Bakhtiyar Khilji destroyed the Nalanda University in 1194, or did he...?
Bakhtiyar Khilji
destroyed the Nalanda university in 1194, or did he?
(For references, please refer to the endnotes at the end of the article)
Mohammad of Ghor came to India in 1193 and laid the foundation of Islamic rule in India. He defeated the ruler of the Chauhan kingdom- Prithviraj III, a king who ruled over a vast part of North India that included Delhi.
And it is
Delhi which, for generations to come, would now become the seat of any power
that would come to rule India.
While
Bakhtiyar Khilji, one of Mohammad’s generals went further east from Delhi and conquered
Bengal and Bihar, Aibak, Mohammad’s slave, was put in charge of Delhi and Ghor
went back to quell a rebellion in his home kingdom.
The Nalanda
University
The Nalanda University,
in Magadha (present day Bihar) was established around the 5th
century AD. A residential university, it had almost 800 teachers and 10,000
students from Tibet, China and other places around the world. [i]
However , the Chinese traveller, It’Sing, who came
here around the end of the 5th century mentioned the university then
housing 2000 students . He also mentioned that it had the revenue of 200 villages assigned to
it, [ii]
naturally making it quite wealthy.
Though a Buddhist
university, the teachers were well equipped in teaching secular subjects like architecture,
logic, grammar, etc.
Bakhtiyar
Khilji and the destruction of Nalanda.
Since the
university was already quite rich, it is but natural that it would have been fortified.
In fact, excavations completed in 2008 have found various fortifications near
the Nalanda University. [iii]
Therefore, when Bakhtiyar Khilji would have arrived here in 1200AD, a man unaware of India and its customs, the building would have looked more like a fort to him. And this is what Minhaj Siraj, a historian in the court of Aibak’s descendants writes.
“When they reached the gate of the fortress”
he says, “they began to attack”. And later, he says “There were a great number of books
there” “On becoming acquainted (with the contents of the books), it was
found that the whole of that fortress and city was a college, and in the
Hindui tongue, they call a college Bihar”[iv]
The above-mentioned sentences clearly show that Nalanda was
not destroyed for the sole purpose of it being a university. Of course, even if
one keeps aside the fact that the word “Nalanda” is not explicitly mentioned and
Siraj is simply describing the destruction of a building with books in Bihar,
the hostility toward Khilji lays
emphasis on the recent disturbing trend of judging the past actions of people in
the comfort of the present.
While Bakhtiyar Khilji did destroy Nalanda, one must remember that this was typical of the power play that plagued medieval times like when the Marathas destroyed a Hindu temple in Mysore in the 18th century and Tipu Sultan repaired it.[v] It is only today that the various instances of the past are given a different color and actions of rulers like Aurangzeb and Tipu Sultan are judged.
History is… many things.
It is something to be understood; past instances to be learnt from. History is
also the gathering of knowledge of the past to be grateful for the present. But
what it never is – is judgement of the past and its people. I would like to end with one of my
favorite quotes:
“Studying history will
sometimes make you uncomfortable. Studying history will
sometimes make you feel deeply upset.
Studying history will sometimes make you feel extremely angry.
If studying history always makes you feel proud
and happy, you probably aren't studying history” [vi]
[i] https://nalandauniv.edu.in/about-nalanda/history-and-revival/
[ii] https://mrunal.org/2014/09/diplomacy-nalanda-university-india.html
[iii] http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/bihar-s-history-project-60-villages-linked-to-nalanda-university-identified/374871/
[iv] https://kafila.online/2014/07/09/how-history-was-unmade-at-nalanda-d-n-jha/
[v] https://sabrangindia.in/article/awkward-moment-tipu-sultan-restored-hindu-temple-marathas-sacked
[vi] https://twitter.com/libshipwreck
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