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Nalanda, Jharkhand |
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Famous for being the World's most ancient seat of learning, Nalanda speak volumes on Buddhist educational activities and monastic life. This world renowned education center (University) was founded under the graceful patronage of the Gupta Emperors early in the 5 th century AD. During his lifetime Buddha has visited this place several times but the fame and glory of Nalanda arrived much later between the period from 5 th-12 th century AD.
This was the time when India used to be the most sought after place for studies and Nalanda particularly was the leading institution in imparting knowledge to the world. Many students from different parts of the world came here to take courses on Buddhist scriptures, Vedas, Hetu Vidya (Logic), Shabda Vidya (Grammar), Chikitsa Vidya (Medicine) etc. Even the well-known Chinese traveler, Hieun Tsang, stayed here and received the Indian name Mokshdeva. He had left a detail account of both the ambience and architecture of this ancient university.
The ruins of this ancient seat of learning lie towards the Southwest of Patna, in Bihar. It is 62 km from Bodhgaya, the place of Buddha's enlightenment and 90 km from the capital city Patna. There are many ruins of monasteries and temples found in the excavation site of Nalanda, built by the various rulers of that time including Ashoka and Harshavardhana.
One can have glances of Nalanda's past glory in the various stupas, monasteries and sculptures present at the site. Excavation revealed that the stupas were built two to three times over the earlier ones. It was found that the very small original structures were enlarged by later temples built over and around the ruins of the former ones. The great stupa at the site is the amalgamation of seven successive shrine-chambers. When India was under the invasion of the Mughals, much of the traditions of Nalanda had been carried to Tibet. Though most of the monasteries were then destroyed, the buildings at Nalanda didn't seem to have suffered much to the foreign brutality of that time.
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