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This university that I am writing about is claimed to be the oldest International University in the world. Constructed in 427 AD in an Indian city that has got religious importance of Buddhism. A city which has got very ancient history and goes back to the days of Mahavira and Buddha in sixth and fifth centuries BC.
Can you guess the name of this university? Didn’t get it yet, read on for more clues.
This university boasts to be the largest residential university in the world accommodating 10,000 students in an academic year, taught by 2,000 learned professors.
Has a sprawling campus of this university, spread across 16 square kilometers. It also has a community kitchen with meticulously planned infrastructure. It had 8 monastic building with 300 apartments. The apartments contained single and double bedroom cells for students. The university is considered as an architectural master piece. It had eight separate compounds and ten temples, along with many other meditation halls and classrooms.
The library building at this university had nine storeys with hundreds of thousands of volumes related to science and religion.
This university was the greatest monastic-cum-educational institution for oriental art and learning in the whole Buddhist world, attracting students from like Hiuen Tsang and I-Tsing from China and other distant countries such as Japan, Singapore, Greece.
Various subjects such as theology, grammar, logic, astronomy, medicine, meta physics and philosophy were taught there. This university was the cradle of Buddhist civilization during that times.
To gain admission to the university, the entrants will have to answer difficult questions posed by the erudite guards of the university. On an average only 2-3 among 10 would be admitted into this university.
The alumnus of this university gain a celebrity status for all their life along with the education imparted by scholars. The students of this university lead a very disciplined and regarded as ideal to be followed by Buddhists all over the world.
Here goes the final clue – this university is located in a city near Patna in Bihar, India. I am pretty sure you might have got it by now.
See this youtube video below describing more about the university.
Nalanda (Hindi:नालंदा) means “insatiable in giving”. An inscribed seal was found in the excavations at the site which read Sri-Nalandamahavihari-Arya-Bhikshu-Sanghasya (Hindi:श्री नालंदा महाविहार आर्य भिक्षु संघस्य).
This university is believed to be sacked and burnt by troupes sent by then military general, Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1193 AD. So extensive was the library that the burning of books in the library continued for several months. That was a tragic end for such a great university. So, our generation doesn’t have the fortune of studying in this university, but…
There are plans to build a modern university with the name Nalanda University near that site. In 2006, it was reported that China, India, Japan and other nations had come forward to raise funds of $500 to build a new post-graduate research university.
It would be such a pride to study in a university revived at that site. What do you think about it? Comment below whether or not you would like to study in a university in future, if it gets built.
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About the Author: Sridhar Jammalamadaka is the editor of this blog, Interview Mantra. He is a professional blogger from Pune, India. He is an experienced programmer with expertise in Java, C and Micro Controller programming. He enjoys playing cricket and piano. Through this blog, he wishes to gather a large online community of aspiring Indians - students and working professionals. You can find him on Twitter at @sriavr 