Guest guest Posted December 10, 2009 Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 The last lesson at Nalanda http://www.indianexpress.com/storyOld.php?storyId=31704 I had to attend a wedding at Patna and managed a side trip to Nalanda. As I walked into the ruins, a huge dark sadness descended on me. Nalanda, the greatest ever Buddhist university, with its hundreds of monks and thousands of books, was destroyed by Bakhtiyar Khalji’s Turki troops around 1200 AD. As I looked at walls still blackened by the bonfires of books, I began my search for answers. The museum nearby gives you a glimpse of Nalanda’s sanctity and fame across the Buddhist world: Tibet, China, Japan and most of Southeast Asia. While inside, I saw a group of Tibetan monks walking through, placing sacred white scarves on some statues. Back home, I downloaded the pages of the past. Buddhism was not swallowed up by Sanatana Dharma, as we now believe. It thrived, with sincere patrons like Harsha. Even the infamous Jaichand built a monastery to honour his Guru, Srimitra. No, what finished Buddhism off was that it revolved around the Sangha. To alien invaders, a monastery’s imposing walls and towers made it an obvious military target. After Odantapura, the monastery near Nalanda, was razed and all the monks beheaded, the Turks found no treasure and certainly no arms. All they found were books, and with none left to explain their meaning, they were burnt and Odantapura turned into a military camp. Let me quickly add that Bakhtiyar Khilji’s Turkic forefathers, the White Huns of Mihirakula — behaved no differently towards the Sangha although they were Shiva-bhakts. It was with the greatest difficulty that the Guptas and others managed to save their lands from their depredations in the sixth century. As I browsed, a terribly poignant account of the last lesson at Nalanda emerged. Incredibly, it was by Nalanda’s last student: A Tibetan monk called Dharmaswamin. He visited Nalanda in 1235, nearly forty years after its sack, and found a small class still conducted in the ruins by a ninety-year old monk, Rahul Sribhadra. Weak and old, the teacher was kept fed and alive by a local Brahmin, Jayadeva. Warned of a roving band of 300 Turks, the class dispersed, with Dharmaswamin carrying his nonagenarian teacher on his back into hiding. Only the two of them came back, and after the last lesson (it was Sanskrit grammar) Rahul Sribhadra told his Tibetan student that he had taught him all he knew and in spite of his entreaties asked him to go home. Packing a raggedy bundle of surviving manuscripts under his robe, Dharmaswamin left the old monk sitting calmly amidst the ruins. And both he and the Dharma of Sakyamuni made their exit from India. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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