The University of Nalanda c8.53

c8.53

A change, however, was coming over the monasteries. For, when we come to Nālandā in the 5th century and Vikramaśilā in the 10th century, we learn that Śīlabhadra[²] and Atīśa were the abbots of these Universities. But this departure from the express order of Buddha[³] was perhaps due to another change that had come over the monasteries. This we have referred to previously. Monasteries were now no more shelters for *Bhikkhus* to pass their life by meditating on the teachings of Buddha. With the reformation that sprung up in the Buddhist religious and philosophical principles in the shape of *Śūnyavāda*, etc., in the centuries that followed the death of Buddha, more particularly in the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Christian era, the pursuit of secular knowledge (which was almost repugnant to the very purpose and spirit of Buddhism) became, an ideal of the monasteries, which erstwhile stood primarily for the purpose of propagating Buddhism. “Buddhist institutions,” as Keay puts it,[⁴] “did become to some extent places of general learning.” This is quite evident from the records of the Chinese pilgrims, and from the curriculum of the Buddhist institutions like Nālandā and others. I-Tsing,¹ for instance, is quite explicit on this point, when he says, "Those white-robed (laymen) who come to the residence of a priest, and read chiefly Buddhist scriptures with the intention that they may become one day tonsured and black-robed, are called 'children' (Mānava). Those who (coming to a priest) want to learn secular literature only, without having any intention of quitting the world, are called 'students' (Brahmacārin). These two groups of persons (though residing in a monastery) have to subsist at their own expense." Since the monasteries were being converted into educational institutions, a person who would be the head or the abbot thereof was absolutely necessary to control the students.