EDUCATION SYSTEM IN INDIA THROUGH AGES Pt. V- Destruction of Ancient Education System by Muslim Invaders-Nalanda Case Study

 5.0 TRUE STORY OF TRAGEDY OF NALANDA MAHAVIHARA

Nalanda is about 16 kilometres north of the city of Rajgir and about 90 kilometres southeast of Patna in Bihar. Nalanda Mahavihara was established by emperor Kumaragupta I of the Gupta Empire around 427 CE and was supported by numerous Indian and Javanese patrons – both Buddhists and non-Buddhists. It continued to thrive with the support of the rulers of the Pala Empire (750–1161 CE). After the fall of the Palas, the monks of Nalanda were patronised by the Pithipatis of Bodh Gaya.

5.1 SALIENT FEATURES OF NALANDA: Following are salient features:

• Area of the complex - 23 hectares (nearly 57 acres)

• Viharas - 11

• Temples - 14

• Compounds - 8

• Library - Named Dharma Gunj having many buildings, some being upto 9 storeyed

• Books and rare manuscripts - 90 lakhs (9 million)

• Misc. - Votive structures, Hostels, Meditation Halls, stupas, chaityas, shrines important art works in stucco, stone and metal; Parks, Lakes, Fountains etc.

• Number of students – 10,000

• Number of Professors & teachers – 2,000

• Countries from where students came – Tibet, China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Iran, Persia, Turkey, Greece etc.

• Famous scholars associated - Dharmapala, Nagarjuna, Dharmakirti, Asanga, Vasubandhu, Chandrakirti, Xuanzang, Silabhadra and Vajrabodhi. 

• Curriculum - Buddhist philosophies like Madhyamaka, Yogachara and Sarvastivada and other subjects like the Vedas, grammar, philosophy, economy, medicine, logic, mathematics, astronomy and alchemy etc.

5.2 SLAUGHTER AND DESTRUCTION OF NALANDA BY BURNING

 Though Muslim invasion of India had started from early 8th century, one by Bakhtiyar Khilji (Military general of the Ghurid ruler Muhammad of Ghor) was the deadliest. In 1193 he attacked Bihar and Bengal causing large scale destruction and slaughter people. He burned Nalanda, Odantapuri, and Vikramashila torturing and slaughtering professors, teachers and students. The entire Nalanda complex was destroyed and burned. The library containing 9 million books, rare manuscripts and research papers continued to burn for 3 months. While general mass destruction elsewhere was genocide, the destruction of Nalanda was a cultural genocide, aimed at ensuring that India’s indigenous traditions would be irreparably damaged. The annihilation of Nalanda left a gaping hole in India’s intellectual history. Had this repository of knowledge survived, it could have continued to contribute to global scholarship. The loss was not only India’s but the of the entire world, as thousands of years of accumulated knowledge in medicine, astronomy, and literature perished in the flames of conquest. In modern terms it can be understood by a simile in today’s world if all the tech gadgets, storage devices etc are destroyed, all the back-up files, back up storage centers, tech engineers, coders, coding books, e-books that can help in reconstructing are also destroyed/killed then how much backward civilisation will go. Something similar happened in the period during end of 12th century and beginning of 13th century, because India was the only country having universities and Nalanda was centre of all of them. 

5.3 SURVIVORS’ ACCOUNT & REVIVAL: But still some monks from Nalanda and nearby monasteries survived the slaughter. The last throne-holder of Nalanda, Shakyashri Bhadra of Kashmir, fled to Tibet in 1204 CE at the invitation of the Tibetan translator Tropu Lotsawa (Khro-phu Lo-tsa-ba Byams-pa dpal). Some of the surviving Nalanda books were taken by fleeing monks to Tibet. He took with him several Indian teachers: Sugataśrī, (an expert in Madhyamaka and Prajñāpāramitā); Jayadatta (Vinaya); Vibhūticandra (grammar and Abhidharma), Dānaśīla (logic), Saṅghaśrī (Candavyākaraṇa), Jīvagupta (books of Maitreya), Mahābodhi,(Bodhicaryāvatāra); and Kālacandra (Kālacakra). some manuscripts from Nalanda were taken to Tibet before the attack by Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1193 CE. Fleeing monks carried these manuscripts to Tibet, hoping to preserve them. Some of these preserved manuscripts are now located in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Yarlung Museum in Tibet.

In 1936 biography of the Tibetan monk-pilgrim, Dharmasvamin (in bsdus-yig style, Tibetan script) was discovered. Dharmasvamin had met the fleeing monks and famous scholars during his studies from c. 1200s to 1226 CE. He visited Bihar c. 1234 CE, including spending one monsoon season in Nalanda, despite of the fact that his colleagues dissuaded him from going to Magadha as fear of persecution was strong in the 1230s. He described the condition in the decades after the sack of Nalanda and other Buddhist monasteries in Magadha-region of India. Other Tibetan monks and he had shifted to Nepal, as the place to study, copy and move manuscripts to Tibet. According to his account, the Turushka-Qarluq (Turk) conquest extended from about 1193 to 1205, the destruction was systematic with "Turushka soldiers razing a monastery to the ground and throwing the stones into Ganges river", states George de Roerich (orientalist, linguist, and encyclopedist; son of the painter and explorer Nicholas Roerich and is known for his contributions to Tibetan dialectology). Chapter 10 of Dharmasvamin's biography describes Nalanda in c. 1235 CE. Dharmasvamin found it "largely damaged and deserted". Despite the perils, some had re-gathered and resumed the scholastic activities in Nalanda, but at a vastly smaller scale and with donations from a wealthy Brahmin layperson named Jayadeva. 

In 1351, Tibetans committed to recreating a monastery in the heart of Tibet, staffing it with monk-scholars from diverse Buddhist schools, and name it the "Nalanda monastery" in the honour of the ancient Nalanda. This institution emerged north of Lhasa in 1436, then expanded in the 15th century. It is now called the Tibetan Nalanda, to distinguish it from this site

The Dalai Lama has actively supported and been involved in translating and promoting Nalanda-related texts. He has publicly expressed his desire to see these ancient Indian Buddhist texts translated and made accessible, particularly in the context of establishing the Dalai Lama Chair for Nalanda Studies at Goa University. His efforts include supporting the translation and publication of the entire Tibetan Tengyur, a vast collection of Buddhist texts, which includes works from Nalanda scholars, and advocating for the inclusion of Nalanda-inspired secular ethics in educational curricula.

According to Rajiv Malhotra (an Indian-born American Hindutva ideologue and the founder of Infinity Foundation) Dalai Lama loaded many books on Yaks, while fleeing from Tibet in 1959 due to Chinese occupation and brought to India. Rajiv Malhotra’s Infinity Foundation gave a grant to Columbia University in 2005 to translate into English some of the most important books in Nalanda University that were burned by Muslim invaders centuries ago. That project has continued since then as a result of foundation's historic role in the revival of Indian knowledge and is helping translate the Tibetan language version of the Nalanda books into English to make them more accessible and readable for a wider variety of scholars.

5.4 CONTROVERSY

It is unfortunate that an important Railway Station near ancient Nalanda Mahavihara, Bakhtiyarpur, is named after Bakhtiyar Khilji, the destroyer of ancient Mahavihara and murderer of scholars. There is demand to change name from various quarters to change the name, but state Governments are not sympathetic towards this just demand.

5.5 NEW NALANDA UNIVERSITY

New Nalanda University has been established to emulate the ancient Nalanda mahavihara. On 28 March 2006 the then President of India A. P. J. Abdul Kalam proposed the idea while addressing the Joint Session of the Bihar Vidhan Mandal for the revival of Nalanda University. In 2007 the Bihar Legislative Assembly passed a bill for the creation of a new university and 455.19 acres of land was gifted by the State Government of Bihar in 2011 for this purpose. On June 19, 2024 Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the new campus of the Nalanda University near Rajgir, about 20 kms from ancient Nalanda Mahavihara.