Nalanda –
source Wikipedia
- Nalanda was established in 5th century AD and had students from Sri Lanka, Korea, Japan, China and Tibet.
- Established by Kumara Gupta of Gupta dynasty it was a residential school accommodating 10,000 students and 2oo teachers. Nalanda university had 8 buildings with tens of classrooms in each one. It had multi storied dormitories that could host 300 students each.
- The students studied, metaphysics, yoga, Veda, philosophy and Buddhism.
- The library of Nalanda, known as Dharma Gunj (Mountain of Truth) had the largest collection of buddhist texts. It comprised of 3 buildings, each 9 stories tall and burned for 3 months after Mughal invaders set fire to it.
- It occupied 14 hectares and was built with red bricks. Nalanda had a sophisticated drainage system similar to harappa.
- Nalanda had 8 separate compounds and ten temples along with meditation halls, lakes and parks in the campus. It had 300 lecture halls and facilities like laboratory and observatory.
Nalanda and Taxila give a fascinating insight into the sophisticated heritage of education and Knowledge of India. Knowing about these institutions inspires a sense of pride in all of us.
