India is the land of ancient civilization. This is the birthplace of 3 religions. India has its very rich heritage of culture and education. The tourists visiting to India will find a number of interesting heritage sites. Universities and centers of learning were flourished in many parts of the country during the ancient period. The students from the foreign lands even came here in India to take education in the ancient Indian universities. Nalanda is one of the most famous centers of education in India. Nalanda was visited by the famous scholars of the foreign land.
Nalanda was established in the 5 century AD. This university remained a center of learning for almost
800 years. Nalanda received patronage from the Pala kings of Bengal. The remnants of Nalanda university is located just 90 Km away from Patna. The site of this ancient university is now preserved by the Archaeological Survey of India. Other than the site of this university you will also visit other places of interest like Hieun Tsang Memorial Hall, Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, The Nalanda Archaeological Museum and Surajpur Baragon.
Nalanda was a very famous Buddhist site of learning. This university in India was an ancient center
of monastic culture. Though basically a Buddhist center of learning but this university imparted education on many topics. Nalanda University imparts education on the tenets and philosophy of Buddhism. This university also imparts education on Vedas, grammar, logic, rhetoric, meta-physics, prose composition, medicine and yoga. It is believed that the two all time great men of the world, Lord Buddha and Mahavira preached their lessons in this university.
Nalanda University had a very big library. This library had a huge collection of 9 million books. The remains of this university are scattered in area of whopping 14 acres. In the modern time a very large part of the site of the university has been excavated but still a large section of the remnants of this university has remained unexplored. Historical evidences have proved that this university was the home of 10,000 students with 2,000 teachers who taught them. The famous Chinese traveler Hieun Tsang visited this university. He stayed in this university for a period of 12 years. In his memoirs this famous Chinese traveler has given an account of his days in the Nalanda University.
Nalanda was destroyed by the invading army of Bkhtiar Khilji. The invaders set fire to the valuable texts in the university. Visit allindiaportal.com to know more about heritage sites in India.
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