My talk about Nalanda University - the historical and the present (ChanakyaTV)

Watch and share my interview given to @ChanakyaaTv about the beginnings of Nalanda University, the Buddha and Mahavira connection, the people who studied there and the subjects taught there.

 

Its vihara-s and archaeological findings are also explained. Also spoken about how Nalanda served as an international University by attracting students from SE Asian countries who had taken a course in Sanskrit in Srivijaya (Sumatra) before coming to Nalanda. The probability of people from Tamil speaking regions attending this University is discussed based on inputs from Silappadhikaram and Manimekalai. Kumarila Bhatta's case is cited to show how Brahmins could never be implicated with destroying places of learning such as Nalanda.

Nalanda suffered raids in the 6th and the 7th century which were contained well in time. However, the 3rd raid in the 12th century was a result of bigotry by Bakthiyar Khilji who killed all the persons in the university seen with a shaven head. This is an obvious reference to the Bhikshus of the Buddhist order which was erroneously recorded by the contemporary historian of Persian origin as Brahmins. The 3 buildings of the Dharmaganja containing libraries, of which Ratnodadhi, a 9-storeyed building, housing lakhs of manuscripts were all reduced to ashes by Khilji setting fire to them.

The escape of a few Bhikshus with some manuscripts to Tibet could save only a fraction of the manuscripts stored in Nalanda. What happened to Khilji after that is discussed further. In the course of the talk, I have given the probability of Vedic deities becoming part of Tantric Buddhism and taken to East Asian countries upto Japan in modified iconography. The astronomy /astrology of Vedic society also was taken to East Asian countries, a visage of which is seen in the 60-year cycle of Barhaspatyamana found in Tibet and China in their language. I also talked about the background of the revival of Nalanda University, the issues in restoring its past glory and the probable ways in which the University can be developed in the coming decades.

The talk is in Tamil. English version will be released soon with more info.