Banka Bihar - IV : Nalanda

Banka Bihar - IV : Nalanda

Nalanda, along with Bodh Gaya was one of the primary attraction for me to do a Bihar trip. The place just like invokes a sense of pride and intrigue at the same time.The ancient global seat of learning , extremely well planned permises that thousand and more than 10,000 student and a placelived for more than 700 years before it was brought down. it is also a place introduce to us by the writting of travelers like Huan Tsang and I Tsing .    

The world Nalanda is composed of Sanskrit words Nal and Da meaning the  giver of knowledge , a well though out name .As you enter the well maintained ruins , which still have a fair percentage of 1600 years old red bricks, an overwhelming sense overtake you. you suddenly first yourself walking the path walked by the scholars once.You look at the their places of learning something like the lecture halls today,their dormitories and their wells. You see how the student  and teacher lived together and pursued joint learning.You walk and see the various generations of the same building built by seccessive generations of rulers.You see long chullahs and wonder. if they were used to cook food or they were a part of of chemical laboratories. You see a row of temples, all   of them in ruins, but still have the elegance like a wise old man who has give up all the ornamentation but you can not take away the glow of knowledge.

There is a long row of what looks like a hostels and departments of the university.According to text there were 108 units in the university of which only 11 have been discovered. Each unit has  a hall , about 30 rooms, couple of bathrooms and a well. Rooms had beds bookshelves and a niche to keep idols or other belongings. There are single and doubles rooms. And across a wide passage is another row that has temples. It is assumed that most of  these temples are Buddhist, but there are enough  Hindu sculptures also. What you see most prominently is the empty niches, which abviously had some idols adorning them.Peeping out from bara walls here and there are the ornate designs, a lot of them in the typical shape of a Chaitya.There are stones bases of pillars that might have stood steady on them  and now only tell tales of their once upon a time existence. The drainage system is still working and drains out all the rains water even today. There are platform that were meant for exercising and meditation. There are votive stupas and miniature shrines all around the main shrines and temples, which may have been added at different points in time bye the devotees or they have been placed here post excavation . Even the small stupas have some plaster remaining at their bases and domes that tell about their original ornate state. In some stupas the shape of bricks have been molded to give some geometric and some auspicious shapes. There are only two stone pillars that I could see in the whole permises. There is evidence that these building were constructed during different periods of history and a lot of time one above the other. Excavated found image in stone , stucco and bronze from here. All the excavated image can be seen in the ASI mesuem across the road from the ruins. An intresting discovery is the burnt rice that are about 900 years old from a granary. 

The range of subjects studied at Nalanda included technology , logic , philsophy ,medicine , astronomy ,grammar and metaphysics. Student came from far and wide and studied here and took back the knowledge to their respective countries. Some like Huan Tsang were wise enough to document the ife nad times of Nalanda, otherwise we may not have known this beautiful parts of our history and heritage. But for these writings we may have been guessing about these ruins just the way we are still guessing about the ruins of Indus valley. Text say that this university was spread in an area of more than 10sq km or so as of now only about 1sq km has been excavated and ruins restored. Iwonder how it would be to see the whole university recreated before our eyes. It is said that when student came here for admission , the gatekeepar who were also very knowledgeable people tested them at the university gate, and only if the aspriants passed the test were thay admitted to this university.

It is said that there were three big libraries in Nalanda and none of them located so far in the excavations. These were called Ratna Sagar , Ratna Rajnikaand Ratna Uday and the first one being 9 storeyed. All these were burnt in a fire following the atteck of Muslim invader  Khilji. The signs of fire can be seen here and there on the  walls but some of the walls are exceptionally clean and would give an impression of having been constructed very recently. The building were also destroyed in an earthquake and were apprently covered by soil and mud and lived underneath till they were again excavated in 20th century . Like libraries , the main gates of the university are also yet to be discovered . There is a palm tree with eight branches. which is unusual as the palm tree has single branch, and the Buddhist tend to believe that this is representative of the Buddha.    

The oldest part of the Nalanda campus is Sariputra's stupa that  was built during the time of Ashoka. Sariputra was born here and he died here was one of the most prominent disciples of Buddha unfortunately you cann't go close to this stupa now, though this is the most well known face of these ruins. It seems the temple is as much below the ground as it is above the ground today as this was built in 7 phases. To me even in ruins  Nalanda exhibitesgrace and glory. 

Nalanda mesuem is small but beautiful . like every other mesuem I wish there was more documentation or a guide to explain the artifacts. 

Huan Tsang aka Xuan Zang memorial is the new landmark of Nalanda. It is an impression and huge building built in the memory of Nalanda's best known scholar and teacher . The memorial take you through the life Huan Tsang though a series of wall paintings. The plaques will tell you more about him . A map traces his journy across then civilizations. As you enter through the simple but nicely designed gate, a life size statue of the traveler in his typical pose welcomes you . The hall has another of his statue in black . When you stand there, you feel grateful to the man for providing the link between you and your history. Some samples from his wrinting have been put as bullets at the back of memorial. But what was missing was a book that you can bring back with you to read what he wrote about this city of Nalanda and the life there of. 

Nalanda is not yet on the world heritage site list , But I strongly believe that it should be right there. I also recommend a visit to  Nalanda , It is a place which is very difficult to describe in words or even in pictures. you have to be there to see and feel it for yourself. After Nalanda , my desire to see Taxila has increased manifold, I wish I am able to go and see that sometime.