THE PLACE
IN A VOLUME ON THE AESTHETIC appreciation of architectural remains called Pleasure of Ruins, Rose Macaulay notes that “Indian ruined temples need a volume to themselves, they are strewn as thickly as a galaxy…. All over the richly idolatrous subcontinent the ruined temples and monasteries stand.” Among the brightest stars in this galaxy are, perhaps, the ruins of Nalanda. They may lack the delirious fancies of the Black Pagoda at Konarak, or the solid grandeur of the Kailashanata temple at Ellora, cut from a single rock, but Nalanda’s soberly arranged brick foundations on the plains of Bihar house a different kind of wonder: the remains of one of the world’s oldest universities, a place of learning that housed as many as three thousand students in the sixth century.
To compare: the University of Oxford reached a comparable size of student population only at the beginning of the twentieth century. As a matter of fact, when visiting what is left of Nalanda’s nine monastic colleges, rectangular structures of rooms arranged around a central courtyard, one is immediately reminded of the quads and courts of Oxford and Cambridge. Some scholars have indeed argued that the architectural shape of the European university cloister has been transmitted from the outlines of the ancient Indian monasteries, via the structurally identical Islamic college or madrasa.
The origins of Nalanda are largely unknown, though its location connects it closely with the historical Buddha. About twelve kilometers from Nalanda is the town of Rajgir, once, under the name Rajagriha, the capital of ancient Magadha, and one of the Buddha’s favorite places. Its Vulture Peak Mountain is considered to, a central text of Mahayana Buddhism. One of the Buddha’s main disciples, Shariputra, who is said to be “foremost in wisdom” among all of the followers of the Buddha and plays an important role in the is said to have died in a town close to Nalanda. A large structure excavated at Nalanda, the so-called “Great Monument,” is often referred to as Shariputra’s . This is a brick structure with stucco adornments; a long staircase leads to the top where a central shrine is located, surrounded by four towers at its corners. Some of the finest sculptures found on the site are the images found in niches of these towers. Reliquaries excavated in the monument carry inscriptions claiming they contain the remains of Shariputra.
