The University of Nalanda c9.21

c9.21

putra. From this Samaddar concludes, "So far as importance went Nālandā was superior to Pātaliputra, and it may therefore taken for granted that Nālandā was older than Pātaliputra."[1] We know nothing about Nālandā from this period, that is to say after Buddha's *Nirvāṇa* which took place in 483 B.C.,[2] down to the seventh century A.D., when Hiuen Tsiang visited India and recorded his account of Nālandā. It is only Taranath, who wrote the *History of Buddhism* in about 1500 A.D. that enables us to know what happened in the centuries that followed the death of Buddha. He observes, "Here in Nālandā was in former times, the birthplace of the venerable Śāriputta and it is also the place, where he with 80,000 *arhats* attained *Nirvāṇa*. In course of time, only the *chaitya* of the venerable Śāriputta remained at which King Aśoka gave great offerings to the gods and to which he erected a great Buddhist temple. In this way the first founder of the Nālandā *Vihāra* was Aśoka."[3] Thus antiquity, glamour and sacredness claimed by all ancient things are claimed for the Nālandā University by attributing its rise to Aśoka.