Nalanda Mahavihar: Bakhtiar Khilji Fits into The General Islamophobic Propaganda Against Muslims
By Ram Puniyani for
New Age Islam
28 June
2024
All Reliable Sources
Point to The Fact of Brahmins Burning the Library as Revenge. Bringing in
Bakhtiar Khilji Fits into The General Islamophobic Propaganda Against Muslims
and At The Same Time Hides The True Story Of Persecution Of Buddhism During
That Period.
------
The campus
of Nalanda was inaugurated formally by Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi on 19th
June (2024) in presence of Ambassadors of many countries like Myanmar,
Srilanka, Vietnam, Japan, Korea among others. Most of these countries are the
ones where Buddhism was spread by the preachers sent by Emperor Ashok.
Initially the idea of reviving Nalanda as a premier global University was
floated by the then President A.P.J Abul Kalam in 2006 and later ratified by
Bihar Assembly and UPA Government. On the occasion; Modi stated that this
University was burnt by foreign invaders in 12th Century. He was just parroting
the popular perception that Bakhtiyar Khilji, the courtier of Mahmud Ghori had
burnt it.
Ruins
of Nalanda University
-----
This
perception is an add-on to the other such ‘social common sense’ that Muslim
invaders destroyed the Hindu Temples and spread Islam by force. Incidentally
the propagation of these understandings began with the introduction of communal
historiography by the British and later picked up with big gusto by the
communal streams, Muslim communalism and Hindu Communalism. While the
propagation of myths propagated by Muslim League against Hindus is playing
havoc in Pakistan, in India it is RSS which has played this up, leading to Hate
against Muslims in our society to the extent that Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel had
to write this about RSS,
“All their speeches were full of communal poison. It was not necessary
to spread poison in order to enthuse the Hindus and organize for their
protection. As a final result of the poison, the country had to suffer the
sacrifice of the invaluable life of Gandhiji.”
When Modi
was mouthing that Nalanda was burnt by foreign invaders, this falls in the same
category of falsehoods which are used to spread the Hatred against Muslims.
Nalanda had a glorious residential University, spread out in a large area in
Rajgir Bihar, built by Gupta's in the sixth century. It was a Buddhist centre
as Archaeological evidence shows. Primarily it was for study of Buddhist
philosophy, in addition Brahminical scriptures, mathematics, logic and health
science were also taught. Its tradition of open discussion and logic were so
high that it attracted students and scholars from various destinations. It was
supported by the Kings, later with the coming of Pala and Senaa dynasty its
patronage was reduced and withdrawn. Patronage was redirected to new
Universities, like Odantpuri and Vikramshila in particular.
This was
the beginning of the decline of Nalanda. Who set fire to the great library
housing millions of books, Manuscripts and rare collections? While it is being
attributed to Khilji, particularly after the coming of the British, there is no
single primary source mentioning this. Khilji’s primary goal was to loot and
plunder. On route from Ayodhya to Bengal he did attack Kila-i-Bihar thinking this is a forte with wealth. On the way he
plundered wealth and killed people. Nalanda was not on the route, rather far
away from the route, and he had no reason to attack a University. Most of the
primary sources related to history of that time do not mention Khilji coming to
Nalanda. Tabakat-a-Nasiri written by
Minhaj-e-Siraj has no mention on
these lines. Two Tibetan Scholars, Dharmaswamin and Sumpa were keenly studying
the history of India, particularly related to Buddhism, in their books also;
Khilji is not mentioned as the one who either came to Nalanda or burnt it.
Taranath, another well-known Buddhist scholar from Tibet also does not mention
any such fact.
Interestingly
Buddhist structures of importance like Ajanta, Ellora, and Sanchi stupa were
also not the subject of ire of ‘invaders’! Nor do the Indian historians
Jadunath Sarkar and R C Majumdar endorse Nalanda being destroyed by Khilji. So
how it got burnt and lost its historical importance. Many stories abound apart
from the Khilji destroying it, being most prevalent.
Prof. D. N.
Jha, the authority on Ancient Indian History in his essay, ‘Responding to a
communalist’ in compilation of his essays (Against the Grain, Manohar 2020, pp
185 onwards) gives an excellent summary of the relevant part of the book
‘History of Buddhism in Indian’ by Tibetan monk Taranath. “During the
consecration ceremony of the Temple built by Kakutsiddha at Nalendra [Nalanda]
‘the young naughty Shamans threw slops at tirthika beggars (Brahmins, added) … Angered
by this one of them went for arranging livelihood and the other sat in the deep
pit and engaged himself in ‘Surya Sadhana)
…He performed a sacrifice and scattered the charmed ashes all around which
resulted in the miraculous fire.”
History of
Indian Logic p. 516, cited by D R Patil, ‘The
Antiquarian Remnant’ in Bihar says that this incidence refers to the actual
scuffle between Buddhist and Brahminical mendicants. The latter propitiated the
Sun God, performed a sacrifice and threw the living ambers and ashes from the
sacrificial pit to Buddhist temples. This is what led to the burning of the
great collection of books at that time.
We also
need to register that this was a period when the attacks against Buddhism were
coming up as the resurgence of Brahmanism was coming up in a big way. After the
period of Ashoka when India became Buddhist in large measure, the notions of
equality ruled in a big way. Due to this the Brahamanical rituals declined
leading to a big dissatisfaction among Brahmins. A bit later when Ashoka’s
grandson Brihdrath was ruling, his commander-in-chief Pushyamitra Shung
murdered Brihdrath and became the ruler unleashing an anti-Buddhist
persecution.
All
reliable sources point to the fact of Brahmins burning the library as revenge.
Bringing in Bakhtiar Khilji fits into the general Islamophobic propaganda
against Muslims and at the same time hides the true story of persecution of
Buddhism during that period.
What we
need to preserve from the Buddhist period is a spirit of free debate and logic
as the underlying base of education. In present times our Universities are
being stifled by the imposition of a culture of obedience and subordination in
the matters of academia. The knowledge cannot be imbibed or developed under
such conditions. If we can learn this from the tragic history of the struggle
between Buddhism and Brahmanism in India, it will be a crucial aspect of the
development of academia in the country.
-----
Ram Puniyani is president of the Centre for Study of Society and
Secularism.
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism