Nalanda University: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Ancient University | Animated History (Hindi)

Nalanda (Nalanda Mahavihara) in Bihar was one of the greatest centres of learning in the ancient world. This animated history, told in Hindi, follows it from its founding to its destruction and its revival. Founded around the 5th century CE under the Gupta emperor Kumaragupta I and later supported by Harsha and the Pala kings, Nalanda grew into a campus of red-brick monasteries (viharas) with cell-lined courtyards, temples and stupas. The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang, who studied there in the 7th century under the abbot Shilabhadra, gives about 10,000 students and 1,500 teachers, describes a hard entrance test at the gate, and records that the income of about a hundred villages supported it. Yijing came by sea via Sumatra a few decades later. We look at what was studied (Buddhist philosophy, logic, grammar, medicine, mathematics and astronomy), palm-leaf manuscripts, students from China, Korea, Tibet, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, the library Dharmaganja with its three buildings Ratnasagara, Ratnodadhi and Ratnaranjaka, the sister universities Vikramashila and Odantapuri, the raid by Bakhtiyar Khalji's army around 1193 CE as described in Minhaj-i-Siraj's Tabaqat-i-Nasiri, Dharmasvamin's visit around 1235, the rediscovery by Buchanan-Hamilton and Alexander Cunningham, the ASI excavations, the Nalanda seals, the UNESCO World Heritage listing (2016) and the new Nalanda University (Act of 2010, Rajgir campus 2024). Some details come from tradition and are presented as such in the video: the meaning of the name, Shilabhadra's age, Nagarjuna's link with Nalanda, the nine-storey Ratnodadhi (Tibetan tradition) and the story that the library burned for months. Historians identify the "fortified vihara" in the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri as probably Odantapuri, and the details of Nalanda's destruction are still debated. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 0:15 The Founding 0:36 The Campus 1:20 What They Studied 1:44 Students from Across Asia 2:17 Great Teachers 2:34 The Library 2:56 Sister Universities • The Destruction 4:01 Rediscovery 4:34 Nalanda Today 4:51 The Legacy 🎧 This video is in Hindi. English subtitles are available (CC). 📅 A new saga every day on Gaathapur. Subscribe and turn on notifications! 💬 Which part of Nalanda's story surprised you the most? Tell us in the comments. CREDITS Narration: OmniVoice (k2-fsa), via VoiceStudio Satellite imagery: NASA Visible Earth, Blue Marble (public domain) Land outlines: Natural Earth (public domain) Music and animation: original, made for Gaathapur #Nalanda #NalandaUniversity #Gaathapur