The University of Nalanda c9.115

c9.115

The same date can be arrived at also if instead of starting with Kumāragupta, the founder of the University, we just begin in a reverse order, to wit, from Bālāditya Narasimhagupta, the restorer of the University. For it was he who defeated the Huns under Mihirakula and regained the lost prestige of the Guptas. He came to the throne in or about A.D. 500. And now if we accept Sammaddar's or Heras' view and allot, as they do, 25 years as an average to the reign of Puragupta and Skandagupta, then we reach 450 A.D., a date we learn from another source², when he was already the ruler of Magadha. And once again assuming that he built the University not in the closing years of his regime, but say between 420 and 448 A.D., we, once more, come to the conclusion already suggested by us, viz., that the University was probably founded in or about 425 A.D.