Nalanda: The Epicenter for Knowledge

Nalanda the ancient university of India which was the greatest place to study in the ancient world as Nalanda is older 500 years older than the world famous Oxford University; in the ancient times students from many places like China, Mongolia, Turkey came to study in Nalanda.

It was established during the rule of the Gupta empire by emperor Kumaragupta later on this was fully supported by the Pala empire after the fall of the Palas Nalanda was patronized by the Pithipatis of Bodh Gaya.

This prehistoric university compromised of the world’s largest library at that time which was full of 9 million manuscripts or ‘Pandulipi’ showing that Nalanda university was a treasure trove of knowledge.

If these books full of knowledge were present till this day India would have been the peak of the golden era.

However, this beautiful ancient university has been attacked several times by many rulers and invaders but the most brutal attack was done by Turko- Afgan military general and invader Muhammad Bakhitayr Khilji.

But there is also a lesser known story behind the destruction of this university done by Khilji.

Once Khilji became badly ill and was unable to be cured by Islamic doctors in his court after this many people advised him to call the doctors who were experts trained in Ayurveda from Nalnada to cure him but he refused to do so as he trusted that no one could be better than Islamic doctors and was too proud of Islamic religion.

But now his condition was getting worse and worse day by day so he was forced to do so and called a doctor from Nalanda to his court named Rahul Sri Bhadra who was also the principal of Nalanda; then Khilji said that ‘I will consider you powerful if you can cure my disease without touching me neither with any medicine ’.

Bhadra took some Ayurvedic medicine and rubbed it over on the pages of Quran; later Bhadra gave Khilji the Quran and said him to read it and within few days Khilji became fully cured, because the medicine got absorbed by his hands and healed him but Khilji didn’t knew this.

He became furious and insecure that an Indian scholar had more knowledge than the Muslim doctors in his court thus he planned to destroy Nalanda and its library fully then he and his army killed monks and scholars of this ancient university then finally set fire to the precious gigantic library which burnt all the 9 million manuscripts it is said that this fire continued burning nonstop for 3 months.

But it somehow managed to be operational for centuries after all the attacks Nalanda included the most famous scholars like- Aryabhata the person who invented the zero, Nagarjun, Harshavardhana, Dharmapala, Dharmakirti, Vasubandhu ect.

This is the story behind the ancient university of Nalanda.

Nevertheless many people of the modern day have forgot the worlds oldest and India’s own university and its history and are going mad behind other universities like Oxford and Cambridge ect.

Now the Government of India has taken a plege to make India as a hub for knowledge and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently inaugurated the renovated campus of Nalanda.

I just wonder if so many knowledgeable people of Nalanda are not present this day so how can the people survive as majority of them are not clever neither they are physically fit enough to digest all the problems occurring globally both natural and manmade destruction like wars ect.

Majority of the human beings of the so called ‘modern age’ people are proving themselves nothing other than couch potatoes but don’t worry mother nature will eradicate them by herself.

Thus if we want ourselves to be sensible human beings so it is important to remember our ancient history and stay in harmony with nature.