The University of Nalanda c9.61

c9.61

The reasons are obvious : First, the prophecy is more appropriately applicable to the whole history of the institution rather than to the various parts; second, (this is, in a sense, contained in the first) the University gained its international reputation only after its rejuvenation at the hands of Bālāditya, alias, Narasimhagupta. Scholars went to Tibet and China during the Panditship of Dharmapāla and many students flocked to Nālandā from these places in this period.¹ And the fame of Nālandā also reached the ears of foreign potentates, who sent emissaries to Nālandā inviting its pandits to their countries and built colleges at Nālandā for the students.² Third, according to the soothsayer, the ‘saṅghārāma’ was to flourish for a thousand years. And nobody would be so foolish as to prophesy like that in the face of previous ruin and destruction of the place. Fourth, if we do not take the soothsayer very seriously as regards the age of the University then he was not much wrong; for the institution did flourish for about 800 to 900 years, from 425 A.D. to 1205 A.D. if not for a full period of 1000 years.