Essay On Nalanda University

I f any one event signifies the beginning of the dark ages in India it is the sacking of the great university at Nalanda in 1193 CE. Situated in the vast plains between northern and eastern India, Nalanda had stood out like a fortress, nine stories high at places and with walls as wide as a road. It was an imposing structure of precisely moulded red bricks with several annexes, including temples and living quarters, sprawled over an area of at least 34 acres, judging from its present day ruins. Built in the fifth or the sixth century, Nalanda had acquired great fame over time and scholars from all over the continent, including Tibet, China, Greece, Korea, Java, Sumatra and Persia came to study here, while teachers from this university travelled to distant places to lecture.

The famous Seventh century Chinese scholar Hiuen Tsang had travelled to India to study at Nalanda where he lingered for 12 years and returned to write a detailed account of the marvellous university. According to him, the university accommodated ten thousand students and its faculty was made up of about fifteen hundred savants from all parts of India. The university had three vast libraries, including one nine stories high; its halls were vast and one of them could seat ten thousand people; it had an observatory located at the top

Their primary thought was of plunder, profit and conquest. One of the most energetic and vicious tribes that had settled in southern Afghanistan were the Khiljis, a tribe of Turkic origins settled in southern Afghanistan who would one day come to rule much of India. The Khiljis are considered to be the forefathers of today’s Pashtun Ghilzais. Their first incursions into India started during the reign of the Mamluke sultans of