"LIFE BEGINS HERE AGAIN "
The lost glory of India
कबीर काहे को डरे, सिर पर सिरजनहार
हस्ती चढ़ी डरिये नहीं, कुकर भुसै हजार।
(कबीर भला क्यों डरे जब उनके सिर पर सृजनहार
प्रभु की छत्र छाया है।
हाथी पर चढ़ कर भला हजारों कुत्तों के भोंकने से
भी क्या डर। हाथी ज्ञान वैराग्य का प्रतीक )
The lost glory of India
कबीर काहे को डरे, सिर पर सिरजनहार
हस्ती चढ़ी डरिये नहीं, कुकर भुसै हजार।
(कबीर भला क्यों डरे जब उनके सिर पर सृजनहार
प्रभु की छत्र छाया है।
हाथी पर चढ़ कर भला हजारों कुत्तों के भोंकने से
भी क्या डर। हाथी ज्ञान वैराग्य का प्रतीक )
Islam destroyed almost all Indian institutes of learning and research and spread their terror, fear and darkness burning and destroying all temples with libraries and thousands of schools and universities.
The school in Pushpagiri was established in the 3rd century AD as present Odisha, India. As of 2007, the ruins of this Mahavihara had not yet been fully excavated. Consequently, much of the Mahavihara's history remains unknown. Of the three Mahavihara campuses, Lalitgiri in the district of Cuttack is the oldest. Iconographic analysis indicates that Lalitgiri had already been established during the Shunga period of the 2nd century BC, making it one of the oldest Buddhist establishments in the world.
The Chinese traveller Xuanzang (Hiuen Tsang), who visited it in AD 639, as Puphagiri Mahaviharaas well as in medieval Tibetan texts. However, unlike Takshila and Nalanda, the ruins of Pushpagiri were not discovered until 1995, when a lecturer from a local college first stumbled upon the site.
Nalanda
Nalanda was established in the fifth century AD in Bihar, India and survived until circa 1200 AD. It was devoted to Buddhist studies, but it also trained students in fine arts, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, politics and the art of war.
Nalanda was established in the fifth century AD in Bihar, India and survived until circa 1200 AD. It was devoted to Buddhist studies, but it also trained students in fine arts, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, politics and the art of war.
The centre had eight separate compounds, ten temples, meditation halls, classrooms, lakes and parks. It had a nine-story library where monks meticulously copied books and documents so that individual scholars could have their own collections. It had dormitories for students, housing 10,000 students in the school’s heyday and providing accommodation for 2,000 professors. Nalanda attracted pupils and scholars from Sri Lanka, Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey, who left accounts of the centre.
TEXLA
Ancient Taxila or Takshashila, in ancient Gandhara, was an early Hindu and Buddhist centre of learning. According to scattered references that were only fixed a millennium later, it may have dated back to at least the fifth century BC.[26] Some scholars date Takshashila's existence back to the sixth century BC. The school consisted of several monasteries without large dormitories or lecture halls where the religious instruction was most likely still provided on an individualistic basis.
Takshashila is described in some detail in later Jātaka tales, written in Sri Lanka around the fifth century AD. It became a noted centre of learning at least several centuries BC and continued to attract students until the destruction of the city in the fifth century AD.
Takshashila is perhaps best known because of its association with Chanakya. The famous treatise Arthashastra (Sanskrit for The knowledge of Economics) by Chanakya, is said to have been composed in Takshashila itself. Chanakya (or Kautilya), the Maurya Emperor Chandragupta and the Ayurvedic healer Charaka studied at Taxila
Generally, a student entered Takshashila at the age of sixteen. The Vedas and the Eighteen Arts, which included skills such as archery, hunting, and elephant lore, were taught, in addition to its law school, medical school, and school of military science.
Vikramashila
Vikramashila was one of the two most important centres of learning in India during the Pala Empire, along with Nalanda. Vikramashila was established by King Dharmapala (783 to 820) in response to a supposed decline in the quality of scholarship at Nalanda. Atisha, the renowned Pandita, is sometimes listed as a notable abbot. It was destroyed by the forces of Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji around 1200.
Vikramashila is known to us mainly through Tibetan sources, especially the writings of Tāranātha, the Tibetan monk-historian of the 16th–17th centuries.
Vikramashila was one of the largest universities, with more than one hundred teachers and about one thousand students. It produced eminent scholars who were often invited by foreign countries to spread Hindu learning, culture and religion.
Vikramashila was one of the largest universities, with more than one hundred teachers and about one thousand students. It produced eminent scholars who were often invited by foreign countries to spread Hindu learning, culture and religion.
The most distinguished and eminent among all was Atisha Dipankara, a founder of the Sarma traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. Subjects like philosophy, grammar, metaphysics, Indian logic etc. were taught here, but the most important branch of learning was tantrism.
Other centres
Further centres include Telhara in Bihar (probably older than Nalanda[35]), Odantapuri, in Bihar (circa 550 - 1040), Somapura, in Bangladesh (from the Gupta period to the Turkic Muslim conquest),
Other centres
Further centres include Telhara in Bihar (probably older than Nalanda[35]), Odantapuri, in Bihar (circa 550 - 1040), Somapura, in Bangladesh (from the Gupta period to the Turkic Muslim conquest),
Sharada Peeth, now Pakistan, Jagaddala Mahavihara, in Bengal (from the Pala period to the Turkic Muslim conquest), Nagarjunakonda, in Andhra Pradesh, Vikramashila, in Bihar (circa 800-1040), Valabhi, in Gujarat (from the Maitrak period to the Arab raids), Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh (eighth century to modern times), Kanchipuram, in Tamil Nadu, Manyakheta, in Karnataka, Mahavihara, Abhayagiri Vihāra, and Jetavanaramaya, in Sri Lanka.
