Some Introductory Notes on Nalanda

Nalanda University was a prestigious seat of learning in ancient India. It made incredible
contributions to the disciplines of philosophy, logic, epistemology, metaphysics,
psychology, medicine, art, and literature.

• Nalanda flourished between 5 to 12 centuries CE under Gupta and Pāla patronage. With
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the support of royal patronage of different dynasties, Nalanda emerged as the center of
learning and scholarship that imparted its extensive wisdom for almost a millennium
across Asia.

• What made Nalanda University so exalted was its intellectual rigor - the vastness and
depth of study which evolved over many centuries - that attracted scholars across Asia.

• The Nalanda tradition consisted of a rigorous study of several layers of ontological and
epistemological reality in a manner that was free from religious dogmas and universal in
nature.

• Buddhist Masters from Nalanda became the source of inspiration and imparted their
extensive wisdom that spread across the Indian subcontinent, China, Mongolia, Tibet, and
Southeast Asia.

• In ‘The Encyclopaedia of World Religions’, published by Cambridge University, the

famous Indologist Vincent A Smith remarked, "A detailed history of Nalanda would be a
history of Mahayana Buddhism."

Meaning of Nalanda:

In Sanskrit, Nalanda can have two meanings. NALAM means the ‘stalk of lotus’. DA
stands for ‘Giver’. The lotus symbolises wisdom. So Nalanda means ‘Giver of Wisdom’.

Another meaning comes from the word NA + ALAM + DA. This means 'Giving Without
any Limit' or Limitless Giving. Nalanda offered its wisdom without any limit. There was
no barrier of caste, creed, religion, or nationality. Its wisdom was universal.
Subjects taught at Nalanda University:

In addition to the major subjects at Nalanda such as Philosophy, Logic & Epistemology,
Metaphysics, Medicine & Psychology, Art, and literature, as listed by Chinese travellers,
the Tibetan chronicles record 17 other subjects taught and studied at Nalanda. They were:
1. Stotra (Hymns [Praising the Buddha])
2. Prajñāpāramitā šāstra (Transcendent Wisdom treaties)
3. Madhyamaka šāstra (Philosophical texts following Nagarjuna’s tradition)
4. Sūtra (Outer Science/Exoteric commentaries and treatises)
5. Tantra (Inner Science/Esoteric commentaries and treatises)
6. Cittamātra (Psychological treatises of Mind-only school)
7. Abhidharma (Treatises on metaphysics)
8. Vinaya (Monastic discipline)
9. Jātaka (Life Stories of the Buddha)
10. Lekha Parikshā (Letters and Accounts)
11. Pramāṇa šāstra (Logic and Epistemology)
12. Śabda-vidyā (Linguistic Studies)
13. Cikitsā Vidyā (Medicine)
14. Śilpa Vidyā (Visual Arts)
1S. Nitī-šāstra (Ethics commentaries and treatises)
16. Viśva-vidyā (Social and Political Ethics)
17. Suchi-līpi (Calligraphy)

Nalanda's history in brief:

Archaeological evidence suggests that Nalanda as a monastic institution flourished
between the 5th to 12th century. It was located a few miles north of Rājagriha, in what is
today the Indian state of Bihar. This Mahavihara was a prestigious seat of learning in
ancient India that made an incredible contribution to the domain of philosophy, logic,
epistemology, metaphysics, psychology, medicine, art, and literature.

During the Buddha’s time, before Nalanda emerged as a monastic institution, it was a
flourishing town that he often visited on his peregrinations. Mahavira, the leader of the
Jaina mendicants, also frequently visited the place. According to the account of the 6th-
century Chinese traveller Xuan Zang, the monastic university of Nalanda (Nālandā
mahāvihāra) was founded by King Śakrāditya of Magadha, who is sometimes identified
with the fifth-century ruler Kumāragupta I (415–455 CE).

Nalanda flourished between 6 th

to 12 th
centuries CE under Gupta and Pāla
patronage. According to Tibetan histories, many of the greatest Mahāyāna scholars,
including Dingnaga, Dharmapāla, Dharmakīrti, Śīlabhadra, Shantarakshita and
Kamalashila, lived and taught at Nalanda. Several Mādhyamika scholars, including
Buddhapalita, Bhava-viveka, Candrakīrti and Śāntideva are also said to have taught there.

At its height, Nalanda had a large and impressive complex of monasteries that had as many
as ten thousand students and fifteen hundred teachers in residence. During the reign of
King Harsa, it was supported by about hundred neighbouring villages, each with two
hundred households providing rice, butter, and milk to sustain the community of monastic
scholars and students.

The library, which included a nine-story structure, is said to have contained hundreds of
thousands of manuscripts. The university had an extensive curriculum, with instruction
offered in the Vaibhāṣika school of Sarvāstvāda Abhidharma, Sautrāntika, Yogācāra and
Mādhyamika, the Vedas and Hindu philosophical schools, as well as mathematics,
grammar, logic, and medicine. Nalanda attracted students from across Asia, including the
Chinese pilgrims Xuanzang and Yiging (I-tsing) and who provided detailed reports of
their visits. They were impressed by the strict monastic self-discipline observed at
Nalanda, with Xuanzang reporting that no monk had been expelled for violating the
Vinaya in seven hundred years.

Historians suggest that in 1192 AD, Nalanda was sacked by Turkic troops under the
command of Bakhtiyar Khilji, who may have mistaken it for a fortress; the library was
burned, with the thousands of manuscripts smouldering for months. The monastery had
been largely abandoned by the time of a Tibetan pilgrim named Dharmaswamin’s visit in
1235 CE, although it seems to have survived in some form until around 1400 CE.

Archaeological excavations began at Naland in the 19 century and have continued since,
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unearthing monasteries and monastic cells, as well as significant works of art in stone,
bronze, and stucco.
Nalanda and its influence over Asia:
Nalanda and Chinese connection:
In the first millennium, almost every aspect of the bilateral contact between India and
China involved or was influenced by Buddhist matters. Chinese travellers such as
Xuanzang and I-tsing set forth to Nalanda in the 7 century to find the true Buddhist
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scriptures in the land of its birth. In addition to China's spiritual attraction towards India,
their journey significantly influenced China's diplomatic relations with India along with
inevitable commercial consequences as well.

Their journey to Nalanda resulted in the further popularity of Buddhism in China and the
silk route. Kings of these regions followed the Buddhist principles that culminated in
peace along the highways linking the two countries, further impeding the growth of Sino-
Indian commercial contacts. The merchants moving between Indian and Chinese markets
profited from the sustained popularity of Buddhism, and there was growth in bilateral
contacts. This way, the influence of Nalanda had a significant impact on Sino-Indian
bilateral exchanges.

Chinese records mention that more than forty Indian tributary missions went from China
in the seventh and eighth centuries, which attest to the brisk nature of diplomatic relations.
Through the writings of various Chinese travellers about Nalanda, spiritual interest in
India went beyond Buddhism. The persisting imperial demand for learned Sanskrit
scholars, Ayurveda doctors and medicines is proof of such extended spiritual fascination.
This way, India occupied a special place in the Chinese world order.

Nalanda tradition and Tibet

Sino-Indian connection started petering on the Chinese side by the middle of the 8 TH

century CE. Nalanda of the Pala period is scarcely represented in Chinese records,
which assemble such a fascinating picture of it in its earlier Gupta period. Although
from Nalanda and other centres, Indian monks did not cease to migrate to China, there
are only a few instances after the turn of the 8 century of Chinese monks coming to
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Nalanda for study and learning. This was when Tibet took the place of China in cultural
interactions with India.
Evidence of this interaction with Tibet appears in the history of the Pala establishments
of Nalanda as well as at Vikramshila. Nalanda Masters had been held in great esteem
in Tibet. The Nalanda tradition took over five centuries to germinate within the Tibetan
monastic institutions. In the 13 and 14 centuries, many visionary scholars of Tibet had
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compiled Tibetan translations of verified Sanskrit texts which encoded quintessential

Nalanda wisdom that was vast and profound. The resulting translated textual collections
of Nalanda then were preserved in Tibetan monastic universities, which contain
authoritative Tibetan translations of almost 4,000 classical Sanskrit works by over 700
Indian authors.

Nalanda and Southeast Asia

Historical ties and Cultural exchanges between the Sumatra (present-day western
Indonesia) and Indian kingdoms are frequently reported in the inscriptions obtained from
Nalanda and in the Malay Peninsula. Inscriptions from Nalanda reveal intimate relations
between the Srivijayan kings and Buddhist monks, as a Srivijayan ruler Dharanindra-
varman is mentioned as a pupil of a monk from Bengal called Kumara-ghosha.

Srivijaya was an esteemed centre of Buddhist scholarship in Southeast Asia, and

presumably it was an extension of Nalanda tradition abroad where extensive Sanskrit
Buddhist literature was being produced. One example of surviving is a philosophical
commentary named Durbodhaloka (Illuminating the incomprehensible), composed at the
beginning of the 11th century by Suvarnadvipi Dharmakirti (also known as Kuntala). Its
Tibetan translation was done by Atiśa Dīpankara Śrījñāna (982–1054 CE), a well known
master from Nalanda who went to Srivijaya and studied there.

About the middle of the ninth century CE, the Shailendra king Balaputradeva from
Srivijaya sent an envoy to the court of the Pala ruler Devapala requesting permission to
endow “a grant of five villages for upkeep and maintenance” for a monastery at Nalanda
that he presumably established. The inscription about it is dated 860 CE, and it has been
found in the ruins of Nalanda. (The details have been published in Epigraphia Indica,
XXII, p. 257 and the inscribed copperplate is presently stored in the National Museum,
New Delhi.)
Such endowments to ancient Nalanda are tangible proof that the numbers of pilgrims,
scholars, and monks going to Nalanda from Southeast Asia were numerous to justify
special provisions being made for their material and spiritual needs being met at this
great centre of learning.