The Return of Nalanda

AFTER THE EXCAVATION OF THE NALANDA Mahavihara began in the 1860s, a museum was needed to house the precious archaeological artefacts excavated from the site as well as the adjoining areas. As a result, the Nalanda Archaeological Museum was founded in 1917 adjacent to the ruins of Nalanda Mahavihara. It houses copper plates, coins, bronze statues of several Buddhist, Jain and Hindu deities, basalt stone statues of the Buddha, terracotta jars of the first century, and samples of burnt rice dating to the 12th century CE. The museum has four galleries displaying 350 objects out of 13,463 objects in its collection, most dating from the fifth to the 12th century CE.

Nava Nalanda Mahavihara was founded in 1951 in Nalanda, Bihar, close to the ruins of the Nalanda Mahavihara, by Dr Rajendra Prasad, the first president of India, to revive the glory of the ancient Nalanda Mahavihara as a centre of higher learning in Pali and Buddhism. It became a deemed university in 2006.

On November 20, 1951, the foundation stone of the first building was laid with the following engraving: “Let the rays of the sun of Nalanda rise from the summit of this rock in order to brighten the vernacular [lok bhasha] after the passing away of its nights of darkness [period of its obscurity].”

It started functioning as the Magadh Institute of Post-Graduate Studies and Research in Pali and Allied Languages and Buddhist Learning. Bhikshu Jagdish Kashyap, who had embraced Buddhism, was its founding director.

Nava Nalanda Mahavihara offers undergraduate courses in Pali, diplomas in Pali, Tibetan studies and Chinese, post graduate and PhD courses in Pali, philosophy, ancient history and culture and archaeology, Buddhist studies, Sanskrit, Hindi, English and Tibetan studies, and post graduate diplomas in Vipassana and Yoga, and Buddhist heritage and tourism management.

The international spirit of the institute is upheld by eminent scholars of Buddhist studies visiting as guest lecturers and by engaging in faculty exchange programmes with the reputed and established centres of Buddhist learning around the world.

Located right next to the excavated site of the ancient Nalanda ruins, with its focus on Buddhist studies, this initiative is a serious endeavour to revive “the lost glory and the heritage of ancient Nalanda Mahavihara”. The revival includes a rich library, named after Dr Rajendra Prasad, which houses a collection of over 67,000 books in a two-storey building. Many of these books have been obtained as donations from eminent Buddhist scholars. The library also houses a number of xylographic Tibetan manuscripts, a complete set of the sacred books of the East, valuable books on psychology, metaphysics, ethics, logic, sociology and cultural anthropology, donations from Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Japan and South Korea of complete sets of the Tripitaka, a complete set of the Chinese-Buddhist text from the People’s Republic of China, a complete set of Kanjur (Buddha’s recorded teachings) and Tanjur (commentaries by great masters on Buddha’s teachings) donated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a complete set of the Tibetan Tripitaka (Peking edition) with its catalogue, Derge and Lhasa editions of Kanjur, and Derge as well as S-Nar-thang editions of Tanjur are also invaluable treasures in the library of the Mahavihara. It also houses a collection of rare manuscripts.

Associated with Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, Xuanzang Memorial Hall is intended to contain relics of the Chinese pilgrim. Its construction, which started in 1957, was completed in 1984. It symbolises the heritage of Nalanda, thereby strengthening cultural ties between India and China.

Karma Shri Nalanda Institute was founded in 1981 in Sikkim and officially recognised in 1984 by the government of Sikkim.

Buddhist sites such as Bodhgaya, Lumbini and Sarnath have monasteries established by Buddhist monks from Southeast and East Asia in line with the Nalanda tradition.

Nalanda Open University was established in 1987 by an ordinance promulgated by the government of Bihar; later, Nalanda Open University Act, 1995, was passed by the Bihar Legislative Assembly, replacing the ordinance. It provides distance education to applicants on a range of Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes. In the true spirit of Nalanda Mahavihara, the university offers education to anyone, irrespective of their age, profession, geographical location or economic background.

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, the former president of India, proposed the revival of the ancient Nalanda Mahavihara while addressing a joint session of the Bihar State Legislative Assembly in 2006. In January 2007, at the Second East Asia Summit in the Philippines, the Singapore government as well as the leaders of 16 member states of the East Asia Summit (EAS) supported the idea. At the fourth EAS in October 2009 in Thailand, member states promised further support. Nalanda University Act, 2010 was passed by both the Houses of Parlia­ment of India. It became fully functional in September 2014, with the first batch of students. The state government of Bihar allocated 455 acres of land to the west of Rajgir for the univer­sity campus. In 2017, the construction began based on an eco-friendly architecture plan developed by BV Doshi, incorporat­ing the elements of the vastu of ancient Nalanda. With a net-zero carbon footprint, the Nalanda University campus is the first of its kind in the world built on the principles of sustainability.

Grand in vision, with a diversified curriculum, “the university presently offers programmes in Historical Studies, Ecology and Environment Studies, Buddhist Studies, Philoso­phy and Comparative Religions, Languages and Literature, Humanities and Management Studies. The programmes offered include Global PhD programme, Masters in Historical Studies (MA), Masters in Ecology and Environment Studies (MSc), Masters in Buddhist Studies, Philosophy and Comparative Religions (MA), Masters in Hindu Studies (MA), Masters in World Literature (MA), Masters in Sustainable Development and Management (MBA), and various short-term diploma and certificate programmes in Pali, Sanskrit, English, Korean, and Yoga.”

It has an international faculty, international students and international financial support. It is not a mere attempt to revive ancient Nalanda but, rather, to “contain within it a memory of the ancient Nalanda University”.

It functions under the supervision of the Ministry of External Affairs of India, with initial funding from the govern­ments and individual citizens of several countries. Along with India, there are 17 participant countries in this endeavour.

The new campus of Nalanda University was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2024. On this occa­sion, he also planted a sapling of the Bodhi tree—an enduring symbol of Buddhist heritage of Indian spirituality on campus.

Ambassadors of 17 countries (Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Mauritius, Myanmar, New Zealand, Portugal, Singa­pore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam) were present during the inauguration. During the inauguration, Prime Minister Modi said, “Nalanda is not just a renaissance of India’s past. The heritage of many countries of the world and Asia is linked to it.”

I often go back to the new campus of Nalanda University, which has been newly built in Rajgir. It was one of my child­hood dreams to see Nalanda rising from its ruins and I am fortunate to see it happening in my lifetime. The exquisite architecture of Nalanda University reminds me of Nalanda Ma­havihara, especially its red bricks. Its six-storey library resem­bles Nalanda’s renowned Dharmaganja library. I wish to see the lecture halls, auditoriums, ponds, buildings at the Nalanda University to be named after the great luminaries of Nalanda Mahavihara or their famous works, as well as the international scholars who visited it, to keep their memories alive.

NALANDA’S GLOBAL FOOTPRINT

Nalanda’s reputation in foreign lands led to the establishment of several institutions named after it. Nalanda Gedige in Sri Lanka dates to the eighth century, when Nalanda Mahavihara was still functioning.

Phenpo Nalendra, a Tibetan Nalanda Monastery was founded in 1435 in the Phen-yul valley, to the northeast of Lhasa, by the monk-scholar Rongton Sheja Kunrig (1347– 1449). It housed approximately 700 resident monks and thousands of visiting monks and has branches in various parts of Tibet.

In Europe, a Nalanda Monastery was founded at Lavaur, about 40 kilometres from Toulouse, France, in 1981, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Thubten Yeshe.

In 1989, Nalanda Buddhist Centre, Brazil, was created as a tribute to Nalanda Mahavihara. It tried to follow the practices of the original monastery. In 1999, Nalandarama Retreat Cen­tre, Brazil became the first Theravada centre in South America to provide forest-based incentive meditation.

Nalanda College of Buddhist Studies was founded by Suwanda HJ Sugunasiri in 2000 in Toronto, Canada.

The International Buddhist College (IBC), founded in 2000 in Hat Yai, the largest city in southern Thailand, is built like Nalanda, to bring together various Buddhist traditions and to promote better understanding of each other.

Nalanda Institute, founded in 2007 on the southern out­skirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was modelled after Nalanda Mahavihara to promote Buddhist studies in the country.

Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science was founded in the US by Joe Loizzo, a psychiatrist, in 2007, who was inspired by the ancient university of Nalanda. It was conceptualised during his research in contemplative science at Columbia University and Weill Cornell Medical College from 1996.

Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre was started in 2009 at the ISEAS—Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore, “to develop the ‘Nalanda idea’ for building a contemporary Asia based on an appreciation of Asian achievements and mutual learning, as exemplified by the cosmopolitan Buddhist centre of learning in Nalanda, as well as the ‘Sriwijaya idea’ of Southeast Asia as a place of mediation and linkages among the great civilisations.”

Nalanda Institute was established by Abbot, Venerable Thich Linh Tan in 2012 in London to practice Buddhism. Later in 2014, he opened Nalanda Institute Australia in Melbourne to practice Buddhism through meditation, teachings, chant­ing and celebrating Buddhist festivals.

As our planet faces the triple threats of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution, humanity needs to make peace, both with its inner self as well as with the fellow species, rivers and lakes, oceans and all entities that support life. Nalanda’s timeless tradition of imparting knowl­edge, wisdom, and kindness can guide humanity towards overcoming hatred, anger, frustration, and greed, while foster­ing inner and outer peace.

The establishment of institutions named after Nalanda inspired by the original Nalanda Mahavihara, across the globe, gives me hope that humanity would some day learn to settle all its disputes through the great Nalanda tradition of debate, discussion and dialogue and abhor violence and war forever. In this direction, Nalanda’s continuity and resurgence within India and abroad is a source of great hope.

(This essay is drawn from Abhay K’s latest book, Nalanda: How it Changed the World | Penguin)

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