Nalanda is about 56 miles (90 km) southeast of Pataliputra. One version of the source of the place name is that nalam means lotus and da means to give. Since the lotus in India symbolizes knowledge, Nalanda means Giver of Knowledge.

The great university at Nalanda began as a Buddhist monastery. Early Buddhist and Jain education was based on their monasteries, rather than on a particular teacher. Some of these monasteries gained a reputation as centers of learning, in addition to training novices for their orders. Aspiring students of any faith could attempt to pass the oral entrance exams. If successful, a student could acquire a free education in many subjects. The university at Nalanda was the first international residential school in the world and attracted students from all over India, as well as from China, Korea, Ceylon and Indonesia. In addition to the study of Buddhist scriptures and the Vedas, the curriculum included philosophy, theology, logic, grammar, linguistics, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and crafts. Ancient texts state that there were as many as 10,000 students housed at Nalanda at one time, but the size of the establishment, based on the archaeological remains, casts doubt on this claim.

The university was founded around 427 by Kumaragupta I (415-455), son of Chandragupta II. Skandagupta (455-467) continued his father's royal patronage of the university by enlarging the physical facilities. During his reign the kingdom was attacked by the Hunas whose leader Mihirakula hated Buddhism so much that he took special pains to destroy any buildings associated with the religion. The university at Nalanda is thought to have been destroyed for the first time during this period. Skandagupta's brother Puragupta, and Puragupta's son Narasimhagupta (467-473) undertook the restoration of the school at Nalanda, adding even larger and grander buildings in the process, and set up long term endowments. Kumaragupta II (473-476) continued his forebears' patronage of the university, adding still more structures to the complex. Harshavardhana (606-648) was a Hindu but was known for his religious tolerance. This extended so far as to rebuild the Buddhist sponsored university at Nalanda which had again suffered destruction, this time by the Gaudas in the early seventh century. Harshavardhana also added a magnificent brass plated building to the complex.

The Chinese scholar, Hiun-Tsiang, who visited India in 630 and stayed for a time at Nalanda, has this to tell us about the university:

The richly adorned towers, and the fairy-like turrets, like pointed hill-tops, are congregated together. The observatories seem to be lost in the vapours of the morning, and the upper rooms tower above the clouds. From the windows one may see how the winds and the clouds produce new forms, and above the soaring eaves the conjunctions of the sun and moon may be observed. And then we may add how the deep translucent ponds, bear on their surface the blue lotus, intermingled with the Kie-ni (Kanaka) flower, of deep red colour, and at intervals the Amra groves spread over all, their shade. All the outside courts, in which are the priests' chambers, are of four stages. The stages have dragon projections and coloured eaves, the pearl-red pillars, carved and ornamented, the richly adorned balustrades, and the roofs covered with tiles that reflect the light in a thousand shades, these things add to the beauty of the scene.

The king of the country respects and honours the priests, and has remitted the revenues of about 100 villages for the endowment of the convent. Two hundred householders in these villages, day by day, contribute several piculs of ordinary rice, several hundred catties in weight of butter and milk. Hence the students here, being so abundantly supplied, do not require to ask for the four requisites (clothing, food, bedding and medicine). This is the source of the perfection of their studies, to which they have arrived.

Another Chinese traveler, the Buddhist pilgrim I-Tsing who arrived in India in 673, described the monastery at Nalanda as having eight halls and three hundred apartments. He said there was only one gate by which to enter the compound, which was in the south wall and attended by a gatekeeper. Strangers who came to the university were screened with questions by this keeper in order to determine the extent of their previous education before they were allowed to enter. I-Tsing reported that only two or three visitors out of every ten managed to pass this difficult test.

Nalanda's importance as a monastic university continued until around 1197, when invading Muslims sacked the grounds. The great educational center was never rebuilt. Today, a visitor to Nalanda may explore the archaeological sites of eleven of the monasteries and several red brick temples. There is a museum near the ruins which houses a collection of Hindu and Buddhist bronzes, copper plates, stone inscriptions, coins, pottery, and undamaged statues of the Buddha which have been excavated from the site.


You can view photographs of the ruins at Nalanda at Shunya


Sources:
Basham, A.L. The Wonder That Was India. New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1959.
Nalanda University
wiki: History of India
Gupta Empire
The quoted material comes from The Royal Patrons of the University of Nalanda, written by the Rev. H. Heras, Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, 1928.