M A I N   N E W S

Buddha’s alma mater Nalanda in new avatar
The oldest university in the world is set to come up again after 800 years  
By Andrew Buncombe

During the six centuries of its storied existence, there was nothing else quite like Nalanda University. Probably the first-ever large educational establishment, the college — in what is now eastern India — even counted the Buddha among its visitors and alumni. At its height, it had 10,000 students, 2,000 staff and strove for both understanding and academic excellence. Today, this much-celebrated centre of Buddhist learning is in ruins.

After a period during which the influence and importance of Buddhism in India declined, the university was sacked in 1193 by a Turkish general, apparently incensed that its library did not contain a copy of the Koran. The fire is said to have burned and smouldered for several months.

Now, this famed establishment of philosophy, mathematics, language and even public health is poised to be revived. A beguiling and ambitious plan to establish an international university with the same overarching vision as Nalanda — and located alongside its physical ruins — has been spearheaded by a team of international experts and leaders, among them the Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen. This week, legislation that will enable the building of the university to proceed is to be placed before Parliament.

“At its peak it offered an enormous number of subjects in the Buddhist tradition, in a similar way that Oxford [offered] in the Christian tradition - Sanskrit, medicine, public health and economics,” Sen said yesterday in Delhi.

“It was destroyed in a war. It was [at] just the same time that Oxford was being established. It has a fairly extraordinary history — Cambridge had not yet been born.” He added, with confidence: “The building will start as soon as the Bill passes.”

— By arrangement with The Independent 

Architectural marvel

The original university, located close to the border with what is now Nepal, was said to have been an architectural masterpiece, featuring 10 temples, a nine-storeyed library where monks copied books by hand, lakes, parks and student accommodation.

Its students came from Korea, Japan, China, Persia, Tibet and Turkey, as well as from across India.

The 7th Century Chinese pilgrim, Xuanzang, visited Nalanda and wrote detailed accounts of what he saw, describing how towers, pavilions and temples appeared to "soar above the mists in the sky (so that monks in their rooms) might witness the birth of the winds and clouds".