India has always been famous for its antiquity and treasure of knowledge. India was a major center of education for foreign students and teachers, who came here to acquire knowledge. This land of gold has given the world a wealth of knowledge that perhaps no other country has provided. We are talking today about India’s most ancient university, which was about 3,000 years old and where students and teachers from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, and Turkey came to study and teach. This university was called Nalanda University, which was the biggest center of learning in India at that time. It had 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers.
Nalanda University was established by Kumaragupta I, the ruler of the Gupta dynasty, between 450–470 AD. The university was a marvelous example of architectural art. Its entire campus was enclosed by a large boundary wall with a main gate for entry and exit. There were rows of monasteries from north to south, and in front of them were numerous magnificent stupas and temples. The temples housed statues of Bhagawan Buddha.
The central building of the university had 7 large and 300 small rooms where lectures were held. The monasteries had multiple floors. Each monastery courtyard had a well. Apart from 8 large buildings, 10 temples, several prayer and study rooms, the campus also had beautiful gardens and lakes. Nalanda received financial aid not only from Indian kings but also from abroad. The overall management of the university was done by the Chancellor or Head Teacher, who was elected by Buddhist monks.
This Mahayana Buddhist university also taught Hinayana Buddhism as well as other religions. The famous Chinese traveler Xuanzang also studied here for a year. This was the world’s first university to have hostels for accommodation.
Nalanda University was destroyed three times by invaders, but reconstructed only twice. The first destruction occurred during the reign of Skandagupta (455-467 CE) under the Huns of the Mihirakula dynasty. However, Skandagupta’s successors got the library repaired and renovated it with a large building. The second destruction was done by Gaudas in the early 7th century. This time, the Buddhist king Harshavardhan (606-648 CE) got the university repaired.
The third and most devastating attack was in 1193 when the Turkish general Ikhtiyar ud–Din Muhammad Bin Bakhtiyar Khilji and his army destroyed the ancient Nalanda University. It is believed that due to the burning of religious manuscripts, major religions in India suffered a setback of several hundred years and have not fully recovered from these events even till now.
| Why Khilji Destroyed The Nalanda University? |
At that time, Bakhtiyar Khilji had captured some areas in northern India ruled by Buddhists and once fell very ill. He got treated by his own Hakims but could not recover and reached a critical condition. Then someone advised him to consult Rahul Shribhadra, the head of the Ayurveda department at Nalanda University and get treated by him. However, Khilji was not ready for this. He had more faith in his own Hakims and was not willing to believe that Indian doctors could have more knowledge or capability than his Hakims.
But to save his life, he had to call Rahul Shribhadra, and Bakhtiyar Khilji put a strange condition in front of the physician that he would not take any medicine prescribed by him. He had to cure him without medicine. The physician agreed to his condition after thinking about it. After a few days, he came to Khilji with a Quran and said that if he reads from this page number to that page number, he would be cured. Khilji read the Quran as per the physician’s instructions and got cured. It is said that Rahul Shribhadra had applied a medicine coating on some pages of the Quran, which Khilji kept licking with his saliva as he read those pages and got cured.
Khilji got disturbed and jealous by the fact that an Indian scholar and teacher had more knowledge than his own hakims. Out of jealousy, he decided to destroy the roots of knowledge, sanatan, and Ayurveda from the country. Consequently, Khilji set fire to the great library of Nalanda and burned around 9 million manuscripts. It is said that there were so many books in Nalanda University that they kept burning for three months. After that, on Khilji’s orders, the Turkish invaders also killed thousands of religious scholars and monks of Nalanda.
This event by Bakhtiyar Khilji, as described in the book Tabaqat-i-Nasiri by the Persian historian Minhaj-ud-din Siraj, highlights how he massacred thousands of Buddhist monks and scholars at Nalanda University because he wanted to spread Islam instead of Buddhism. He burned the great library and its millions of manuscripts kept burning for months. It marked the decline of Indian education and knowledge.
This incident became a symbol of the devastation of Indian education and knowledge. There was a time when students and teachers from foreign countries used to come to centers like Nalanda to acquire education. But the invaders destroyed this repository of knowledge.
