Nalanda: How it Changed the World

by Abhay K.

Much about Nalanda remains shrouded in mystery. When was it founded? Who founded it? Who studied and taught there? What subjects were offered? How many students and teachers were there? Was Nalanda a university in the modern sense? And what ultimately led to its downfall? Nalanda by Abhay K. unravels these questions, telling the story of the rise, fall, and re-rise of Nalanda Mahavihara. Through extensive research, the book explores Nalanda’s contributions in fields such as science, mathematics, philosophy, art, architecture, and poetry. It also highlights the great luminaries who elevated its unparalleled reputation as the preeminent seat of knowledge, as well as the foreign scholars who visited the celebrated monastery.

Broad in sweep and deep in history, Nalanda is a thrilling read that sheds new light on Nalanda and its journey over millennia.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

229 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 24, 2025

About the author

Abhay K. is a poet, editor and translator. His recent translated book includes Fool Bahadur (Penguin Random House). He is the author of several collections of poems including Celestial (Mapin), Stray Poems (Poetrywala), Monsoon (Sahitya Akademi, India), The Magic of Madagascar (L'Harmattan, Paris), The Alphabets of Latin America ( Bloomsbury India), The Prophecy of Brasilia (Colletivo Editorial, Brazil),The Eight-Eyed Lord of Kathmandu (Bloomsbury) and The Seduction Of Delhi (Bloomsbury). He is also the editor of The Book of Bihari Literature (HarperCollins India), The Bloomsbury Book of Great Indian Love Poems, The Bloomsbury Anthology of Great Indian Poems covering poems from 28 Indian languages and over 3000 years of Indian poetry, and CAPITALS--a poetry anthology on the capital cities of the world. He is translator and editor of New Brazilian Poems (Ibis Libris, Rio). His poems have appeared in over 100 literary journals and magazines, including: Poetry Salzburg Review, Asia Literary Review among others. His poems have been translated into over a dozen languages. Abhay K’s poem-song, ‘Earth Anthem’, has been translated into over 150 languages. He received the SAARC Literary Award in 2013. He was invited to record his poems at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC in 2018. His translation of Kalidasa's Meghduta and Ritusamhara, both published by Bloomsbury India, received KLF Poetry Book of the Year Award

Reviews

[Arjun Butani · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are few books that you pick up and can’t put down. This was one such book. Especially after reading @williamdalrymple ‘s The Golden Road, Nalanda How It Changed the World by Abhay K. Was the ‘perfect next episode’.

Concise, well written and beautifully adorned with the authors poetry- this book makes you want to visit the ruins of the grand college/ Mahavira Nalanda. Not only the birthplace of Buddhism but of also modern concepts like maths, science and astrology were first taught there. Scholars and academics from the world came to study at Nalanda. It was the Tibetan, Chinese and Korean scholars who travelled across the Gobi desert, up the Tien Shan Mountains and down the Gangetic plains… to finally get to the jewel of Nalanda and then spend 5-10, sometimes 15 years studying.

The story of Nalanda is fascinating and this is definitely one of my favourite reads of this year.

[Yash Yagnik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Th book is a good entry point and also a sort of deep dive for us to understand what Nalanda was. The book covers the main events of possible beginning , the peak and the fall of one of the greatest universities of all time .
The author has done immense research as the topic is a tough one as with everything ancient and medieval.
The book also made me want to explore more poems by the author Ajay K as he has entered some of his own poetry in the start of the book
Overall a nice short read that can be completed in a day and highlighted for future reference. It was not 4 star for me as there were too many names of people and scriptures and at time I had to focus really hard but overall I’d recommend this book to people

[Meenu · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very well researched historical account of Nalanda, its prominence and decline. I was riveted at very many points.

I was put off though, by the author's insistence that the current government of India is doing much work to promote and sanctify the history of Buddhism. This cannot be further away from the reality, as their actions are at best tokenistic and at worst, vilest form of appropriation of Buddhist philosophy and hisory. One only has to have a glimpse of the Buddhist social-political-economic-cultural reality in India, and all GOI cards will come tumbling down. But the author is a current diplomat - so it all fits.

[Kavitha Rao · Rating 1 out of 5]

Phenomenally dull book on what could have been a great subject. Just a long list of dates, facts and places with no coherent theme, like the Encyclopedia Brittanica. Very scholarly but unreadable.