A Quest for Knowledge
NALANDA UNIVERSITY
The establishment of the
ancient Nalanda as an undisputed seat of learning was a natural consequence of
the time and place in which it was situated. Nalanda
University was able to meld multiple discourses and to embrace knowledge in its
entirety to become uniquely attractive for all seekers of pure knowledge.
The
profound knowledge of the Nalanda teachers attracted scholars from places as
distant as China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, Mongolia, Turkey, Sri Lanka and South
East Asia. These scholars have left records about the ambience, architecture
and learning of this unique university. The most detailed accounts have come
from Chinese scholars and the best known of these is Xuan Zang who carried back
many hundred scriptures which were later translated into Chinese.
Nalanda is proclaimed as, “One of the most important universities in the world,
was developed not in the medieval west, but right here in India: Nalanda
University… was instrumental in producing people who are capable of
understanding and articulating what it means to have universal knowledge,
knowledge that is applicable across cultures and across times.”
Eight
hundred years after the destruction of Nalanda, former President of India Dr.
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, while addressing the Bihar State Legislative Assembly, in
March 2006 mooted the idea of reviving the university.
Almost
simultaneously, a proposal termed the “Nalanda Proposal” was forwarded to
Government of India by Singapore. This proposal sought the re-establishment of
a University like Nalanda which would once again be the focal point of Asia.
Since
it is the endeavour of the University to develop a sustainable campus which
will have a net zero or near zero environmental impact, the first of its kind
in the world; special attention was paid to the manner in which each of the
schemes addressed the issues of sustainability.
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