not in the conflict of exploitation, but in harmony of life, in amity and peace.”

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