India is one of the cradles of civilization. From antiquity until modern times, it has waxed and waned through the power struggles on the region. The rapid dissemination of Buddhism throughout the region led to the establishment of monasteries and new centers of learning throughout the region. Leaders and patrons from throughout India wanting to show their influence in society and devotion to the Buddhist teaching, granted royal patronage to these centers and allowed them to flourish.
The Great Monastery of Nalanda
One of the most notorious of these centers of learning was the Great Monastery of Nalanda. This prestigious center was established in 427 CE (centuries before European institutions such as Oxford and Bologna), and flourished for more than seven centuries. Throughout this time, the library expanded to house nine million books and drew over 10,000 students from all across Asia. The most renowned and remarkable structure in the lost history of this university was its library, known as Dharma Gunj (Mountain of Truth).
The renown of this institution drew some of the most talented Buddhist scholars of their time. Indeed, as the Dalai Lama once stated: “The source of all the [Buddhist] knowledge we have, has come from Nalanda.” While Nalanda was the undisputed scholarly center of the Mahayana Buddhist world, it housed other disciplines such as the Vedas, grammar, medicine, logic, mathematics, astronomy and alchemy. The main language of the texts were Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit. Nalanda too was instrumental in fostering the patronage of arts and academics during the 5th and 6th centuries CE, a period later hailed by scholars as the “Golden Age of India.”
The achievements and eminence produced by this center of learning would be hard to encapsule. To give a few examples, Aryabhata, regarded as the father of Indian mathematics, is believed to have led Nalanda University in the 6th century CE. He is thought to be the first to designate zero as a digit in Eurasia (a few centuries after the Maya in central America), influencing later concepts like algebra and calculus. Another tradition bestowed to us by Nalanda is the Ayurveda, or ancient Indian medicine. It was thought there, and was spread by alumni to other parts of India. Likewise, architectural elements such as the iconic stucco were refined here and influenced heavily Thai, Tibetan and Malay architecture.
The Fall of Nalanda
There are multiple accounts that narrate the demise of Nalanda and it suffered attacks several times throughout the centuries. The fatal blow occurred in the 1190s, when the University was deliberately attacked by Turkish-Afghan raiders during their conquest of India. The clashing of faiths led them to eradicate the Buddhist teachings that were flourishing in Nalanda, and they decided to set the fabled place ablaze.
One account said that the 9 story Nalanda university burnt for 3 months straight. Another account mentions that due to the magnificent structure in the university, it was used as a fortification and base for the invaders. Another account states that the destruction of Nalanda was not swift, but rather a systematic destruction between 1193 to 1205, razing the monastery t the ground and throwing stones into the Ganges. Based on this, we can conclude that the scholarship is still disputed, but the fact remains that previously thriving center of wisdom came to a decisive end.
Preservation of knowledge after Nalanda’s Demise
The jewel of Nalanda collection was its collection of nine million handwritten palm-leaf manuscripts, constituting the richest bastion of Buddhist literature and wisdom. We are unfortunately not privileged with access most of these texts, since most of them were lost to the fires. Nevertheless, the wisdom of Nalanda is still preserved to this day through the efforts of the different scholars.
Tibetan Translation Movement: Kanjur and Tanjur
The main gateway that we have into the wisdom of Nalanda is through the Tibetan Translation Movement. From the 7th to 11th centuries, Tibetan rulers actively sponsored the translation of Nalanda texts into Tibetan, ensuring their survival. Indeed, Tibetan rulers sent their best scholars to study Sanskrit and bring back texts of cultural significance for them to be disseminated amongst the Tibetan schools.
The paragon of this transmission of knowledge are the two collections known as the Kanjur (The “Translated Words”) and the Tanjur (The “Translated Commentaries”). The Kanjur is the Tibetan Buddhist Canon containing the direct teachings of the Buddha. The Tanjur consists of commentaries, treatises, and philosophical works by great Indian masters. If you combine the two, they constitute a collection of more than 5000 texts, with over 230,000 pages of material throughout approximately 350 volumes.
Chinese Traveling Monks
Nalanda University frequently dispatched its finest scholars and professors to regions such as China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka to promote Buddhist teachings and philosophy. This early cultural exchange played a crucial role in spreading and shaping Buddhism throughout Asia. One of the most profound rivers of knowledge that stem form Nalanda and culminates in the modern day is through the efforts of Chinese scholars such as Xuanzang (玄奘) and Yijing (義浄).
The renowned Chinese Buddhist monk and traveler, Xuanzang, both studied and taught at Nalanda. Upon his return to China in 645 CE, he brought with him a vast collection of 657 Buddhist scriptures from Nalanda, transported in a wagon. Xuanzang would rise to become one of the most influential Buddhist scholars in history, translating a significant portion of these texts into Chinese. His monumental work centered on the profound idea that the entire world is merely a reflection of the mind. His disciple, Dosho, would later bring this doctrine to Japan, where it would gradually spread throughout the Sino-Japanese cultural sphere, becoming a dominant religious force. For this, Xuanzang is often honored as “the monk who brought Buddhism East.”
On a similar light, Yijing, a distinguished Chinese Buddhist monk of the 6th century, studied extensively at Nalanda University in India, where he immersed himself in Buddhist teachings. After returning to China in 671 CE, he brought back numerous texts from Nalanda, including essential scriptures on monastic discipline and Buddhist teachings. Yijing’s translations played a crucial role in shaping Chinese Buddhism, bridging Indian and Chinese traditions. His work, including the translation of the Vinaya Pitaka, helped establish a doctrinal foundation for East Asian Buddhism, ensuring the preservation and transmission of Indian Buddhist knowledge to China and beyond.
These two scholars were some of the most notorious of many, and it illustrates how the knowledge of Nalanda did not disappear with the conquest and subsequent bibliocide, but managed to enter the minds and philosophies of regions far beyond India.
Nalanda in the Modern Day
The story of Nalanda, although known in the west only by historians and bibliophiles, is widely remembered and regarded with immense pride in India. The ancient site of Nalanda is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2010, the Government of India passed a resolution to revive the historic university, leading to the establishment of the modern Nālandā University in Rajgir. There is also a movement called “84000” aimed to translate the Kanjur and Tanjur from Tibetan into English, this assuring that the ancient knowledge of Nalanda into the modern times and bringing the Buddha’s words to life.
Nalanda’s Legacy
Nalanda’s story is a thrilling one since it draws parallels to other significant transmissions of knowledge known in History. One can think, as the title alludes, to the Library of Alexandria, whose demise represented a vast loss of knowledge of the ancient world, and subsequent fragmentation of the remaining knowledge. One can also compare it to the fall of Constantinople, when scholars menaced by war are forced to flee taking with them texts and spreading this fragmented information throughout Europe, sparking the Renaissance. The vast difference between these historical parallels is that, for the most part, the modern world still does not know what is yet to be found in the legacy texts from Nalanda. Most of them are indeed lost, but in the fragments that have survived to the modern day, are veiled by ancient languages such as Old Tibetan, Sanskrit, Chinese and so on, and are only accessible to specialists. Still, as the tiny fragments of the remaining knowledge is disseminated into the modern world, one can only wonder what secrets are to be found and which impacts from the past will be more relevant than ever in our modern world.
