Nalanda Mahavihara backdrop welcomes delegates at President's dinner; know all about the world's first residential university, its history, and AI video reimagining what it looked like
Produced by: Harshita
Designed by: Mohsin
President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed the G20 delegates at a ceremonial Presidential dinner hosted on Saturday, September 9. The delegates witnessed an image of Nalanda Mahavihara (Nalanda University), an ancient monastic university, forming the backdrop at the greeting area
Nalanda University
backdrop at G20
Nalanda Mahavira, which falls in modern-day Bihar, was in operation between 5th century and 12th century. Its legacy goes back to Buddha's and Mahavira's era reflecting ancient India's advancement towards disseminating knowledge and wisdom. Its embrace of diversity, meritocracy, freedom of thought, collective governance, autonomy, and knowledge sharing all align with the core principles of democracy
The History of Nalanda
University
More than 1,500 years ago, in the ancient kingdom of Magadha (present-day Bihar), a large centre of learning or Mahavihara was established. This centre of learning was the great Nalanda University, the world's first residential university, a sort of mediaeval Ivy League institution home to nine million books that attracted 10,000 students from across Eastern and Central Asia. Nalanda was an acclaimed centre of learning, not only in India, but also in the world
Nalanda: World's first
residential university
Nalanda University G20
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During its heyday, it was located near the city of Rajagriha (present-day Rajgir), not too far away from Pataliputra (present-day Patna). According to the Bihar Government website, Nalanda Mahavira was established by Emperor Kumar Gupta in the fifth century A.D. From the 5th to 12th Century, the university was said to be at its pinnacle while attracting a large number of international students who came to study from China, Mongolia, Tibet, Korea and other Asian countries.
Nalanda's international
popularity
It is said that in order to get an education in Mahavihara (Nalanda University), one was tested by a teacher. The leading centre of teaching of Mahayana Buddhism was Nalanda, but other topics of education were also featured. The university regularly sent some of its best scholars and professors to places like China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Sri Lanka to propagate Buddhist teachings and philosophy. This ancient cultural exchange programme helped spread and shape Buddhism across Asia
Nalanda University
Education
In the 1190s, the Nalanda University was destroyed by a marauding troop of invaders led by Turko-Afghan military general Bakhtiyar Khilji, who sought to extinguish the Buddhist centre of knowledge during his conquest of northern and eastern India. Khilji demolished the Monastery, killed the Monks and burned Nalandra's valuable library. The campus was so vast that the fire set on by the attackers is said to have burned for three months
Nalanda University
destroyed by invaders
Nalanda Mahavihara was systematically excavated in the early 20th Century CE. Archaeological remains of the Mahavihara were systematically unearthed and preserved simultaneously. These are the most significant parts of the property that demonstrate development in planning, architecture and artistic tradition of Nalanda. The archaeological remains of Nalanda are now a Unesco World Heritage site. The 23-hectare excavated site is likely a mere fraction of the original university campus
Nalanda University
archaeological site
Spread over an area of 23 hectares, the archaeological site of Nalanda Mahavihara presents remains dating from circa. 3rd Cen BCE with one of the earliest, the largest of its time and longest serving monastic cum scholastic establishment in the Indian Subcontinent from 5th Cen CE - 13th Cen CE before the sack and abandonment of Nalanda in the 13th Century. It includes stupas, chaityas, viharas, shrines, many votive structures and important art works in stucco, stone, and metal. The layout of the buildings testifies to the change from grouping around the stupa-chaitya to a formal linear alignment flanking an axis from south to north
Nalanda's remains
While the original mahavihara was a much larger complex, all surviving remains of Nalanda present in the property area of 23 hectares comprising 11 viharas and 14 temples, besides many smaller shrine and votive structures, demonstrate amply its attributes such as axial planning and layout along the north-south axis, its architectural manifestation and extant building materials and applied ornamental embellishments. The historic development of the property testifies to the development of Buddhism into a religion and the flourishing of monastic and educational traditions
Existing Nalanda property
According to UNESCO, preserved in-situ are the structural remains of viharas and chaityas whose layers of construction show the evolution of the respective forms. The positioning of these structures over the extent of the site shows the planned layout unique to Nalanda. The property also retains a corpus of moveable and immovable artefacts and artistic embellishments that show iconographic development reflecting changes in the Buddhist belief system
Significance of Nalanda
Nalanda stands out as the most ancient university of the Indian Subcontinent. It engaged in the organised transmission of knowledge over an uninterrupted period of 800 years. The historical development of the site testifies to the development of Buddhism into a religion and the flourishing of monastic and educational traditions. At present, in view of the fact that this place was a symbol of Asian Unity and strength, the Nalanda International University is being established
Nalanda: Symbol of Asian
Unity and strength
Priyanku Sarmah, a filmmaker and AI image generator recently shared a video on his Instagram handle @priyanku_sarmah titled 'What Nalanda looked like before it was destroyed'. He used AI to reimagine what the ancient university looked like in 1150 CE before it was destroyed. The AI-generated photos in the video show what the grand university, the students there, and the monks probably looked like back then
AI video of Nalanda
University
Video Credit: Instagram (@priyanku_sarmah)
Nalanda University