Nalanda,one of the oldest universities in the World was established in 427 CE around 1500 years ago in erstwhile Magadha, today's Bihar . The name Nalanda originated from three sanskrit words na-alam-da which means no stopping of the gift of knowledge.

 Nalanda University enlightened the world with it's precious knowledge. It had students from countries like China, japan,korea, turkey, Tibet,Mongol, Persia etc. Xuanzang ,one of it's alumni mentioned kumargupta as the founder of the University,but some buildings of the complex were built during the reign of Ashoka. It was India's second oldest University after taxshila which is in today's pakistan. Nalanda was Asia's biggest and the world's first residential University.It was a great matter of pride to be associated with this university and getting into this university was no easy task.One had to pass the entrance exam to get admission and only 2 or 3 students out of 10 succeeded. The students who got entry into Nalanda didn't had to pay any fees for education or boarding. The king would take care of all the expenses. The University received the patronage of many kings like Kumar gupta, Harshvardhan .

But the temple of knowledge Nalanda became victim of attacks three times and the kings during that reign managed to restore it two times. First attack was made by Huns and restoration was done by Skandgupta,second attack was made in the early seventh century by Gaudas and this time it was restored by Harshvardhan ,the third time it was attacked by the Mughal invader Bakhtiyar Khilji who damaged the complex beyond repair. He burnt many Buddhist monks alive and the four libraries namely dharmgunj, Ratna Sagar,ratnodadhi and ratnajaka  together contained lakhs of book and when it was set on the fire they kept burning for more than three months. These were original handwritten books with hardly any copies anywhere in the world.

There were more than ten thousand students and 2000 teachers. After completion of the education the students used to get appointment in the courts of kings and many were invited by countries like japan,korea for translation and consultation work.It is said the only place we have proof of Nalanda and it's greatness is in the extensive records kept by Chinese monks who travelled here for education. Some notable alumni include Aryabhatta, Nagarjuna,atisha,aryaveda,Xuazang,yiking,Shibhadra etc.

But sadly only 10% of the University lies in ruins. But certainly we had the knowledge even before the west had an idea about it.