The University of Nalanda c9.117

c9.117

The assumption that the University could not have been built earlier than the year, 415 or 416 A.D., rests only on this: that we know of no date of Kumāragupta, the founder, earlier than 415-16 A.D., and his leanings towards Buddhism as early as that date. So if some earlier date can be gathered from epigraphic or numismatic evidence, as also his religious views, there need not be any objection to shift the date of the establishment of the University. For the mere fact that Fa-hien, perhaps the earliest Chinese traveller, did not speak gloriously of the place should not deter us from assuming, if it can be assumed on other grounds, that the University was founded, earlier, say in 400 A.D. Because we have already remarked, elsewhere, that Fa-hien might not have visited it at all, or if he did, by nature he preferred to be brief in his description of the places he visited, unless the place was so unusually attractive and great that it compelled a little elaborate description from him, and even in such cases his account of these places is meagre when compared with his successor's, namely, Hiuen Tsiang's.