New Delhi, Apr 9 (PTI) The ancient university of Nalanda was an “institution without borders” and a great magnet that attracted scholars from across the world, but it was also veritably a “centre for cultural diplomacy”, says diplomat and author Abhay K.
In his new book, “Nalanda: How It Changed the World”, he charts the rise, fall and re-rise of the famed seat of learning in a new avatar besides its seminal contributions to the world at large for several hundreds of years uninterruptedly.
Currently serving as the deputy director general of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) under the Ministry of External Affairs, the diplomat hails from the ancient town of Rajgir in Bihar’s Nalanda district.
During a video interview to PTI on the sidelines of an interaction held at the India International Centre here on Tuesday evening, he also said, “I think there is a need for more excavations at the site.” The ruins of Nalanda University or the Nalanda Mahavihara is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a coveted tag it earned in 2016.
According to the UNESCO website, the Nalanda Mahavihara site comprises the archaeological remains of a monastic and scholastic institution dating from the third century BCE to the 13th century CE.
“It was a place where people from all across the world came, gathered, received knowledge and then took that knowledge back and spread it in their own countries. So, what could be a greater centre for cultural diplomacy than Nalanda itself,” Abhay K told PTI.
“But we also have an example of King of Swarnadeepa asking King Deva Pala of the Pala dynasty through his ambassador Bala Barman to dedicate five villages for the upkeep of a monastery, which housed monks from Swarnadeepa,” the diplomat said.
And there are several other examples such as a scholar coming from Tibet and studying at Nalanda, taking back knowledge and shaping a Tibetan script and grammar, and then the examples of Santa Rakshitha, Padma Sambhava, all of these going from Nalanda to Tibet and spreading knowledge there, he added.
Noted author and historian William Dalrymple also took part in the interaction on the topic “Nalanda: How It Changed the World” with Abhay K’s new book being the pivot for the public discourse.
Spread over an area of 23 hectares, an ancient site of Nalanda is located about 98 km from Bihar’s capital Patna. The property is owned, protected, maintained and managed by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Culture.
“It includes stupas, shrines, viharas (residential and educational buildings) and important artworks in stucco, stone and metal. Nalanda stands out as the most ancient university of the Indian subcontinent. It engaged in organised transmission of knowledge over an uninterrupted period of 800 years,” reads its description on the UNESCO website.
The diplomat said Nalanda was the “first global institution or an institution without borders”, as it had students from various countries, teachers from several countries, its teachings and philosophies that influenced the cultures and civilisations of the rest of the world.
“So, the idea of a university itself was born at Nalanda.. You have several contributions of Nalanda, in a way it acted as a cultural melting pot of the world,” he added.
He cited Chinese traveller Xuanzang’s visit to Nalanda in ancient era to “copy sutras from the great sutra library of Nalanda”, so Nalanda was “a great magnet” and it attracted people from all across the world.
Asked what motivated him to write this book, Abhay K said, “We need to know more about Nagarjuna or Dharmakirti or Aryabhatta and others. We have forgotten our own great masters. This book is an intervention in that direction.” The book is about “contributions of Nalanda” and how “Nalanda changed the way”. At the same time, through its eight chapters, “it takes you to the very origin of Nalanda, how did the university, monastery university originate, why did it become so famous and who studied there”.
The nearly 200-page book also covers the “great continuity of Nalanda even after its decline in the 13th century or even at least the idea of Nalanda, which has not only survived, but thrived rather, as we see in institutions named after Nalanda, all across the world today, from Brazil to Australia, Canada to Malaysia, so Nalanda named institutions are found everywhere”, he added.
The diplomat mentioned the attempts in recent years to revive Nalanda’s great glory and the inauguration of the campus of the new Nalanda University by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year.
“But much before that in 1951, the first president of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad, laid the foundation of Nav Nalanda Mahavira, very close to the ruins of the old Nalanda university. So, it’s a book that gives you a comprehensive picture of Nalanda, its origin, its rise, its decline and its continuity and the contributions it has made shaping the modern world,” he said.
Abhay K said the book offers a “comprehensive bird’s eye view of Nalanda”, from its origin to its decline and a homage to the great institution of Nalanda, and his “tribute to the place I come from”.
Asked about the decay of contemporary educational institutions in Bihar over the last several decades, he said, “All cultures and civilisations go through phases, phases of rise and decline, and then re-rise.” PTI KND AS AS AS
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