Nalanda University Destruction

Nalanda University is famous as ‘the second most ancient Indian university’ (Takshila University being the first one). It was spread over about 11 hectares of land of the historical city of Rajgir and Patna in Bihar. It is believed that the university had around 10000 students enrolled from the country and outside, such as China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Persia, Greece, Turkey, Tibet, etc. There were approximately 2000 teachers in the university for teaching various subjects like Samkhya, Vedas, Medicine, Mathematics, scientific thoughts on Astronomy, Anatomy, Ayurveda, Sanskrit, Mahayana Buddhism, etc.

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The university consisted of 3 major architectural divisions. Featured with multi-storied buildings, lakes, parks, meditation halls, etc., Nalanda university was famous worldwide not only for its teachings but also for its rich infrastructural heritage. It had ten temples, a huge nine-storied building for the library, classrooms, dormitories, monasteries, etc.

It is believed that the library of Nalanda University was once a home for around 9 million sacred manuscripts. It is also believed that the university provided free education and residential facilities to scholars from different countries. The scholars were not allowed to go outside the premises before the classes ended. The enrollment of the students was done on the basis of merit.

The Destruction of Nalanda University

It is said that Nalanda University has encountered destruction three times in history. Two times the university was restored; however, the third time, it was not.

• First Destruction (455-467 AD):

Nalanda University was first destroyed by the Huns under the empire of Mihirakula during the reign of Skandagupta. Later, the successors of Skandagupta reconstructed the library. In fact, they also upgraded the structure of the building.

• Second Destruction: 

The answer to Who destroyed Nalanda University second time is that the university was destroyed for the second time by the Gaudas in the 7th century. This time, it was restored by the Buddhist king, Harshavardhana.

• Third (last) destruction:

In 1193 Nalanda University was almost completely destroyed for the third time by the Turkish invader; Mohammad Bakhtiyar Khilji and his Muslim army known as Mamluks. The rich nine-storied building of the library of Nalanda was set on fire which burned for around three months continuously. They also ransacked the monasteries and drove the monks away from the place. After this destruction, Nalanda was not restored in the ancient period.

Why did Bakhtiyar Khilji Destroy Nalanda University?

This side of the story of the fall of Nalanda University is quite lesser-known. It was the time when Bakhtiyar Khilji had taken control of some of the places of India ruled by Buddhists, mainly in North India.

It is said that once, Bakhtiyar Khilji fell sick. He was kept on medication for a long time by his masters, wife and the princes. Even after too many efforts of the masters, his health was getting worse and worse as the days passed. Someone suggested Bakhtiyar Khilji try to get treatment from Acharya Rahul Sribhadra, head of Ayurveda at Nalanda University. Khilji believed that none of the Indian physicians or gurus had more knowledge of medicines than his masters and his wife. For this reason, he did not consider the thought of receiving treatment from Acharya Rahul Sribhadra for a long time. At last, when he was left with no other option to save his life, he finally agreed to get treatment from Acharya Rahul Subhadra. But, Khilji put a strange condition on Acharya Rahul Sribhadra for his treatment. The condition was that Acharya could not give him any kind of medicine. They had to treat him without any medication.

Surprisingly, Vaidyaraj accepted his condition and started the treatment process. As a part of his treatment process, he gave Bakhtiyar Khilji the holy book of the Quran and told him to read some specific pages. Vaidyaraj was pretty sure that by doing this, Khilji would recover soon. As told by Vaidyaraj, Khilji read a few pages for a number of days.

Surprisingly, he started recovering consistently, as Vaidyaraj said. Later on, Acharya Rahul Sribhadra revealed that he had applied the medicines to those pages of the Quran which he told Khilji to read. As Khilji read the pages of the book, he used to frequently moisturise his fingers from his mouth to turn the pages. This way, he unknowingly took the medications given by Acharya Rahul Sribhadra and recovered soon.

This incident, somehow, proved his belief wrong that Indian physicians were less knowledgeable than his masters. For this reason, he decided to destroy the roots of Ayurveda and Buddhism. Bakhtiar Khilji along and his Muslim army set on fire the huge library of Nalanda, burning around 9 million manuscripts. It is said that the library was so huge that it burned continuously for approximately three months. All the teachers and gurus have driven away from the place. They ransacked the classrooms, monasteries etc.

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The destruction of Nalanda University is described in the contemporary Tabakat-i-Nasiri by Maulana Minhaj-ud-din. He mentions that there were a large number of Brahmin inhabitants. The group of Brahmins with shaven heads were all slain. Thousands of monks were either beheaded or burnt alive in an attempt to uproot Buddhism from India. After destroying Nalanda University, there were still some of the books remaining kept by the Muslims. A group of Hindus was summoned by them to let them extract and understand the valuable information from those scripts written in the Hindu tongue. Later these Hindus were killed after the acquisition of the information from the books for its import in their language.

New Start of Nalanda University

The idea to re-establish the glory of the ancient Nalanda university in accordance with today’s educational scenario was proposed in 2007, i.e., about 800 years after its last destruction. This was done at the East Asia Summit, represented mostly by Asian countries including China, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam, apart from Australia and New Zealand etc. This is seen as one of the flagship projects of the Indian Government. The first session of the new Nalanda University started on September 1, 2014. It is now a research-intensive university and is also termed as an ‘International Institution of National importance.

Did You Know?

• The education and residence in the Nalanda campus were free for the scholars.

• The name ‘Nalanda’ evolved from the phrase ‘na alam da’, which means to not keep any restrictions over the gift of knowledge.

• Nalanda library consisted of 9 million manuscripts and thousands of books.

• The university accommodated about 10000 students and 2000 teachers.

• Subjects like Literature, Astrology, Psychology, Law, Astronomy, Science, History, Mathematics, Architecture, Economics and Medicine etc were taught at Nalanda.

• Another thing that is unique about Nalanda University is that every decision has been made with the opinion of both teachers and students as well. This shows that a democratic theme was functional at this ancient university.

• The relics of Nalanda are found in around 1.5 lakh square feet. It is said that this is only about 10 percent of its total area.

Conclusion

Nalanda University is known for its contributions. Nalanda University is known to be established by a monarch named Shakaraditya is known to be Kumaragupta-I, a Gupta emperor. This is according to the dated records found in the scripts. At the same time, archaeological excavations and some discoveries prove its existence since about 1200 BC. There is evidence showing the contributions of kings from foreign lands who also donated to building some structures of Nalanda University. King Shailendra of Indonesia built a structure within the Nalanda campus, as shown by some archaeological evidence.