Question

Where Vikramshila University was located?
A) Bhagalpur in Bihar
B) Patna in Bihar
C) Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh
D) Varanasi in Bihar

Answer 1

Hint:
Vikramshila was a renowned centre of learning in India during the Pala Empire. Nalanda was also well known during this period. Vikramshila was located now in the site of Antichak village, Bhagalpur district located in Bihar. Vikramashila was established by the eminent scholar and great Pala emperor Dharampala (783 to 820 A.D.) in response to the supposed decline in the quality of scholarship available at Nalanda.

Complete step by step solution:
A number of monasteries were established during the Pāla period in ancient Bengal and Magadha. Tibetan sources show five great Maha Viharas stood out: Vikramashila, which was the primary university of the era. Nalanda, past its prime but still rather illustrious, Somapura, Odantpura, and Jagadalla.

The five monasteries were forming a group and all of them were under great state supervision and there existed a system of extreme coordination between them. From the evidence, the members of the Buddhist education sector that worked in eastern India under the Pāla empire were regarded together as a network, it was an interlinked cluster of institutions. It was common for the scholars to shift easily between different positions among themselves.

It produced a large number of eminent and intelligent scholars who were often invited by innumerable foreign countries with the intention to spread Buddhist education and information, alongside culture and religion. The most interesting and highly popular among many was Atisha Dipankara, the founder of the Sarma traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. Subjects like philosophy and grammar, metaphysics, Indian logic etc. were taught here. But, the most important branch of learning here was the Buddhist Tantra.

According to Tāranātha, at Vikramashila's peak during the reign of King Chanaka (955–83 A.D.), the dvārapāla were as follows: Ratanakarasanti (Eastern Gate), Vāgīsvarakīrti (Western Gate), Ratna Vajra (First Central Gate), Jnana Sreemitra (Second Central Gate), Naropa(Northern Gate), and Prajñākaramati (Southern Gate). According to this, it is toward the end of Chanaka's reign that is generally accepted as the time period for Naropa (956–1041 A.D.)

Note:
Vikramashila is known to us through multiple Tibetan sources. Even through the writings of Tarantha, A Tibetan monk as well as a historian of the 16th–17th centuries. Vikramashila was one of the most informative, well established, largest and highly educative Buddhist universities. It had more than one hundred teachers and more than one thousand students.