Vikramshila university
The remains of vikramshilla university are located near antichak in
bhagalpur district of bihar. vikramshila university was an important Buddhist learning centers in ancient india. It was founded during pala dynasty. Vikramshila university was established by the king of pala dynasty ,king
dharmapala(783to820) in late 8th or early 9th century.
a tibitan and a Hindu temple are also excavated. It prospered about four century from its establishement.
After this it collapsed in the beginning of 13th century A.D. Tibetan sources specially the writings of taranath, the Tibetan monk historian of 16th-18th century A.D, was briefly described about its collapsed years. Vikramshila was one of the largest buddhist university having more than hundred teachers and about thousands of students and many great scholars. Many great scholars are often invited by foreign countries to spread Buddhist learning, culture and religion.
There are many subjects like theology, philosophy, grammer, metaphysics, logic etc are tought here. Many branches if tantrism are also tought.according to tibetan source, five great Buddhist mahavihara are running in vikramshila, the premier university of the era. All these five mahavihara or monestry formed a network,all of them were state supervision.
When he felt a decline in the quality of learning at NALANDA University. From the ruins of this university
Structure:
this place was situated in magadh on the banks of gangas not very far from away nalanda. Tibitan source inform us that this monestry was situated in bihar on a hill on the right bank of Ganges. The monestry for Buddhist monks , is a huge square structure ,each side measuring 330 m having a series of 208 cells, 52 on each of the four side opening into a common verandah.
The center of the university once had a huge temple,adorned with a life size copy of mahabodhi tree. Approximately 108 temples were dedicated to the study of guhyasamaja tantra.In the centre of the university was the main lecture - hall. It was called vidyagriha. The entrance of main temple stood guarded by two brilliant statues of nagarjuna and atisadipanka ( a great scholar of the vikramshila university) in university many stupa built for the purpose of worship is a brick structure laid in mud mortar and stands in center of square monestry.
The two terraced stupa is cruciform on plan and about 15 m high from the ground level. The Terrance is about 2.25 m high from ground level.and the upper terrace is at a similar height from the lower side. At both terraces there is acircumbulatory path, the lower about 4.50 m wide and the upper about 3 m wide.
Destruction of vikramshila university: when pala dynasty came to end in the 12 century after it in 1203 , the vikramshila university was destroyed by and attacked by
Mohammed bin bhakthiyar khilji who seems to have mistaken it for a fort. It destroyed the university completely and killed the scholars and saints in the university.c the library of the university was burnt down by his men and the Hindu Hindu and the Buddhist temple were destroyed in the attack.
This university couldn't revive itself and was abandoned. The university was completely destroyed.the account of the destruction of the monestry has been preserved by the author of tabakat- i- nasiri. Many great scholars are killed in this monestry. At that time sakya- sri- bhadra was a helm of the monastic affairs.sakya- sri- bhadra and few others , who escaped the general slaughter, fled to Tibet. Such was the tragic end of this famous college.
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