Nalanda नालंदा > डोळे नाही पाणावले, तर हे टपाल मागे घेतो , हे वचन ० Nalanda *नालंदा > डोळे नाही पाणावले, तर हे टपाल मागे घेतो , हे वचन ० * After reading this , if one does not cry , I promise to withdraw this post ! * यह पढ़नेके बाद , अगर आप रोते नहीं हो , तो यह post मै वापस लूंगा ,यह वचन ! ********************************************************************************** .* Nalanda was ransacked and destroyed by an army of the Muslim TURK Mamluk Dynasty under Ikhtiyar ad-Din Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1193. The great library of Nalanda was so vast that it is reported to have burned for three months after the MUSLIMS set fire to it, ************************************************************************* *Nālandā was an ancient higher-learning institution in Bihar, India. The site is located about 88 kilometres southeast of Patna, and was a religious centre of learning from the fifth century AD to 1197 AD. Nalanda flourished between the reign of the Śakrāditya (whose identity is uncertain and who is not a historical character, who might have been either Kumaragupta I or Kumaragupta II) and 1197 AD, supported by patronage from the Buddhist ,Hindu ,Gupta Empire as well as Buddhist,Hindu emperors like Harsha and later emperors from the Pala Empire.. *The complex was built with red bricks and its ruins occupy an area of 14 hectares. (488 by 244 metres) At its peak, the university attracted scholars and students from as far away as Tibet, China, Greece, and Greater Iran. Nalanda was ransacked and destroyed by an army of the Muslim Mamluk Dynasty under Ikhtiyar ad-Din Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1193. The great library of Nalanda was so vast that it is reported to have burned for three months after the MUSLIMS set fire to it, ransacked and destroyed the monasteries and killed or drove the monks from the site. I*Another ancient university, Tiladhaka, has been discovered at Telhara, Nalanda district. This university was also mentioned by Xuanzang. *History of the university and the Gupta heyday. Some historical studies suggest that the University of Nalanda was established during the Gupta Dynasty. Both Xuanzang and Prajñavarman cite him as the founder, as does a seal discovered at the site. *As historian Sukumar Dutt describes it, the history of Nalanda university falls into two main divisions—first, one of growth, development and fruition from the sixth century to the ninth, when it was dominated by the liberal cultural traditions inherited from the Gupta age; the second, one of gradual decline and final dissolution from the ninth century to the thirteen—a period when the tantric developments of Buddhism became most pronounced in eastern India.And lastly the distruction and burning the library ,by the invading ` knowledge haters` Muslims . *When Yijing, Chinese Buddhist, visited Nalanda in 673–695, there were eight colleges, having as many as 300 rooms. *Famous scholars associated with Nalanda. Many of the famous Buddhist scholars had studied or taught at Nalanda including Nagarjuna > formalised the concept of Sunyata. Dinnaga > founder of Buddhist Logic. Dharmapala > the teacher of Xuanzang. Candrakīrti. Śīlabhadra . Dharmakirti > logician. Jinamitra. Santaraksita > founded the first monastic order in Tibet. Padmasambhava > master of Tantric Buddhism. Atisa. * Nalanda in the Pāla era *Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva. Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra manuscript from Nālandā, Pāla period in Asia Society collection. *A number of monasteries grew up during the Pāla period in ancient Bengal and Magadha. According to Tibetan sources, five great Mahaviharas stood out: Vikramashila, the premier university of the era; Nalanda, past its prime but still illustrious, Somapura, Odantapurā, and Jaggadala.. The five monasteries formed a network; all of them were under state supervision and there existed a system of co-ordination among them . . it seems from the evidence that the different seats of Buddhist learning that functioned in eastern India under the Pāla were regarded together as forming a network, an interlinked group of institutions, and it was common for great scholars to move easily from position to position among them.. *During the Pālā period, the Nālānda was less singularly outstanding, as other Pāla establishments must have drawn away a number of learned monks from Nālānda when all of them ... came under the aegis of the Pālās. *Nalanda was one of the worlds first residential universities, i.e., it had dormitories for students. It is also one of the most famous universities. In its heyday, it accommodated over 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers. Chinese pilgrims estimated the students between 3,000 and 5,000. The university was considered an architectural masterpiece, and was marked by a lofty wall and one gate. Nalanda had eight separate compounds and ten temples, along with many other meditation halls and classrooms. On the grounds were lakes and parks. The library was located in a nine storied building where meticulous copies of texts were produced. The subjects taught at Nalanda University covered every field of learning, and it attracted pupils and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey. During the period of Harsha, the monastery is reported to have owned 200 villages given as grants. *The Tang Dynasty Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang left detailed accounts of the university in the 7th century. He described how the regularly laid-out towers, forest of pavilions, harmikas and temples seemed to soar above the mists in the sky so that from their cells the monks might witness the birth of the winds and clouds. The pilgrim states: An azure pool winds around the monasteries, adorned with the full-blown cups of the blue lotus; the dazzling red flowers of the lovely kanaka hang here and there, and outside groves of mango trees offer the inhabitants their dense and protective shade. *The entrance of many of the viharas in the Nalanda University ruins can be seen with a bow marked floor; the bow was the royal sign of the Guptas. *Libraries Structure The library at Nalanda University was an immense complex. Called the Dharmaganga, or Piety Mart, it was separated into three large buildings: the Ratnasagara, the Ratnadadhi, and the Ratnaranjaka. The Ratnadadhi, meaning the Ocean of Gems, was nine stories high and housed the most sacred manuscripts including the Prajnaparamita Sutra and the Samajguhya. The towers were supposedly immense, bejewelled and gilded to reflect the rays of the sun. According to the Bhaskara Samhita, an ancient text on organizational practices, the library was to be built in a “finely built stone building” and each manuscript would have been placed on iron shelves or stack and covered with cloth and tied up. Furthermore, the librarian in charge, according to the text, was not only responsible for maintaining the materials but also for guiding readers in their studies The exact number of volumes of the Nalanda University Library is not known but it is estimated to have been in the hundreds of thousands. The library not only collected religious manuscripts but also had texts on such subjects as grammar, logic, literature, astrology, astronomy, and medicine. Classification:- It is clear that Nalanda University library had a classification scheme which was possibly based on a text classification scheme developed by the great Sanskrit linguist Panini. Buddhists texts were most likely divided in three classes based on the Tripitaka’s three main divisions: the Vinaya, Sutra, and the Abhidamma. Like most other Indian ancient and medieval period libraries, Nalanda would have used a basic catalogue to help patrons find materials. This bibliography, or Anukamanikas, would have listed the books by hymns, authors, form of sutras, Rishi’s name, and the hymnal metre. *Destruction:- The library was destroyed in 1197–1203 during the Muslim invasion in which Bakhtiyar Khalji sacked it and set it to flames.According to Tibetan legend, the university and library were reportedly repaired shortly after by Muditabhadra, a Buddhist sage. Unfortunately, the library was again burned . The complex covered an area between 488 by 244 metres. *In Nalanda university,the Tibetan tradition holds that there were four doxographies (Tibetan: grub-mtha’) which were taught at Nālandā, and Alexander Berzin specifies these as:- Sarvāstivāda Vaibhāṣika Sarvāstivāda Sautrāntika Mādhyamaka, the Mahāyāna philosophy of Nāgārjuna Chittamatra, the Mahāyāna philosophy of Asaṅga and Vasubandhu. *In the 7th century, Xuanzang records the number of teachers at Nālandā as being around 1510.Of these, approximately 1000 were able to explain 20 collections of sūtras and śāstras, 500 were able to explain 30 collections, and only 10 teachers were able to explain 50 collections. Xuanzang was among the few who were able to explain 50 collections or more. At this time, only the abbot Śīlabhadra had studied all the major collections of sūtras and śāstras at Nālandā. *The Chinese monk Yijing wrote that matters of discussion and administration at Nālandā would require assembly and consensus on decisions by all those at the assembly, as well as resident monks. *If the monks had some business, they would assemble to discuss the matter. Then they ordered the officer, Vihārpāl, to circulate and report the matter to the resident monks one by one with folded hands. With the objection of a single monk, it would not pass. There was no use of beating or thumping to announce his case. In case a monk did something without consent of all the residents, he would be forced to leave the monastery. If there was a difference of opinion on a certain issue, they would give reason to convince (the other group). No force or coercion was used to convince. Xuanzang also writes: The lives of all these virtuous men were naturally governed by habits of the most solemn and strictest kind. Thus in the seven hundred years of the monasterys existence no man has ever contravened the rules of the discipline. The king showers it with the signs of his respect and veneration and has assigned the revenue from a hundred cities to pay for the maintenance of the religious. *Influence on Buddhism:- A vast amount of what came to comprise Tibetan Buddhism, both its Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions, stems from the late (9th–12th century) Nalanda teachers and traditions. The scholar Dharmakirti (ca. 7th century), one of the Buddhist founders of Indian philosophical logic, as well as and one of the primary theorists of Buddhist atomism, taught at Nalanda. *Other forms of Buddhism, such as the Mahāyāna Buddhism followed in Vietnam, China, Korea and Japan, flourished within the walls of the ancient university. A number of scholars have associated some Mahāyāna texts such as the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, an important sūtra in East Asian Buddhism, with the Buddhist tradition at Nālandā. *Ron Epstein also notes that the general doctrinal position of the sūtra does indeed correspond to what is known about the Buddhist teachings at Nālandā toward the end of the Gupta period when it was translated. *According to Hwui-Li, a Chinese visitor, Nālandā was held in contempt by some Sthaviras for its emphasis on Mahayana philosophy. They reportedly chided King Harṣa for patronising Nalanda during one of his visits to Odisha, mocking the sky-flower philosophy taught there and suggesting that he might as well patronise a Kapalika temple.[35] When this occurred, Harṣa notified the chancellor of Nālandā, who sent the monks Sāgaramati, Prajñāraśmi, Siṃharaśmi, and Xuanzang to refute the views of the monks from Odisha. *A page from the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, a text widely used for its accurate descriptions of 7th century India *Decline and end :- Evidence in literature suggests that in 1193, the Nalanda University was ransacked by Bakhtiyar Khilji, a Turk. ********************************************************************************************************************************* The Persian historian Minhaj-i-Siraj, in his chronicle the` Tabaqat-i-Nasiri`, reported that thousands of monks were burned alive and thousands beheaded as Khilji tried his best to uproot Buddhism. The burning of the library continued for several months and smoke from the burning manuscripts hung for days like a dark pall over the low hills. ************************************************************************************************************************************ *The last throne-holder of Nalanda, Shakyashribhadra, fled to Tibet in 1204 at the invitation of the Tibetan translator Tropu Lotsawa (Khro-phu Lo-tsa-ba Byams-pa dpal). In Tibet, he started an ordination lineage of the Mulasarvastivada lineage to complement the two existing ones. *When the Tibetan translator Chag Lotsawa Dharmasvamin (Chag Lo-tsa-ba, 1197 – 1264) (Chag Lo-tsa-ba, 1197–1264) visited the site in 1235, he found it damaged and looted, with a 90-year-old teacher, Rahula Shribhadra, instructing a class of about 70 students. During Chag Lotsawas time there an incursion by Turkic soldiers caused the remaining students to flee. Despite all this, remnants of the debilitated Buddhist community continued to struggle on under scarce resources until c. 1400 when Chagalaraja was reportedly the last king to have patronized Nalanda. *D.C. Ahir considers the destruction of the temples, monasteries, centres of learning at Nalanda and northern India to be responsible for the demise of ancient Indian scientific thought in mathematics, astronomy, alchemy, and anatomy. The seal of Nalanda University set in terracotta on display in the ASI Museum in Nalanda ************************************************************************************************************ *The remnants of the library of Nalanda University which is reported to have burned for three months after the invaders set fire to it, ransacked and destroyed the monasteries, and drove the monks from the site. A number of ruined structures survive. Nearby is the Surya Mandir, a Hindu temple. The known and excavated ruins extend over an area of about 150,000 square metres, although if Xuanzangs account of Nalandas extent is correlated with present excavations, almost 90% of it remains unexcavated. Nālandā is no longer inhabited. Today the nearest habitation is a village called Bargaon. ************************************************************************************************************************************************ *Surviving Nalanda Manuscripts. Fleeing monks took some of the Nalanda manuscripts. A few of them have survived: Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Asia Society On ke ru Lha khang monastery. **************************************** *Ancient Universities of India Benares Nava Vihara Platonic Academy Puspagiri University Sharada Peeth Taxila Valabhi Odantapuri Somapura Vikramaśīla University. Mysore **************************** ^ नालंदा > डोळे नाही पाणावले, तर हे टपाल मागे घेतो , हे वचन ० Nalanda *नालंदा > डोळे नाही पाणावले, तर हे टपाल मागे घेतो , हे वचन ० * After reading this , if one does not cry , I promise to withdraw this post ! * यह पढ़नेके बाद , अगर आप रोते नहीं हो , तो यह post मै वापस लूंगा ,यह वचन ! **********************************************************************************
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 07:25:15 +0000