Which scholar of Vikramshila went to Tibet and reformed Buddhism there?
- A.Atisha Dipankara Srijnana
- B.Dharmakirti
- C.Vasubandhu
- D.Buddhaghosa
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is A, Atisha Dipankara Srijnana. Atisha was the most famous head of Vikramshila and left for Tibet in the eleventh century at the invitation of its western kings. His teaching reorganised monastic discipline there and shaped the later schools of Tibetan Buddhism, and it is largely through Tibetan records that we know how Vikramshila was run.
Option B is wrong because Dharmakirti was a logician of the Nalanda tradition several centuries earlier. Option C is wrong because Vasubandhu belongs to the early Yogachara school and to an age before Vikramshila existed. Option D is wrong because Buddhaghosa was a Theravada commentator who worked in Sri Lanka and wrote the Visuddhimagga, with no connection to Bihar. Examiners pair Atisha with Vikramshila and Tibet, and Shantarakshita with the earlier mission to Tibet, so learn the two names together.
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 →The Nalanda Mahavihara was founded by which ruler?
- A.Ashoka
- B.Kumaragupta the first
- C.Harshavardhana
- D.Dharmapala
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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.
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.
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