New Nalanda University Campus:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the new Nalanda University campus near Rajgir’s ancient university ruins.
- Nalanda stands out as the most ancient university on the Indian Subcontinent.
- It was founded by Kumargupta of the Gupta dynasty in Bihar in the early 5th century, and it flourished for 600 years until the 12th century.
- During the era of Harshavardhan and the Pala monarchs, it rose to popularity.
- It was a center of learning, culture, and intellectual exchange that had a profound impact on the development of Indian civilization and beyond.
- Nalanda was a monastic establishment in the sense that it was primarily a place where monks and nuns lived and studied.
- It used to teach all the major philosophies of Buddhism.
- It had students from far-flung regions such as China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia.
- The students at Nalanda were expected to follow a strict code of conduct and were required to participate in daily meditation and study sessions.
- Subjects such as medicine, the ancient Indian medical system Ayurveda, religion, Buddhism, mathematics, grammar, astronomy, and Indian philosophy were taught there.
- It continued to be a centre of intellectual activity up until it was destroyed in the 12th century AD, in 1193, by Turkish ruler Qutbuddin Aibak’s general Bakhtiyar Khilji.
- After six centuries, the university was rediscovered in 1812 by Scottish surveyor Francis Buchanan-Hamilton and later identified as the ancient university by Sir Alexander Cunningham in 1861.
- The Chinese monk Xuan Zang has offered invaluable insights into the academic and architectural grandeur of ancient Nalanda.
- It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
