The Nalanda Mahavihara was founded by which ruler?
- A.Ashoka
- B.Kumaragupta the first
- C.Harshavardhana
- D.Dharmapala
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, Kumaragupta the first. The Gupta emperor Kumaragupta the first, who appears in the records with the title Shakraditya, founded the monastic university at Nalanda in the fifth century. Later rulers added buildings and endowments, so the site grew into rows of monasteries facing a line of temples, which is how the Archaeological Survey of India has uncovered it.
Option A is wrong because Ashoka belongs to the third century before the Common Era and is connected with stupas and pillars rather than with Nalanda. Option C is wrong because Harshavardhana of Kanauj was a seventh century patron who endowed the university but did not found it. Option D is wrong because the Pala king Dharmapala founded Vikramshila, a different institution, in the late eighth century.
Read the full article: Nalanda, Vikramshila and Ancient Learning in Bihar
Practice Questions
View allNalanda was an ancient centre of learning for which religion?
- A.Islam
- B.Christianity
- C.Jainism
- D.Buddhism
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Nalanda was a Buddhist monastic university, a mahavihara, where the main course of study was the Mahayana canon along with logic, grammar, medicine and astronomy.
Read the full explanation →Under which teacher did the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang study at Nalanda?
- A.Shilabhadra
- B.Nagarjuna
- C.Atisha Dipankara
- D.Shantarakshita
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Hiuen Tsang reached Nalanda in the seventh century during the reign of Harshavardhana and spent several years there studying the Yogachara philosophy under Shilabhadra, who was then the abbot.
Read the full explanation →Vikramshila university was founded by which ruler?
- A.Gopala
- B.Devapala
- C.Dharmapala
- D.Kumaragupta the first
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The Pala king Dharmapala founded Vikramshila in the late eighth century at Antichak in what is now Bhagalpur district, on a height above the Ganga, as a rival and a complement to Nalanda.
Read the full explanation →The remains of Vikramshila are located in which district of Bihar?
- A.Nalanda
- B.Bhagalpur
- C.Gaya
- D.Vaishali
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Vikramshila stood at Antichak village in Bhagalpur district, on raised ground overlooking the Ganga, and excavation has revealed a great cruciform stupa at the centre with monastic cells arranged in a square around it, a plan very different from the rows of monasteries at Nalanda.
Read the full explanation →Which scholar of Vikramshila went to Tibet and reformed Buddhism there?
- A.Atisha Dipankara Srijnana
- B.Dharmakirti
- C.Vasubandhu
- D.Buddhaghosa
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Atisha was the most famous head of Vikramshila and left for Tibet in the eleventh century at the invitation of its western kings.
Read the full explanation →