Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the newly established campus of Nalanda University in Bihar today. The institute is named after the historic place of learning established in 427 CE by Emperor Kumaragupta. Considered a repository of ancient wisdom and one of the world’s first residential universities, Nalanda University held nine million books and attracted students and teachers from all over the worldread more
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 "PM Modi inaugurates Nalanda University campus: The significance and history explained (1)")
Nalanda University was established in 2010 by an Act of Parliament. Image courtesy: Twitter
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the new Nalanda University campus today.
The ceremony in Bihar’s Rajgir was attended by a slew of prominent people including Governor Rajendra Arlekar and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as well as the Head of Missions of 17 Countries.
Modi first toured the ruins of Nalanda around 9.45 am. He then inaugurated the campus around 10.30 am.
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 19, 2024VIDEO | PM Modi (@narendramodi) inaugurates the new campus of Nalanda University in Rajgir, Bihar.
(Full video available on PTI Videos - https://t.co/dv5TRARJn4) pic.twitter.com/W2fpK3PIN6
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But what do we know about Nalanda University? Why is it significant? What about its place in history?
Origins
In 2006, the then president APJ Abdul Kalam who proposed reviving Nalanda University in an address to a joint session of the legislature in Bihar.
According to Business Today, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar then came out in support of the project.
The Bihar Assembly in 2007 passed a bill for the creation of the university.
The Centre then proposed reviving Nalanda at the 2007 East Asian Summit as an “international institution for pursuit of intellectual, philosophical, historical and spiritual studies,” as per Economic Times.
The idea which was endorsed by 2007 East Asian Summit member nations.
The Rajya Sabha passed The Nalanda University Bill, 2010, on 21 August, 2010.
The Lok Sabha passed the bill on 26 August, 2010.
It received presidential assent on 21 September, 2010, thereby becoming an Act.
The university was officially established on 25 November, 2010, upon the implementation of the Act
What do we know about Nalanda University?
The first batch of students enrolled in September 2014.
The International Convention Centre in Rajgir initially served as its makeshift headquarters.
As per Economic Times, the university began being constructed in 2017.
Seventeen nations – Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Mauritius, Myanmar, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam – have signed MoUs in its support.
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The university is located less than 20 kilometres from the Nalanda ruins – which in 2016 was declared a Heritage Site.
The sprawling campus is spread across an area of about 450 acres.
The university was designed by the late celebrated architect Padam-Vibhushan BV Doshi.
Doshi built the university to mirror the Vaastu of the ancient Nalanda.
The university offers several courses in Hindu Studies, Buddhist Studies and Comparative Religion, and Ecological and Environmental Studies.
As per Economic Times, it offers 137 scholarships for international students including those sponsored/funded by ASEAN-India Fund, BIMSTEC scholarships and Bhutan Scholarship by MEA.
It offers Post Graduate and Doctoral research courses as well as short-term certificate courses.
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It has two academic blocks.
Its 40 classrooms each can seat around 1,900 students each.
The university has two auditoriums which can seat 300 students.
The university hostel has a capacity of 550 students.
The university has several facilities including a faculty club, sports complex, an international centre and a 2000-seat amphitheatre.
Students from Argentina, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Laos, Liberia, Myanmar, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Thailand, Türkiye, Uganda, USA, Vietnam and Zimbabwe have enrolled in Post Graduate and PhD courses.
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The university has four Centers – the Center for Bay of Bengal Studies, Center for Indo-Persian Studies, Centre for Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies and a Common Archival Resource Center – as per Economic Times.
The campus is a green, ‘Net Zero’ facility.
It is self-sustainable as it has a solar plant, domestic and drinking water treatment plant, water recycling plant, 100 acres of water bodies, and many other environment friendly facilities.
Its place in history
Nalanda University is named after the historic place of learning that was established around 1,600 years ago.
It was considered to be among the world’s first residential universities.
According to BBC, it was established by Emperor Kumaragupta in 427 CE.
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Though the rulers of the Gupta Empire were devoutly Hindu, they were also interested in Buddhism and Buddhist philosophy – which was growing popular at the time.
The university held nine million books and 10,000 students from Eastern and Central Asia.
It also attracted teachers from as far as China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, and South East Asia.
The library known as Dharma Gunj had books on philosophy, religion, astronomy, and medicine. It was thought to be one of the biggest libraries in the ancient world.
A Tibetan scholar described one of its three library buildings was a nine-storey structure “soaring into the clouds.”
Students were taught logic, maths, medicine and Buddhist philosophy from the era’s most prominent scholars.
The Dalai Lama himself once said, “The source of all the [Buddhist] knowledge we have, has come from Nalanda.”
Notables such as Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, Vasubandhu, and Dharmapala were said to have taught at the university.
Aryabhata, thought to be the father Indian mathematics, is thought to have spent time here in the 6th Century.
“We believe that Aryabhata was the first to assign zero as a digit, a revolutionary concept, which simplified mathematical computations and helped evolve more complex avenues such as algebra and calculus,” Anuradha Mitra, a Kolkata-based professor of mathematics told BBC. “Without zero, we wouldn’t have computers,” she added.
“He also did pioneering works in extracting square and cubic roots, and applications of trigonometrical functions to spherical geometry. He was also the first to attribute radiance of the moon to reflected sunlight.”
As per The Times of India, the university spanned around 14 hectares.
It had lecture halls, meditation cells, libraries, and lodging for thousands of monks and scholars.
However, its status as a repository of knowledge didn’t keep it safe.
The university was repeated attacked over the centuries.
As Shankar Sharma, the director of the onsite museum, told BBC, “It was attacked by the Huns under Mihirkula in the 5th Century, and again sustained severe damages from an invasion of the Gauda king of Bengal, in the 8th Century.”
It was finally burned down by invaders in the 12th Century.
As per BBC, the university was destroyed by troops led by Bakhtiyar Khilji – a Turko-Afghan military general.
The fire they set is said to have burned for three months.
“By the time Khilji invaded this sacred temple of learning, Buddhism was on an overall state of decline in India," Sharma told BBC. “With its internal degeneration, coupled with [the] decline of the Buddhist Pala dynasty that had been patronising the university since the 8th Century CE, the third invasion was the final death blow.”
Nalanda’s ruins were rediscovered by British archaeologists in the 19th Century.
With inputs from agencies
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