What was the name of the great library of Nalanda?
- A.Ratnodadhi
- B.Dharmaganja
- C.Dhammapada
- D.Vidyasagara
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, Dharmaganja. Later Tibetan accounts call the library of Nalanda Dharmaganja, the treasury of the law, and say that it consisted of three buildings named Ratnasagara, Ratnodadhi and Ratnaranjaka, the tallest of which is described as a nine-storeyed structure. Option A is wrong because Ratnodadhi was the name of one of the three buildings and not of the library as a whole, which makes it the commonest distractor in this question. Option C is wrong because the Dhammapada is a well-known text of the Pali canon, a collection of the sayings of the Buddha, and not a library. Option D is wrong because Vidyasagara is not the name of any building at Nalanda; it is a title of learning used much later in Bengal. The library is said to have been so large that it burned for a long time when the monastery was destroyed at the end of the twelfth century.
Read the full article: Ancient Universities of India: Nalanda, Takshashila, PYQs
Practice Questions
View allThe Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, Xuan Zang, came to the Indian subcontinent about ______ years ago.
- A.1100
- B.1700
- C.2000
- D.1400
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Xuan Zang, also written Hiuen Tsang, travelled in India in the seventh century of the Christian era, during the reign of Harshavardhana of Kannauj, which is roughly fourteen hundred years before our own time.
Read the full explanation →The Nalanda Mahavihara was founded by which ruler?
- A.Ashoka
- B.Kumaragupta I
- C.Harshavardhana
- D.Dharmapala
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The Gupta ruler Kumaragupta I founded the Nalanda Mahavihara in the fifth century of the Christian era near Rajgir in present-day Bihar, and a seal bearing his name has been found at the site.
Read the full explanation →Vikramashila, the great centre of tantric Buddhist learning, was founded by which king?
- A.Gopala
- B.Dharmapala
- C.Devapala
- D.Mahipala
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The Pala king Dharmapala founded Vikramashila at Antichak in the Bhagalpur district of Bihar about the turn of the ninth century, and it became famous for tantric studies and for the scholars called dvarapanditas who examined candidates at its gates.
Read the full explanation →The ancient seat of learning Takshashila was situated in which region?
- A.Magadha
- B.Gandhara
- C.Avanti
- D.Vatsa
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Takshashila, called Taxila by Greek and later English writers, was the capital of the Mahajanapada of Gandhara in the north-west of the subcontinent, in what is now the Rawalpindi district of Pakistan, and it was already a famous centre of learning in the time of the Buddha.
Read the full explanation →Who was the head of the Nalanda Mahavihara when Xuan Zang studied there?
- A.Nagarjuna
- B.Shilabhadra
- C.Dharmakirti
- D.Atisha Dipankara
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The Chinese pilgrim Xuan Zang studied the Yogachara philosophy at Nalanda under Shilabhadra, who was then the aged head of the monastery, during the reign of Harshavardhana in the seventh century.
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