Nalanda — The World's First Great University

Nalanda — The World's First Great University

Ten Thousand Monks Studied Here

Nalanda — the Mahāvihāra (Great Monastery) — was the world's first great residential university. At its peak in the 7th–9th centuries, it housed 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers from across Asia: India, China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Sumatra, and Persia. The admission test was so rigorous that Xuanzang reported only 20% of applicants passed.

The university occupied a 14-hectare complex of monasteries, temples, lecture halls, and a nine-storey library (the Dharmaganja — "Treasury of the Dharma") containing hundreds of thousands of manuscripts on palm-leaf and paper. The library was so large that it had three wings: the Ratnadhi (Ocean of Jewels), the Ratnasagara (Sea of Jewels), and the Ratnaranjaka (Jewel-delighting).

The Xuanzang Account

Xuanzang (Hiuen Tsang) — the greatest Chinese pilgrim — studied at Nalanda for five years (630–643 CE) under the abbot Śīlabhadra. His account is the primary source for Nalanda:

• 8 great halls, 300 cells
• Water brought from a tank via ceramic pipes
• Free board and lodging (funded by royal endowments of 200 villages)
• Daily debates in the courtyard — the loser had to convert to the winner's school

Xuanzang carried 657 Buddhist texts back to China, where he spent the rest of his life translating them. Without his journey, Chinese Buddhism would be unrecognisable.

The Destruction (1193 CE)

In 1193, the Turkish general Bakhtiyar Khalji — campaigning in Bihar — attacked Nalanda. He mistook the fortified vihara for a fort and sacked it. The library was burned; the fire reportedly lasted three months. Monks were killed; the survivors fled. Nalanda never recovered.

The destruction of Nalanda is contested by some historians (who argue it was already in decline), but the account of the Tibetan pilgrim Dharmasvamin (1234 CE), who found the ruins still smouldering and a single surviving monk teaching 70 students in the rubble, is one of the most poignant documents in Buddhist history.