Nalanda University

• Context (IE): Nalanda University was inaugurated in Rajgir near the ancient Nalanda monastery ruins.

‘Reviving’ Nalanda

• Then President APJ Abdul Kalam was the first to officially propose ‘reviving’ Nalanda in 2006 as a Bodhgaya Nalanda Indo-Asian Institute of Learning.
• It was endorsed at the 2007 East Asia Summit in Mandaue, the Philippines, and re-iterated at the 2009 East Asia Summit in Hua Hin, Thailand.
• The university was established through a joint effort of 17 countries other than India: Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Mauritius, Myanmar, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam.
• Parliament’s Nalanda University Act 2010 accorded it “national importance” status and laid down rules regarding its governance.
• It started functioning in 2014 from a makeshift location, and the construction work started in 2017.
• Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen became the University’s first Chancellor, and then-President Pranab Mukherjee became the first Visitor.

Nalanda Mahavira

Credits: Wikipedia

• Mahavira, in Sanskrit/Pali, means ‘great monastery’. Nalanda Mahavira was active from the fifth to the thirteenth century CE.
• According to the early 7^th century Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang or Xuanzang, the local tradition explains that the name Nalanda came from a nāga (serpent deity) whose name was Nalanda.
• Experts also point to the abundance of nālas (lotus stalks) in the area and believe that Nalanda would then represent the giver of lotus stalks.
• A seal discovered at the site identifies a monarch named Shakraditya as its founder, which is the other name for Kumaragupta I of the Gupta dynasty.
• Post-Gupta period, Harsha (Siladitya) of the Kannuaj and Pala rulers were notable patrons.
• All Buddhist schools, as well as other faiths, were taught in Nalanda.
• Under Silabhadra, Nalanda also taught the Vedas, Hindu philosophy, logic, grammar and medicine.
• Candidates of other faiths who succeeded in passing a strict oral examination were admitted.
• A strict code of conduct, including daily meditation and study sessions, was mandatory for students.
• It was destroyed in 1193 by Turkish ruler Qutbuddin Aibak’s general Bakhtiyar Khilji.
• Scottish surveyor Francis Buchanan-Hamilton rediscovered it in 1812. In 1861, Sir Alexander Cunningham identified it as an ancient university.
• It was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016.