The University of Nalanda c15.84

c15.84

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: