Nalanda University Insights: Historical Significance, Influential Scholars, Curriculum, and New Campus News

On Wednesday, August 28, 2024,  the Honourable Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, officially opened the new campus of Nalanda University in Rajgir, Bihar. The Nalanda University was founded by the Nalanda University Act 2010 and commenced operations in 2014. The original Nalanda University dates to the fifth century.

Nalanda Mahavihara, a Buddhist university founded in 427 AD, is located in the ancient region of Magadha (present-day Bihar). Renowned as one of the premier educational institutions of the ancient world, Nalanda was situated near Rajagriha (now Rajgir). The campus is over 455 acres and has academic and administrative blocks, teachers' and students' living quarters, laboratories, and libraries. This prestigious learning centre thrived 1,600 years ago during the Gupta Empire era.

Admission to Nalanda University was as competitive as entry to today's top institutions like IITs, IIMs, or Ivy League universities. The university boasted a "Mountain of Truth" library or "Dharma Gunj," which housed nine million handwritten palm-leaf manuscripts, representing the most extensive collection of Buddhist texts worldwide.

Nalanda University is reputed to have attracted more than 10,000 students from Eastern and Central Asia. Scholars from around the world, including China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia came to study at the university. Historical records indicate that Aryabhatta, the mathematician renowned for inventing zero, taught here.

Students received instruction from top educators in the ancient field of Ayurveda, as well as in subjects such as mathematics, logic, grammar, Indian philosophy, and astronomy. This institution played a crucial role in the global dissemination of Buddhism and its principles and was the birthplace of many notable scholars.

Honourable Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi planted a Bodhi tree sapling on the new campus. The campus boasts two academic blocks with 40 classrooms, two auditoriums, a student hostel, an international centre, a theatre, a faculty club, and a sports complex. It is designed as a "net zero green campus" with sustainable features such as a solar plant, water treatment facilities, and extensive water bodies.