Nalanda University – Bihar

Nalanda University is located at a distance of 88km south east of Patna, the capital city of Bihar. It was an ancient center of higher learning in India during the old days from the 5th century CE through 12^th century. It was built by king Harshavardhana during his reign.

Nalanda University was also a religious center for learning and attracted scholars from as far as China, Vietnam, Greece and Persia. It was a source of enlightenment to whole of Asia. It is believed that Ashoka had built a temple within the university campus.

Nalanda University is believed to be one of the most famous research universities of its time. In fact, the University led the way for research among the literary scholars the world over.

The university was built with red bricks and is spreads over an area of 14 hectares. Apart from being a learning center, it was the only residential university during its period. It accommodated over 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers.

The university campus includes ten temples and eight separate compounds. The library was located in a nine storied complex. The esteemed university was destroyed by the army of Turkic Muslim ruler Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1193 when they invaded India. As a result all the Buddhist teachers were forced to make an escape from the university.

The university had huge collection of reading material. The library on the campus was so vast that it took three long months for the fire to douse down after being set by the invaders. Presently, the plans of revival of this ancient university are on final stages with active help from China, Singapore and Japan.