What we lost at Nalanda By Adivaraha, Twitter
Unarguably one of the most celebrated libraries of medieval India was at Nalanda University. Known by the name of Dharma Ganja, it consisted of 3 huge buildings - Ratnasagara, Ratnadadhi & Ratnaranjaka.
Ratnadadhi was an impressive 9 storeyed library! On can only imagine the greatness of Dharmaganja from the fact that at its height it had atleast 400 manuscripts written in Chinese alone.
These great libraries stored not only Buddhist religious works but various works pertaining to every known field of art and science.
For eg. richly furnished lib. of Jetavana Vihara near Sravasti also contained Vedic literature and works in various fields of art and science.
Unfortunately this great tradition was abruptly put to an end with Islamic invasion of East India.
According to Islamic sources, Bhaktiyar Khilji ordered the burning of the entire library of Nalanda because it didn't have a copy of the Koran. The smoke from the burning books covered the sky for many days.
Sabhar- R Sooraj Kumar Śarmā 🌷
Ratnadadhi was an impressive 9 storeyed library! On can only imagine the greatness of Dharmaganja from the fact that at its height it had atleast 400 manuscripts written in Chinese alone.
These great libraries stored not only Buddhist religious works but various works pertaining to every known field of art and science.
For eg. richly furnished lib. of Jetavana Vihara near Sravasti also contained Vedic literature and works in various fields of art and science.
Unfortunately this great tradition was abruptly put to an end with Islamic invasion of East India.
According to Islamic sources, Bhaktiyar Khilji ordered the burning of the entire library of Nalanda because it didn't have a copy of the Koran. The smoke from the burning books covered the sky for many days.
Sabhar- R Sooraj Kumar Śarmā 🌷
Comments
Post a Comment